GAITHERSBURG, Md. — A Maryland mother will spend the next 25 years in prison after she was found guilty of setting her 8-year-old son on fire as a punishment for making a mess while having a bowl of cereal.
(Editor's Note: The following story contains disturbing details. Read with caution)
According to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, 31-year-old Kimberly Tyler was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison and suspended all but 25 years to serve and five years of supervised probation upon release. She was found guilty in December 2023 after a four-day trial for multiple charges, including first-degree child abuse and conspiracy to commit neglect of a minor.
The charges stem from a day in May 2020, when Tyler set her then-8-year-old son on fire as a punishment after becoming angry with her son for eating cereal and making a mess. Tyler poured rubbing alcohol on her son's hand and ignited it, a trend she later told her sister she had seen going around on YouTube. However, the fire sped out of control.
According to court documents, the punishment caused the boy to become engulfed in flames inside the family's apartment on Falling Water Circle in Germantown. He suffered third-degree burns on both sides of his arms, chest, and neck and second-degree burns as well. In total, 25% of the boy's body was burned.
Tyler was not alone when she set her son on fire. Her wife and co-defendant Chareese Snorgrass-Tyler, and her younger sister were also present, as well as the couple's five other children. The five other children, all younger than the boy, were in their bedroom when the fire was ignited.
Tyler and Chareese reportedly threw their son into the shower, while Tyler's sister advised them not to do that.
"The Defendant responded that everyone is always worried about the victim and that “nobody gives an f about me." Tyler also raised concerns about going to jail for the punishment.
The fire was just the beginning of the pain the boy would endure. Instead of calling 911 or seeking medical attention, Tyler called her parents, later named co-defendants Kimball Tyler and Lisa Jones, to come over and help deal with the situation. None of them sought help for the boy whose entire upper body had been burned. Instead, Tyler and her father went to the store and bought bandages and burn cream for the boy.
"Back at the apartment, Kimball wrapped the victim up in gauze. Kimball told [Tyler], “you can’t hide this” due to concerns that [Tyler] would try and cover up the crime," a factual summary of the case reads. Tyler's father would later testify against her in court.
The boy then went to live with his grandparents in their Howard County home for a while, while Kimball and Lisa cared for him instead of taking the boy to a doctor or hospital for the burns.
The boy stayed with his grandparents for two weeks, during which Kimball repeatedly urged the need for medical care on video calls with his daughter and daughter-in-law. Every request was denied.
"In these video calls, the victim appeared heavily bandaged and in debilitating pain, grimacing as he struggled to stand up on his own," the factual summary reads.
While her son was in pain, Tyler reportedly continued to live her life as if nothing happened. When people would ask where her son was, she would tell them he was visiting his grandparents. During the two weeks, she would go on to visit the boy once.
Eventually, Kimball took the boy home and told his daughter he could no longer care for the child on his own and that the boy needed proper medical attention. The boy reportedly cried when he was told he would return to his mother's home. He stayed there for several days while his mother and her wife continuously called Kimball to tell him to come back for the boy because they did not have the time to care for him.
On May 30, weeks after the fire, Kimball came back for his grandson and took him to Children’s National Medical Center without telling his daughter. After the boy was dropped off, Kimball and Lisa informed Tyler they had taken the boy to the hospital, which did not go over well.
"The Defendant became angry and yelled at her parents for taking the victim there against her wishes," the court document says. "She immediately went into damage control and insinuated to her younger sister that if she were to be asked about anything, that she was to tell people that the victim had spilled hot grease on himself by accident while she was frying chicken in the kitchen."
When the boy arrived at the hospital, he was screaming and crying in pain as his infected wounds had puss dripping off of them. The wounds smelled so bad that an infectious disease team was brought in to examine the boy. Additionally, he had scars that were so thick, they had shrunk and limited his mobility.
Since he was brought to the hospital, the boy has undergone 20 surgeries and will likely be scarred for the rest of his life. Additionally, during treatment, he contracted MRSA. Medical staff would spend two hours changing the boy's dressings, which was incredibly painful and would cause the boy to scream and cry.
At some points, doctors were operating on the child twice a week. During this time he also underwent physical and psychiatric treatment. Officials say his medical records are about 5,000 pages long.
"Had the victim not been so woefully neglected by this Defendant and her co-defendants, his injuries and his recovery would not have been so severe," the factual statement read.
Staff reported the abuse to Montgomery County Police. During the investigation, Tyler told officers her son had burned himself with hot grease when she left the fried chicken she was cooking unattended. She went as far as to draw a picture to describe what happened.
Investigators say Tyler had no prior criminal convictions but had been previously involved with Child Welfare Services. The year before the boy was set on fire, CWS found the boy had several welts and bruises on his thighs, one of which was a loop mark.
According to Tyler's sister, the boy's mother had put a heated lighter up to his hand for several seconds after the boy allegedly stole some candy.
The abuse was not always physical. The boy reportedly suffered from Hirschsprung’s disease, which caused him to have trouble controlling his bowel movements at times.
"There were times when the victim would soil himself and the Defendant and Chareese would discipline him by dressing him in his sister’s clothes and calling him girl’s names. Sometimes, if the victim would have an accident before school, the Defendant and Chareese would not allow him to shower and make him go to school like that to humiliate him," the factual statement explains. "They would send the victim to school in diapers that were too tight on him."
Additionally, the boy was reportedly very proud of his hair and to punish him, Tyler would give him bad haircuts and then proceed to make fun of him in front of the other children.
“This was among the worst we have seen when it comes to child abuse cases. The level of harm caused by someone in the ultimate position of trust, the child’s mother, is unfathomable. Our hearts are with the young victim and those now entrusted with his care. We thank the judge for fashioning an appropriate sentence and Assistant State’s Attorneys Sheila Bagheri and John Grochowski for their work on this highly emotional and upsetting case,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy.
The boy's grandfather testified against Tyler at trial. He pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment for his role in what happened to the boy. The boy's stepmother, Chareese, pleaded guilty to neglect of a minor and was later sentenced to five years in prison with all but six months suspended and five years of supervised probation upon release.
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