DELAND, Fla. — A Florida man is accused of striking the 5-year-old son of his girlfriend with a mop handle after the child wet the bed, authorities said.
Shawn M. Stone, 32, of Ormond Beach, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with aggravated child abuse, according to Volusia County online court records. Deputies claimed that Stone fractured the boy’s skull, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the sheriff’s office, the incident occurred at a residence in DeLand. Deputies learned about the child’s condition at about 8:30 a.m. EDT when staff members at a DeLand hospital alerted deputies, according to an arrest report.
The victim’s mother told deputies that she left her son in Stone’s care because she had to take her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, to a doctor’s appointment in Orlando, the arrest report stated.
Deputies said the woman opened her camera app on her phone and allegedly saw Stone standing over the boy, who was in bed, punching him in the head “repeatedly.”
The woman told deputies that Stone then allegedly grabbed a mop and began striking the boy with it, the arrest report states.
According to the arrest report, a sheriff’s detective noticed that the child had a cut lip and bruised eyes. He also had bruises on the top of his head, on his face and his thigh, the report states.
Stone has denied striking the child with the mop, according to the arrest report.
“I want to commend these deputies for making quick work of tracking down our Scumbag of the Week,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood wrote on social media.
Stone will be arraigned on June 1 in DeLand, online court records show. He remains in the Volusia County Branch Jail without bail.
