Man Pleads Guilty to Scalding Son in Tub

A 27-year-old Oxnard man reversed himself and pleaded guilty Monday to burning his 2-year-old son by plunging him into a bathtub of scalding water after the boy soiled himself.

In return for Alfredo Esquivel’s guilty pleas to corporal injury to a child and felony child abuse, a charge of torture will be dismissed.

Esquivel will be eligible for a 16- to 19-year prison term when he is sentenced April 9, said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. David Lehr. He cannot be considered for parole until he serves at least 90% of the sentence.

Esquivel’s son, Fabian, was three days shy of his third birthday when the incident occurred in December 2001. The toddler suffered second- and third-degree burns on 20% of his body from the waist down and must undergo repeated surgeries.

“By far, it’s one of the saddest cases I’ve seen,” Lehr said. “He’s a nice little boy. He’s doing well now, but he’ll have to have a surgery once or twice a year until he stops growing.”

Esquivel’s wife, Maria, pleaded guilty last year to child endangerment with great bodily injury and was sentenced earlier this month to five years in prison.

In the hours after the incident, the couple first tried to treat the boy with several home remedies, then took him to Mexico. The boy’s grandmother took him to a Tijuana hospital, which eventually transferred him to UC San Diego Medical Center. San Diego police then notified Oxnard police of the abuse.

In 1999, Alfredo Esquivel had pleaded guilty to hitting his young daughter with an electrical cord and sandal, breaking her jaw.