Father sentenced to 50 years for causing death of his four-year-old daughter by inflicting first-degree burns with scalding bath water
March 3, 2025
Wilbur Fields pled guilty to homicide by child abuse for the death of his four-year-old daughter, Hope Fields. The Honorable Heath P. Taylor sentenced Wilbur to 50 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
On Feb. 16, 2024, Hope was admitted to the hospital unresponsive, with burns covering about half of her body. Doctors conducted medical tests that revealed she no longer had brain activity due to the severity of her injuries, which ultimately led to her death.
Evidence obtained during Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation revealed the defendant held his daughter down in scalding hot bath water due to potty training issues, causing instantaneous first-degree burns.
Hope’s younger and older siblings witnessed the incident. They provided forensic interviews recounting what they saw and heard from their father and sister as she was enduring the abuse and subsequently.
Following the incident, Wilbur withheld medical care for his daughter for approximately 24 hours, during which she was unresponsive. He later admitted during an interview with law enforcement that he placed his daughter in the bathtub and that he failed his child.
Fifi Hill’s case, Hope’s mother, is still pending.
The Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, represented by Deputy Solicitor Anna Browder, Solicitor Byron Gipson, and Assistant Solicitor Sam McGlothin, prosecuted the case.