Quincy man sentenced for assaulting child, tampering with a witness

EPHRATA — A Quincy man will be spending time in jail for holding his young son’s hand over a hot stove burner and telling a witness to the incident to change the story she gave to police.

Enrique Pena, 33, of Quincy, pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness, fourth-degree assault and third-degree assault. Grant County Superior Court Judge David Estudillo followed a joint recommendation between Deputy Prosecutor Kevin McCrea and defense attorney Stephen Kozer and sentenced Pena to 17 months in prison.

On Feb. 19, 2015 the Quincy Police Department received a referral from Child Protective Services (CPS) in reference to an incident involving possible child abuse. The victim of the abuse, an elementary school aged boy, advised a school counselor that his father, Pena, put his “hand on a burner,” according to police records.

On March 4, a QPD detective interviewed the boy at Mountain View Elementary School and the boy stated his father “used” to burn his hand. He initially stated Pena used to burn his right hand, but later stated it was his left. The boy showed the detective his left ring finger, which had reportedly been burned by Pena.

“According to (the boy), he was burned as a punishment because Enrique thought (the boy) punched his littler sister,” wrote the detective. “(The boy) stated the burning felt ‘too hot,’ and that it ‘burn(ed) for 20 hours.’”

Later in the day the detective interviewed the boy’s stepmother, who recalled an incident in 2014 when she was asleep and woke up to Pena telling his children, “if I see you pick up cigarette butts, I am going to burn you.” The woman recalled one incident in which Pena burned the boy and he cried for a couple of minutes afterward. She said Pena used cold showers, hot sauce and jalapeño peppers as forms of punishment for his two sons.

The boy’s biological mother detailed an incident in which she witnessed Pena hold her son’s hand close to a hot stove. She said she felt scared and if she reported Pena to CPS or the police he would kill her. She said Pena is only violent when he is drinking and/or doing drugs. In addition, the victim’s older brother said his father punishes him by burning his hand on the “cooking place.”

Pena was in jail in connection with an unrelated incident when the abuse allegations came to light and upon his release told the boy’s mother she needed to change the statement she gave to investigators.

“(The woman) told Pena she was not going to lie and mentioned a protection order. Pena told (the woman) that no piece of paper would ever stop him. After the initial encounter, Pena went back to (the woman’s) house and once again told her she needed to change her statement. (The woman) refused.”