Mother accused of cutting, burning son's tongue with hot scissors

<p>A Stockbridge mother has been arrested after cutting and burning her son's tongue with hot scissors for misbehaving at school, police said.</p><p>Samantha Davis, 32, is charged with aggravated assault and cruelty to children in connection with the Aug. 20 attack at her home.</p><p>Davis took kitchen scissors and heated them over an open flame to punish her 6-year-old son, said Henry County police Maj. M.L. Brooks.</p><p>"After pinching her son's nose closed to force him to open his mouth, she cut and burned the boy's tongue, mouth and neck," Brooks said.</p><p>Davis then relit the stove, Detective Wayne Bender testified at Davis' bond hearing on Friday. After cutting off the flame, Davis forced her son's right hand onto the metal, burning the tips of his index and middle fingers, Bender testified.</p><p>Davis then pinned her son on a sofa and beat him with a paddle and a belt, Brooks said.</p><p>"The evidence is consistent with the child's story about the attack," Brooks said. "He had been in trouble at school, and she became mad and disciplined him by cutting, burning and beating the child."</p><p>Davis was arrested Aug. 23 after the child's father, who has been separated from Davis for about five years, took the boy to state welfare workers, Brooks said.</p><p>Tray Leshawn Hale, described by Brooks as Davis' live-in boyfriend, was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children after investigators discovered healing bruises and scars on another child in the home, Hale's 7-year-old son.</p><p>"There was also evidence that Hale's child had older injuries that are consistent with prior abuse," Brooks said.</p><p>Both Davis and Hale were in the Henry County jail Saturday, with their children in the care of other family members, Brooks said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x286685c)</p>