Clewiston mother facing child abuse charges for throwing boiling water on daughter

A child is recovering from a heinous crime in Clewiston. Police say her mother threw boiling water at her.

According to police, the older, middle school-aged girl was doing her younger sister’s hair. She used hot water to tighten the curls and accidentally spilled some on her sister’s neck.

The report said that led to her sister yelping and her mom, Gabrielle Jones, telling the middle school-aged girl she needs to know how it feels.

Being home with mom is supposed to feel safe, but one girl feels only the opposite.

In a Clewiston police report, she was asked that exact question; do you feel safe? Her response was no.

Detective Charles Williams, with the Clewiston Police Department, said, “I could definitely see the trauma of once we started getting into the meat and potatoes of it.”

Detective Williams is the investigator on the case. He was one of the first to see this girl after police say her mother, Jones, threw boiling water on her.

“They look like second-degree burns. It was pretty decent burns on there. The child, thank God, didn’t get it on her face or anything so that was a good thing. She just had it on her arm,” Williams said.

Police say Jones was trying to teach her daughter a “lesson” because right after she threw the water on her, she went to the police department.

Williams said, “she advised she wanted the officers to talk to her child. I’m not 100% sure why she came here first. She just wanted us to talk to the child because the child was acting up.”

That’s when police went to the Best Western where the girl was, saw the burns, and knew it was Jones who needed to be questioned.

“It was pretty quick, you know she wasn’t out very long, and we arrested her,” said Williams.