Mother of 8 put on bond for burning son's hand

A mother who burned her son’s right hand on a lit stove because he stole a piece of meat from the pot has been put on a three-year-bond.

Michelle Gonzales, 47, the mother of eight, was sentenced on Wednesday by Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas.

On August 25 last year, she pleaded guilty to wounding with intent on a date unknown between June and July 2005.

Gonzales was sentenced by the judge from one of the courtrooms at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain while her attorney Thalia Francis-Brooks, the judge and prosecutor Indira Chinebas were at their respective home offices for the virtual hearing.

Her son, Brandon, now 21, wrote to the court asking for leniency for his mother. In his handwritten note, he said she was a hard worker who, at the time, had to leave him and his siblings with neighbours. He admitted he had been angry with her for burning his hand, but she was now a loving mother who was trying her best.

Brandon said she no longer leaves his younger siblings at home alone.

“I would like my mother not to go to jail for burning my hand. Me and my brothers and sisters love our mother. She is (more) loving to all of us than when I was smaller, so I want to ask the judge to give her a chance to stay home with me and my little brothers,” he wrote to the court.

In her own note to the court, one of Gonzales' older children said their mother was “more loving and caring” to their younger siblings than she had been to them.

“She takes care of them, hugs them and tells them how much she loves them. When we were growing up we did not have that.”

St Clair-Douglas said having considered the evidence and the testimonials, it would be of “very little utility” to send Gonzales to jail. He said this was even more so as a result of the covid19 pandemic.

He said he also considered a fine, but as she was a CEPEP worker, with an estimated income of $1,800 a month, that too “would do more harm than good.”

He concluded, “What I am left with is the assurance that the victim has learned her lesson and is a changed person,” and that the short time she spent in jail before she was able to access bail was “sufficient punishment.”

To Gonzales, the judge said, “I hope I am correct in saying you have changed your outlook and changed from the person who committed the offence.” He said, however, it was “a sorry state of affairs.”

In reading out the facts, Chinebas said Gonzales’s son, Brandon, was five when she lit the stove and burned his right hand for taking the meat.

When Brandon began to cry, she wrapped his hand in a piece of cloth and told him not to steal meat again. He then ran to a neighbour’s house, where he stayed for half an hour.

On July 11, 2005, Brandon and his sister visited their aunt’s home and the aunt noticed his bandaged hand was wet and bloody. When she asked what happened, she was told he had been playing with fire and got burnt.

Brandon’s sister then admitted what had really happened. Brandon told his aunt he had lied because their mother had told him if he said anything to anyone, she would beat him.

The aunt took him to the Arima hospital and he was transferred to a paediatric ward at Mt Hope. A medical report showed the burns were deliberate. Brandon had to be warded at hospital, where he had surgery to remove the dead tissue, and skin grafts.

Gonzales was arrested after police went to her Malabar home to investigate a report of child neglect after they were told she often left her children unsupervised for long periods. When confronted, she told them, “Them children father doh mind them and I does have to leave them to go look for money.”

Officers saw the burn marks on Brandon’s hand and when he was questioned, he told them, “Mummy bun it on the stove.”