Justice For 3-Year-Old Boy Who Lived In NJ 'House Of Horrors'

NEW JERSEY – The 3-year-old boy was beaten with a belt and fists, prosecutors say. And when he urinated on the floor, Patricia Buchan found yet another horrific way to cruelly punish him in a "house of horrors."

Buchan told the child to take off his clothes and get in the bathtub. She then took a pot of boiling water from a stove and poured it on the boy's lower body. He suffered second-degree burns, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

Some justice finally came for the boy on Friday in state Superior Court in Essex County when Buchan learned her fate for her crimes.

Buchan, 29, of Newark was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to scalding the boy who was entrusted to her care, according the prosecutor's office.

"This child lived his first three years in a house of horrors,'' said Assistant Prosecutor Michael Morris. "(The) plea resolves the case without the ordeal of the children having to testify."

Buchan told the court that on Dec. 4, 2018, the 3-year-old urinated on the floor in her son's room, according to prosecutors. That's when she punished him.

She wasn't alone in the abuse, prosecutors say. Six others were charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a 3-year-old child, including Natacha Smith, 44, who is the boy's mother.

Others who were charged were Patricia Gamarra, 63, Mary Buchan, 56, Bridget Buchan, 24, and Homer Searcy a.k.a. Omar Searcy, 40.

All six of the defendants lived in Newark in the same house.

The boy was hospitalized after the hot-water incident and transferred to protective custody. Newark public preschool officials alerted authorities to the abuse.

The boy and five other children lived in the home, including four of Buchan's biological children, ranging in age from 1 to 7. Buchan now has a fifth child with whom she was pregnant when the incident happened, prosecutors said.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Buchan faces up to five years in New Jersey State Prison. She must serve 85 percent of her sentence before she is eligible for parole.