Police: Man says child’s scalding death was an accident

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016 | 3:22 p.m.

The burns 1-year-old Lyriq Clayton suffered in a bathtub were so severe that skin on her feet, chest, back and hands began to shed, according to Metro Police.

The man tasked with Lyriq’s care and who is accused in her death, Demond Terrell Billingsley, 21, remains jailed on a count of first-degree murder, jail logs show.

Police were called about 3:15 p.m. Thursday to the Villas at Desert Pointe Apartments, 895 Sierra Vista Drive, near Desert Inn Road and Swenson Street, call logs show.

Lyriq and her mother lived with Billingsley, his girlfriend and Billingsley and his girlfriend’s son, according to a Metro Police arrest report.

Billingsley was taking care of the children while Lyriq’s mother was at work and his girlfriend was at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the report said.

In a phone call, Billingsley told Lyriq’s mother he was bathing the children when the girl began swallowing water and choking, the report said. He called her again saying the girl was being hospitalized at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center as the result of an accident and that he was “very sorry.”

When confronted by investigators about his son not being injured, Billingsley said he had bathed his son and took him out after a minute, the report said.

Billingsley said he placed the girl in the tub while the water was running and that she’d been crying and screaming, but “never screamed louder at one point versus another point,” the report said. She was in the bath less than two minutes, he said.

Billingsley later admitted to not paying attention to the water temperature and that he’d briefly walked away three times, the report said. He said he had made a mistake, according to the report.

He noted he didn’t know the water was scalding hot, because he would never have put Lyriq in it on purpose, the report said.

The girl suffered third-degree burns to 85 percent of her body — from her feet to her chin — and swelling to her brain and body because of the burns, the report said.

Billingsley was being held at the Clark County Detention Center on a $150,000 bail, jail logs show. He’s scheduled to appear in court Nov. 1.