Suspect in Boy’s Scalding Death Arrested After Turning Self In

The woman suspected of killing 3-year-old Elijah J. Johnson by putting him in a bathtub filled with scalding water surrendered to police Thursday, investigators said.

Leona Patrice Hightower, 23, of Los Angeles was arrested when she voluntarily arrived at the LAPD’s South Bureau station accompanied by a lawyer, said the district attorney’s spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons.

Hightower is being held on one count of murder and one count of child abuse causing death, Gibbons said. Conviction on those charges carries a maximum life sentence, according to Gibbons. Hightower is being held in lieu of $1-million bail.

No warrant has been sought against Hightower’s mother, Brenda Craney, 36, who was Elijah’s foster mother, LAPD Homicide Det. Marcella Winn said. Craney was not at home when Elijah was burned.

The boy died of massive burns Monday at County-USC Medical Center, 15 days after he was scalded.

Hightower asked investigators to give her a polygraph test after the incident to show that she was innocent of any wrongdoing in connection with Elijah’s burns, according to a Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services report obtained by The Times.

“The polygraph came back completely deceptive,” a social worker wrote in the report. “The detectives state she was definitely lying.”

Hightower told a social worker that she had run a tub of hot water about noon April 25 so she could take a bath before going to work, according to the report.

Before beginning her bath, Hightower said, Elijah said he needed to go to the bathroom. She said that he remained in the room longer than she had expected and that she went in to check on him, the report says.

Hightower said she found the child, who was not crying, undressed and sitting in the tub of hot water. She said she pulled him out and wrapped him in a towel.

Hightower said she then called Craney, who she said returned home and called her social worker. The social worker arrived 15 minutes later and told the women to call 911.

“There is no way this was accidental,” a physician who examined Elijah after the incident wrote in his notes, according to a report obtained by The Times. “I would treat this as a murder. His [chance of] survival is less than 25%.”

Elijah’s mother, Connie Lawrence, 24, said she had repeatedly complained to her social worker about conditions at the foster home in the 1400 block of West 49th Street where Elijah lived.

“He was always hungry,” she said. “I could feel his ribs. And he was always dirty, from head to toe.”

Her son was burned and later died as she was locked in a legal battle to regain custody. A children’s department source who requested anonymity said Lawrence “had completed everything we had wanted her to complete. This kid should have been returned.”

Lawrence said her son went to live with Craney in September 1996 after his father was accused of beating Elijah’s half sister. Lawrence said the county gave her the opportunity of choosing someone outside the home to take care of the boy.

The state nearly placed the children’s department in receivership nine years ago, based partly on the agency’s failure to check on the condition of foster children.

County officials hired the chief of Florida’s child welfare agency, Peter Digre, in hopes that he could turn around a department responsible for 75,000 abused and neglected children.

Digre resigned last week, effective June 30, and the department’s No. 2 post is vacant. The Board of Supervisors is searching for executives to fill both positions.