The Newark woman who admitted to pouring scalding hot water on a 3-year-old in an apartment that has been described as a “house of horrors” by prosecutors received the harshest prison term possible on Friday.

Patricia Buchan, 29, was sentenced to five years in prison during a hearing in Superior Court of Essex County on Friday. She’d pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child in October.

The boy was not related to Buchan, but his mother lived in the apartment on Clinton Place in Newark where the abuse took place. His biological mother, Natacha Smith, is one of five adults who were originally charged in the abuse of the boy.

Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Morris said Buchan poured hot water on the boy after he urinated on the floor. She ordered him to strip naked and stand in a bathtub before she carried out the act, which left the 3-year-old with second-degree burns to his lower torso.

“The act of a fully-fledged adult female deliberately pouring boiling or nearly boiling water on a defenseless 3-year-old is heinous, depraved and an unusual species of cruelty,” Morris said in the Newark courtroom.

Buchan shook her head and rolled her eyes at one point while the prosecutor described the crime. Others who were sitting in the court gallery for unrelated cases began to sob as they listened to the prosecutor describe what happened.

Buchan told the Superior Court Judge Verna Leath that she stopped taking her medication when she poured the water on the boy because she thought her mental health issue was under control. She did not specify what mental health she was prescribed medication.

She also asked the judge to not send her to prison or else her five children, who are currently in the care of the state, would be put up for adoption.

"I just don’t want my kids punished for a mistake that I made,” said Buchan, who studied criminal justice in college and went on to work in health care. "Them being adopted -- my kids aren’t together. They’re split apart right now.”

Five others were charged -- including Buchan’s mother, Mary Buchan, her aunt, Patricia Gamarra, and sister -- after authorities say they subjected the boy to regular beatings. The mother and aunt were both convicted of endangering the welfare of a child. The charges against Buchan’s sister were dismissed, court records show.

Buchan’s mom and aunt vouched for their relative before she was sentenced.

“She is a great mother to her...five kids,” said Buchan’s mom. “She’d never hurt any of them. If she gets taken away from those kids, it’s going to harm them. It’s going to kill them."

The 3-year-old victim is currently being taken care of by his aunt, who said during Buchan’s sentencing that the boy is receiving counseling but is still affected by what happened.

"He constantly lives in fear,” the aunt said. “If you say [Buchan’s] name, he automatically gets nervous and says, ‘Oh my -- auntie, does she know where I live? She’s not gonna come here and get me, is she?’”

Leath, the judge, did not mince words when handing down her sentence in the Newark courtroom.

“A 3-year-old who stands in a bathtub and gets boiling water poured on him, for the rest of his life will have to question what is it about me -- what have I done? -- that would make someone hate me that much?”

Smith, the boy’s mother, and her boyfriend, Homer Searcy, attempted to plead guilty to a third-degree charge of endangering the welfare of a child. Morris, the prosecutor, said the judge rejected their pleas and now the cases are continuing through court.

Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico.

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