Young Boy Suffers Terrible Burns All Over His Body After Gasoline-Soaked Stick Incident In Channahon

CHANNAHON, IL —On Friday, Will County's longest serving judge, Amy Bertani-Tomczak, ruled in favor of the Will County State's Attorney's Office and their petition to deny pretrial release against a 35-year-old man in Channahon whose young son has suffered horrible burns all over his body as a result of a gasoline-soaked stick incident.

Friday marked the hearing to deny pretrial release for David McUmber Jr., who has faced numerous criminal and traffic-related charges over the past 15 years in Will and Grundy Counties. McUmber even did a four-year prison term more than a decade ago for dealing cocaine in the Joliet area. In 2015, he also pleaded guilty to aggravated battery/use of a deadly weapon in Grundy County.

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According to Friday's filing by the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow, back on Sept. 26, a Saturday, the defendant was watching his 8-year-old child and his 12-year-old child, and he had a fire going in a pit.

He handed the 8-year-old child a gasoline-soaked stick to throw into the fire, prosecutors revealed.

The child "caught on fire causing 1st and 2nd degree burns all over his body including his face. The defendant did not help or get an ambulance while (the 12-year-old child) administered first aid and called his mother for help," prosecutors informed Judge Bertani-Tomczak.

Eventually, the child was taken to the hospital.

"It is believed that the defendant has or had a drug problem but it is unknown what role if any that played in this," prosecutors wrote.

Separately, this week, the Will County State's Attorney's Office filed an unrelated new case against Mcumber for possession of controlled substances, involving fentanyl. Although the complaint was just filed this week, it says that the Will County Sheriff's Office investigation against McCumber involved him being in possession of fentanyl last Dec. 9.

McUmber was given a four-year prison sentence back in 2012 for a pair of 2010 crimes involving the manufacturing and delivery of cocaine and possession of a controlled substance.

On Friday afternoon, Channahon Police Chief Adam Bogart informed Joliet Patch's editor that the incident involving McUmber was not reported to the police at the time that it happened and that officers only learned about it several days later. Bogart said the fire pit incident happened on South Egret Drive, out near the golf course in Channahon.

"This was a delayed police call, and our investigators did a fantastic job in putting this case together; we only learned of the case several days after," Bogart said.

McUmber was taken into custody, without incident, at his home in Channahon on Wednesday, October 14 at 8:28 a.m., the police chief pointed out.