MARIETTA — A Marietta man is accused of giving a 3-year-old third-degree burns on his feet because the child was crying.

According to a warrant for his arrest, Matthew Vaughn Ducre, 22, held his girlfriend’s son in hot bathwater between 9 and 9:45 p.m. Aug. 29 at a home on the 400 block of Winston Road off the Windy-Mac Connector.

“The child indicated to a physician at the hospital that the accused held him in the water as punishment because (the child) was crying,” the warrant states. “The child was airlifted to Augusta to a burn center.”

Officer Mike Bowman with Cobb Police said the boy’s mother was at work at the time.

Ducre was arrested Aug. 30 at an apartment complex off Franklin Road in Marietta on a felony charge of cruelty to children. He is being held without bond at the Cobb County Jail because he is on probation for a previous burglary conviction, Bowman said.

Bowman said the child is in the custody of the Department of Family and Children Services.

Jail records show that Ducre was arrested in June 2010 on burglary charges, and according to Cobb County Superior Court documents, he was sentenced to four years and five months of probation.

According to the arrest warrant for that case, Ducre was charged with felony burglary after breaking into a Franklin Road home and taking a soft drink, $10 in loose change and a pair of diamond earrings valued at $300.