Colorado Springs stepfather arrested after 3-year-old is burned

A 3-year-old boy is in a hospital after his stepfather allegedly put him in a tub of scalding hot water in Colorado Springs.

Last Friday, Shaylene Nombrano celebrated a friend’s baptism, leaving both her son and daughter in the care of her husband, Albert Medina.

“He’s been with my kids once before, so I trusted him,” she said.

But the call she got later that day is one she will never forget.

“He called me and told me that I should come home and that my son had an accident,” Nombrano said.

Thinking Eliaz’s injuries would be easily treatable, she rushed to a nearby drug store to get bandages.

But when she arrived home, she knew he had to be taken to the hospital.

“He was laying in the bed and he got out and came to me and I looked at him and I started crying,” she said.

She’s still unsure how it happened. All she has to go off of is what Medina told her.

“He had gotten into the bathtub, turned it on and he said he tried to catch him when he was falling,” she said.

Nombrano began questioning the story, saying Medina didn’t have any burns on his hands or feet.

She says Medina then confessed to getting frustrated with Eliaz after he didn’t make it to the bathroom.

He now faces assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse charges.

“I want justice for my son and I want people to know this kind of stuff is not OK,” she said.

Eliaz has had several surgeries to remove layers of skin and still has a long road to recovery.