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Guilty dad 'loves his baby'
28/03/2008 12:00 - (SA)
Galveston, Texas - The father sentenced to prison for severely burning his two-month-old daughter in a microwave oven is declining to give up his parental rights.
"He loves his baby," Sam Cammack III, the attorney for Joshua Mauldin, said in a story published online on Thursday in the Houston Chronicle. "He wants to be part of Ana's life."
The mother, Eva Mauldin, has relinquished her parental rights, Cammack said.
Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and has required several skin grafts. Part of her left ear had to be amputated.
Mauldin, convicted of injury to a child, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison and fined $10 000. Jurors rejected his claim that he was insane when he put his daughter in the oven.
A custody hearing is scheduled for April 22. Child welfare officials are looking favourably on a plan for Ana's foster parents, Heather and Jeremy Croxton, to adopt her.
"They have taken amazing care of her," agency spokesperson Gwen Carter said.
"They love her; she loves them. We have regular contact with them, and we feel comfortable that she is safe."
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