By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A young Joplin father, accused of subjecting his 8-month-old son to scalding water in November of last year after the baby defecated on the family’s couch, pleaded guilty Monday to felony child endangerment.

Edwin R. Ballentine, 21, pleaded guilty to first-degree child endangerment in a plea agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office. The agreement would limit the prison time he might be required to serve to no more than five years and would dismiss a second count of child abuse filed against him in April of this year.

Circuit Judge Gayle Crane deferred acceptance or rejection of the proposed plea agreement and ordered completion of a sentencing-assessment report on the defendant. The judge set Sept. 15 as the date for the defendant’s sentencing.

A probable-cause affidavit filed in the case by Joplin police Detective Howard Tackett states that Ballentine became angry at his son, Edwin Jr., on Nov. 3 when the boy defecated on a couch in their home at 5684 E. Tamera Lane. The affidavit states that the baby had diarrhea at the time.

The father “purposely went and turned on only the hot water in the bathtub and waited a few seconds for the water to get hot,” the affidavit states. He then picked up his son, carried him to the tub and held him under the stream of hot water, scalding the left side of his body, the document states.

The affidavit states that the baby suffered second-degree burns to the upper and lower parts of one of his legs.