Police: York woman intentionally burned 2-year-old

Car wash being held Sunday to help family pay for child's medical expenses.

A car wash will be held Sunday to help out with 2-year-old Myles Miller's medical expenses. A York woman has been charged in connection to his burns. (SUBMITTED)

Police say a York woman intentionally burned a 2-year-old in her care, but the suspect's attorney says it was an accident.

Amanda Marguerite Coeyman, 23, of the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to charging documents.

Coeyman could not be reached for comment, but her attorney, Ronald Gross, said she feels awful that the child was burned. It was not an intentional act.

"She would never do anything to harm the child at all," he said. "She considers him a son."

According to a police affidavit, Coeyman called York County 911 around 12:45 a.m. May 18 to report that a child in her care in the 600 block of Manor Street had burned his hand in the shower.

When police arrived, the child's hand was badly burned - his skin red and swollen with large blisters. Skin also was hanging off of other fingers, documents state. He was transported to Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

According to the affidavit, Coeyman told police the child had burned his hand in a bucket she was filling with hot water in the shower. She said the incident happened when she had left the room to attend to another child in the home. But investigators found that the shower was dry, and no bucket was visible.

Police obtained photos and measurements of the shower. When the shower is running, water does not pool in the base deep enough for a child's hand to be submerged, documents stated. Based on Coeyman's account of finding the child in the shower, both she and the child would have sustained burns on other parts of their bodies, documents state.

A doctor who treated the child classified the injury as a submersion burn inconsistent with a shower/spray type of burn. The "glove type" burn was classified as non-accidental trauma, documents state.

Gross said his client did not intentionally scald the child by holding his hand in hot water. The shower was running, and she was attending to another child when she heard the screams.

When she got to the shower, he was already out, screaming, Gross said.

Christina Miller, the boy's mother, declined to talk about the case.

However, she did say that her son, Myles, is doing better. His hand is a little chapped and red, but he's back to himself.

"He was a trooper for what he went through," Miller said. "He's braver than me."

Her co-workers at Weaver Eye Associates are holding a car wash for Myles Sunday to help the family pay for medical expenses.

Insurance will not cover his full stay at Johns Hopkins or most of his follow-up doctor visits, his mother said. She doesn't know what the bills will tally.

At the event Sunday, 24 people will be washing cars for a donation, said Donna Golob, assistant manager with Weaver Eye Associates.

Co-workers will be selling hamburgers, hot dogs, lemonade and more to raise money, and Bricker's French Fries will donate half of its sales that day as well, Golob said.

Christina Miller said she's thankful because she doesn't know what she's going to do financially. She added that strangers and friends have been sending donations as well.

"We just take it one day at a time," she said.

If you go

A car wash will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Weaver Eye Associates in West Manchester Township to benefit 2-year-old Myles Miller.

The money will be used to help cover the travel, medical and other expenses for the family.