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Kimberly Tyler, 31, of Germantown, was sentenced to 30 years in prison with all but 25 years to serve and five years of supervised probation after being convicted by a jury in December last year on multiple charges of child abuse involving her young child.
According to court documents, in May 2020, Tyler punished her child by burning him, causing him to become engulfed in flames, leaving him with serious, permanent, physical injuries inside their apartment in the 12000 block of Falling Water Circle in Germantown.
Prosecutors say that the incident happened when Tyler became irate with her son for eating cereal and making a mess, prompting her to punish him by pouring rubbing alcohol on his hand and setting it on fire in their apartment.
The child suffered third-degree "full thickness" burns on both sides of his upper arms, chest, and neck, and second and first-degree burns to his face and other areas of his upper body, leaving 25 percent of his body burned.
"The fire spread out of control, causing the child to be engulfed in flames from his torso to his head," in front of her wife Chareese Snorgrass-Tyler, and younger sister.
When the flames got out of control, the couple threw the 8-year-old in the shower while their five other minor children were in their bedroom. She also hurt herself.
"(Tyler's) sister told her 'you shouldn’t do that' and (Tyler) responded that everyone is always worried about the victim and that 'nobody gives an f about me,'" they added.
Tyler also raised concerns that she was going to go to jail, though rather than call 911, though rather than call 911 or seeking medical attention, Tyler called her parents, Kimball Tyler and Lisa Jones to come over to assist with the situation.
At no point did any of the adults in the room seek medical attention for the boy, whose entire upper body was burned. Instead, they went to the store and bought bandages and burn cream for the child.
"Back at the apartment, Kimball wrapped the victim up in gauze," prosecutors said. "Kimball told (Tyler), 'you can’t hide this' due to concerns that (she) would try and cover up the crime. (Tyler), Chareese, Kimball, and Lisa all agreed and conspired that the victim would go stay with Kimball and Lisa for a while in their home in Howard County.
"It was agreed, based on (Tyler's) wishes, that Kimball and Lisa would attempt to care for the victim on their own rather than take him to a doctor or the hospital."
The boy stayed with the two for approximately two weeks, during which Kimball would often video call the parents to implore them to take him to the hospital, requests which were ignored.
In the video calls, the child could be seen "heavily bandaged and in debilitating pain, grimacing as he struggled to stand up on his own."
None of this deterred the 31-year-old "mother" from living her life to the fullest while her child suffered.
"While the victim was being cared for, (Tyler) continued to live her life as if nothing was wrong. She would have people over at her house and would be smoking and drinking," court documents state. "(She) wanted the victim out of sight and out of mind."
Tyler's nefarious dealings extended to her friends, who questioned where the boy was, prompting her to claim that he was simply visiting his grandparents, meanwhile she only saw her son one time during his two-week stay with them.
"Despite further pleas that (the boy) needed medical attention, (Tyler) said 'in this situation, nobody has to deal with it but her and her son and they all need to stay out of her business.'
"(Tyler) admitted to her younger sister that she had poured alcohol on the victim and lit him on fire based on a trend she had seen going around on YouTube."
The boy's grandfather eventually returned the boy to Tyler's home "saying that he could no longer care for the child on his own and that he needed proper medical attention," a statement that made the 8-year-old cry, according to prosecutors.
"For a couple days, the victim remained in Tyler and Chareese’s care and neither of them sought any medical attention for him," they added. "Instead, they were consistently calling Kimball and telling him he had to come back and get the victim because they did not have the time or capacity to care for him themselves.
In May 2020, the grandfather finally went to Tyler's home, picked up the kid, and took him to the Children's National Medical Center, to which the woman became angry and yelled at her parents for taking the boy to the hospital against her wishes.
"She immediately went into damage control and insinuated to her younger sister that if she were to be asked about anything, that she was to tell people that the victim had spilled hot grease on himself by accident while she was frying chicken in the kitchen," court documents state.
"When the (child) arrived at (the hospital) he was screaming and crying in pain," they added. "His wounds were infected and there was puss dripping off of them.
"His wounds smelled so foul, that an infectious disease team was brought in to assess them. He had multiple contractures on his next and upper extremities where the scars were so thick and shrunken up that it limited his joint mobility."
Hospital staff alerted the Montgomery County Department of Police to the situation, prompting an investigation that involved Tyler lying to detectives, going so far as to draw a picture for the police to depict how small their kitchen was, claiming again that the burns were caused by spilled grease.
"Until May 30, 2020, neither (Tyler), nor anyone else in the (child's) family, made any attempt whatsoever to obtain professional medical advice or assistance of any kind despite the obvious need for serious medical intervention," officials added. "Kimball’s efforts to care for the victim were wholly inadequate and, as a direct result of the delay in taking the victim to the hospital, his burns became severely infected.
"When the victim presented at the hospital, he was screaming in pain and his wounds smelled so foul that the infectious disease team had to intervene."
Since that date, the 8-year-old has undergone upwards of 20 surgeries to excise dead tissue and graft skin, and will likely remain scarred for the rest of his life. Changing his dressings "was an extremely painful process" that could last up to two hours with the boy "screaming and crying during the process."
To date, the child's medical records are an estimated 5,000 pages long.
“This was among the worst we have seen when it comes to child abuse cases. The level of harm caused by someone in the ultimate position of trust, the child’s mother, is unfathomable," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said.
"Our hearts are with the young victim and those now entrusted with his care. We thank the judge for fashioning an appropriate sentence and Assistant State’s Attorneys Sheila Bagheri and John Grochowski for their work on this highly emotional and upsetting case."
Following her sentencing, officials made note that while Tyler had no prior criminal convictions, she was no stranger to Child Welfare Services, who investigated her abuse claims, and her sister stated that days before the fire, the boy had stolen candy and Tyler took a lighter and heated up the metal part with the flame and pressed it on his hand for several seconds.
That was not an unusual occurrence, though it did not leave any mark.
There were also instances where Tyler would humiliate her son in front of other children and at school.
"The victim suffered from Hirschsprung’s disease, which caused him to have trouble controlling his bowel movements at times," prosecutors noted. "There were times when the (boy) would soil himself and (Tyler) and Chareese would discipline him by dressing him in his sister’s clothes and calling him girl’s names.
"Sometimes, if the (child) would have an accident before school, (Tyler) and Chareese would not allow him to shower and make him go to school like that to humiliate him.
They would also send him to school in diapers that were too tight on him, and Tyler also would discipline the boy by giving him unnecessary enemas.
"On one occasion, the victim tried to remove the enema himself and received a spanking," court documents state. "According to family members, the (boy) was also very proud of his hair.
"To discipline him, (Tyler) would give him bad haircuts, cutting patches in his hair and then making fun of him in front of the other children," they continue. "The (child) and his siblings were also always hungry and not properly fed at home.
"When the victim arrived at (the hospital), the medical staff noted malnutrition as one of his conditions."
Officials noted that Kimball Tyler - the victim's grandfather - testified against his daughter at her trial and pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. He received probation before the judgement was made.
Snorgrass-Tyler also pleaded guilty to neglect of a minor. She was sentenced to five years in prison with all but six months suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation when she is released."
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