Miami Gardens man arrested after girlfriend's son, 4, badly burned

MIAMI - A Miami Gardens man was arrested Sunday after his girlfriend's 4-year-old son was found with burns to his body so severe that his skin was peeling off, police said.

Khalil Jabali, 23, faces a charge of aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm.

According to a police report, Jabali was watching his girlfriend's three children while she was at work when the boy was burned by hot water that had been boiled in the microwave.

Jabali called his girlfriend to tell her that the boy had wet his bed and was burned by hot water that he left in the bathroom when her younger child started crying.

Explaining that he had boiled water in the microwave so he could wash the boy's wet clothes, Jabali told police he left a bowl of hot water on the bathroom sink while he was in another room checking on the other child. When he returned to the bathroom, Jabali said, he found the boy on the floor moaning and his skin peeling off.

The boy's mother left work and, along with Jabali, took her son to Jackson North Medical Center. He was then transferred to the burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center.

Police said he had burns to 15 percent of his body.

"They do not know if he is going to survive, and if he does he will likely be in a vegetative state," a prosecutor told Miami-Dade County Judge Renatha Francis during Jabali's bond hearing Monday morning.

Prosecutors said the boy had other injuries, including bleeding around the brain and the chest cavity and broken ribs. 

The prosecutor said paramedics were never called.

Francis set Jabali's bond at $10,000. She also ordered him to remain on house arrest upon his release and to stay at least 500 feet away from the child.

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