SACRAMENTO, Ca. – A California father and stepmother are under arrest for allowing their young daughter to be badly burned in their apartment and then failing to take her to the hospital for 10 days.
Karina Feliz Davis, the toddler’s 25-year-old stepmother, was spending her ninth night in jail on Thursday.
Then on Thursday, the 3-year-old’s father, 29-year-old John Lolley, stopped running from a warrant deputies have had out for him and surrendered.
They are now facing felony charges for endangering the life or health of a child.
One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, has been friendly with Davis and Lolley.
“Whenever I’ve seen them with the kids they always seemed like nice, functioning adults,” the neighbor told KTXL.
He said there were other circumstances involved besides just not wanting to take their 3-year-old to the hospital.
“From what I know she ain’t the type of person to do something like that. They didn’t have a car,” the neighbor said.
When pressed about the lack of a call for help he said, “No matter what, you call 911.”
According to investigators, the toddler was in Davis’ care on July 31 when she was left alone in the kitchen of a North Highlands apartment. She somehow pulled down a bowl of hot soup right onto her head.
Her third-degree burns are described as “horrific.”
“The top of her head, her face, cheeks, chin, lips,” said Sgt. Shaun Hampton with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
Davis allegedly treated the little girl at home with aloe vera.
Professional medical attention was not rendered until almost two weeks later.
“You have to watch any children you are in the care and custody of,” Hampton said. “And when those children become injured it is your duty as an adult to find aid for them and make sure they receive proper medical attention.”
Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies say a request from the public for a welfare check on a child is what led them to discover the toddler in trouble.
The young girl has had to have several skin grafts on her head and is still hospitalized.
Child protective services has now taken her and three other children away from Davis and Lolley.
