A Bartow man is behind bars after deputies said he beat a 2-year-old boy with a clothes hanger.

Deputies said David Lee Sinnett, 32, hit the child because the boy, who has a speech impediment, could not pronounce his sister's name correctly.



Investigators said the boy was taken to Winter Haven Hospital early Wednesday morning for treatment of a black eye. According to the arrest affidavit, the examination revealed the boy was also bruised on both sides of his face, his right shoulder, the middle of his back and his buttocks.

The doctor who examined the boy said he had also suffered a fractured orbital bone, which doctors say could cause permanent eye damage or even blindness.

When detectives interviewed Sinnett, he told them that he gets frustrated with the boy's inability to pronounce his sister's name correctly because he thinks the boy does not try. Sinnett admitted to hitting the boy twice on the back, and that he hit him because he was too close to a wall outlet, the report said.

Sinnett said the facial bruises happened when the boy fell off a skateboard several days earlier.

Sinnett was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse. He remains in Polk County Jail on no bond.

Deputies did not release the relationship between Sinnett and the boy.

Sinnett has previously been arrested 11 times, including one arrest in 2005 for attempted second-degree murder. He spent five years in prison after he was convicted of a lesser charge of aggravated assault and was released in May 2010 on probation.

