JACKSON, MI – A casual phrase to many, “scarred for life” will never be anything but literal for Bella and Corey Austin, Assistant Prosecutor Kati Rezmierski said on Monday, May 13.

Bella, 2, and “C.J.,” 3, have had many surgeries. More than a year after they were badly burned, they have to wear compression pants. Cocoa butter has to be rubbed on their bodies during every diaper change and Bella Austin, walks on the toes of her injured feet.

"Their daily lives are interrupted by these injuries," Children's Protective Services worker Shanna Vance testified Monday, the first day of Daniel Ronquillo's jury trial.

It continues Tuesday morning before Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson.

Ronquillo, 25, is charged with two counts of both first-degree child abuse and torture.

Ronquillo, who is not their father, said he left the children alone in the bath tub, heard crying and found them injured. He suggested one of them might have turned on the hot water, according to information presented in court.

He told Blackman-Leoni Township public safety Officer David Lubahn he went to do dishes and was gone for five to seven minutes, testified Lubahn, the first officer to arrive at the home on Sir Michael Court. Lubahn said it did not appear any dish washing process was underway.

Ronquillo’s lawyer, Jerry Engle, concedes Ronquillo left the children for too long. This was negligent, Engle said.

Engle is asking the jury to convict Ronquillo only of second-degree child abuse. He is not guilty of first-degree child abuse and torture, Engle argues.

For Ronquillo to be guilty of torture, jurors must find his intent was to cause cruel or extreme physical or mental pain and suffering.

That crime, the most serious he faces, is punishable by up to life in prison.

There never was any indication Ronquillo intentionally injured the children, Marks testified, answering questions posed by Engle.

Rezmierski pressed her on this belief.

Marks has seen the medical records as part of an ongoing process to terminate her parental rights to Bella and C.J., who are in a foster care, and an older daughter, who was with her father on May 30 and now remains in his custody.

Pictures presented in court showed C.J. and Bella’s injuries. Parts of their legs, genitals and feet were bright red from the burns. Clear lines differentiated the burned and unburned skin.

Marks, sitting in the back of the courtroom, cried on the shoulder of a young man as Vance and Rezmierski explained the pictures.

“Their whole bodies are blisters,” Katheryn Aldridge said when she called 911. A recording of the call was played in court.

Aldridge had contacted Ronquillo, from whom she bought prescription drugs, to purchase Percocet, a prescription pain reliever on May 30 and he told her it was not a good time. He said the children were hurt.

Being a certified nursing assistant, she went to the trailer. The children were wrapped in towels and going in and out of consciousness, she said, and she almost immediately used the house phone to call for emergency assistance. She told a dispatcher one child might have vomited in pain.

Ronquillo did not know what to do, Aldridge said.

Engle asked her if he seemed visibly upset. “Upset or scared. I don’t know,” she responded. At one point, he started crying, she said.

Marks said Ronquillo was “terrified” when he called her May 30 as she headed to her job at an adult entertainment club in the Detroit area. She was in or near Ann Arbor when she learned of the burns and immediately headed back to Jackson, she said.

Lubahn said he knew from the emergency dispatch updates that he was arriving at a “pretty horrific scene.”

He said he will never forget Ronquillo’s description of the bath tub.

At first, Ronquillo told Lubahn he thought the children had gotten into the toilet paper because a translucent material was floating in the water. It was actually their skin, Lubahn said.

Lubahn used his watch to measure the temperature of the hot water coming from the bath tub and found it was about 140 degrees, he said.