A man from Springfield is awaiting trial after he was arrested and charged with child abuse for allegedly holding a six-year-old boy’s head underwater.
Investigators say Donald Smith was staying with a family in May of this year when the incident occurred.
The boys mother told authorities that she heard screaming coming from outside the home. When she went outside, she saw Smith with his hand on the boys chest, forcing him into a water-filled sandbox.
The victim, in a statement to Springfield Police, said Smith had asked him not to go into the water and didn’t listen, which angered him. He said that’s when he grabbed him by the hair and forced him underwater.
When interview by police, Smith said the boy was refusing to let his sister’s play in the water with him, so he confronted the boy and poked him in the chest with his finger. He then said he backed away from the situation once the child’s mother told him the boy didn’t like it.
During the investigation, SPD discovered Smith had been recently paroled from a 20-year prison sentence for armed criminal action, and had an extensive criminal history.
He is charged with one count of abuse or neglect of a child, and is being held in the Greene County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
