DALY CITY, Calif., July 19 (UPI) -- The defense lawyer of a California father convicted of placing his toddler in an oven said the verdict may be backlash from the Casey Anthony verdict.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Gregory Colver, 21, of Daly City, was found guilty of child abuse when he put his 17-month-old son in an oven Dec. 28 to teach the child a lesson. The boy had just banged his hand against the door of the oven and Colver wanted to show him the danger of a hot oven, the (San Francisco) Bay Area News Group reported Tuesday.
The child suffered second- and third-degree burns, and a child-abuse expert determined the burns were not accidental, the newspaper said.
The child climbed into the oven on his own while Colver was asleep on the sofa, Colver told police.
Colver faces a maximum of 12 years in prison when he is sentenced August 16.
Defense attorney Mara Feiger said the prosecution's child-abuse expert had misdiagnosed the case and there was evidence the incident was accidental.
"A jury's verdict is as permanent as a full-body tattoo -- there is no turning back," Feiger said.
"I wonder if the verdict is fallout from the Casey Anthony verdict. The timing could not have been worse."
The Casey Anthony case in Florida was a high-profile case in which a jury verdict earlier this month acquitting Anthony of charges that she murdered her toddler daughter garnered outrage from case watchers.
