Alberta Beggs v. State Texas

This appeal present some questions about the defense of mistake of fact in a prosecution for injury to a child. The appellant and her step-daughter were charged with burning the appellants granddaughter RMB in hot bathwater. The appellant was tried separately from her step-daughter. The appellant admitted helping her step-daughter punish RMB by administering the bath which scalded RMB. Her defense was that she did not know that the bathwater was hot enough to cause injury, the water having been drawn by her step-daughter before the appellant came into the bathroom to help bathe RMB. She thought RMB was being given a normal bath. (According to the appellant, RMB so hated to bathe that a normal bath was punishment to her.) The jury found the appellant guilty and assessed a punishment of ten years confinement. The appellant assigns as error the trial courts instruction to the jury on the defense of mistake of fact.