Hiawatha man gets suspended sentence for burning his baby in scalding water

A  24-year-old Hiawatha man was sentenced Thursday in Linn County District Court to a 10-year suspended sentence for scalding his 2-month-old in a bathtub last year.

Matthew Albers, originally charged with child endangerment causing serious injury, pleaded to guilty in May to neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.

Albers will have to spend one year at  community correction center in the area and will be supervised probation for five years, according to a sentencing order.

Albers gave his infant a bath on May 7, 2009 and the water temperature was set at 140 degrees, which is about 30 degrees or so hotter than it should be , and 38 percent of the baby's body was burned but the child survived, according to a criminal complaint and court documents.

The apartment complex where Albers lived had a common water heater closet for four units and apparently someone adjusted the water temperature without his knowledge, according to court documents.

Police said Albers didn't call 911. He waited for his wife to get home and told her hot soup had been spilled on the infant.