Cops say Staten Island dad put boy, 9, in the oven after he goes through his wallet

Google MapsThe alleged crime happened in this townhouse development on Regal Walk in Graniteville, authorities said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 9-year-old boy was forced naked into the oven of his Graniteville home by his enraged father, police said.

The boy’s crime? He apparently foraged in his parent’s wallet.
"I’m going to burn you alive!” James Moss, 52, yelled at young Christopher before closing the oven door, according to court papers.

Investigators say the hulking Moss— he stands 6 feet, 3 inches and weighs 270 pounds — did not light the oven with Christopher inside, but the boy suffered second- and third-degree burns of his hands when his father held them over the burner’s open flame for two minutes, court documents state.

Christopher was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, for treatment of his injuries.

The boy’s hellish ordeal began Wednesday at about 9 p.m. inside the family's townhouse apartment at 40 Regal Walk, according  to a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

Moss accused his son — a fraction of the size of his imposing father — of stealing from him, and claimed that burning his son’s hand and tossing him into the oven was a justified course of discipline, authorities said.

“My son stole some money from my wallet and I burnt him and burnt his hand on the stove,” Moss told police, according to court papers.

Moss also hit his son in the back with a spatula, smacked his face and dragged him across the floor, scratching the boy’s knees, police said.

Prosecutors charged Moss with second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

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Moss didn’t post his $15,000 bail or bond and was remanded to Rikers Island, according to the city Department of Correction Web site.
Reached on the telephone, Moss’ wife declined comment on her husband’s arrest.

The case is being investigated by the Staten Island Special Victims Squad.

The accusations put Moss in some pretty poor company: Island parentswho have tortured their children, oftentimes resulting in death.

On May 18, 2007, Joseph Wallace of Port Richmond sodomized and fatally beat his 2-month-old son in a beer-fueled rage.

Wallace, 24, was sentenced to a minimum 15 years to life behind bars after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

On Aug. 7 that same year, 20-month-old Hailey Gonzalez of New Brighton was viciously beaten and violently thrown into her crib by her mother’s boyfriend, Edwin Garcia.

The toddler’s mother, Marlene Medina, waited more than five hours to seek medical attention for Hailey.

Garcia, 32, was sent to prison for 25 years while Ms. Medina, 27, was given two to six years behind bars for manslaughter.

And in April, Melissa Sekulski of Mariners Harbor was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing her son, Jaquan Porter, on Dec. 26, 2008. She had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.

Ms. Sekulski, 31, restrained her 10-year-old son’s hands with duct tape as she beat him to death in their apartment. Ms. Sekulski pummeled the boy, who weighed more than 260 pounds at the time of his death, for being obese, investigators said.