HOUSTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Police said they arrested a Houston woman who allegedly burned her 6-year-old son's tongue with a hot spoon and forced him to stand in an ant bed.
Jessica Ann Mungia, 26, was charged with four counts of injury to a child and is being held in lieu of $60,000 bail, The Houston Chronicle said.
On May 22, Mungia took her son to a hospital for a possible broken left arm. A nurse discovered numerous bruises, a healing burn wound on his tongue and lacerations on the top of his head, the Chronicle said.
The boy told healthcare workers that his mom was responsible for most of the injuries, police said.
The boy said his mother heated a spoon on the stove until it was red hot and then put it on his tongue.
She also held his hand to the hot stove, he said, and made him stand in an ant pile for about an hour.
A scar on the boy's arm was attributed to a knife wound the mother had inflicted, court records indicate, and marks on his chin and neck are allegedly from the mother choking him.
Mungia will appear in court Monday.
