Hermitage, Ark. has a population 700 and until recently, it was home to 19-year-old Joshua Royce Mauldin.

The man now accused of putting his two-month-old baby girl in a microwave and burning her. It is a story that has prompt shock across the area and all the way back in Arkansas.

“It stunned me, it shocked me, I've cried everyday, all day all night I've been up all night,” said Melinda Murphy, the baby’s maternal grandmother and Mauldin’s mother-in-law from her home in nearby Warren, Ark. “I just can't believe that this happened. I've seen it all on TV I've read it in the papers.”

High school classmates remember Mauldin's odd behavior. He would head butt brick walls

“He was always the type who would do things just to where he would have to stay home from school,” said former classmate Bryan Bunch. “He always was the loner, the guy who stood over there by himself”

Town’s folk said just last week the couple was back visiting Mauldin's father, got into a fight and police were called. A prelude to something much worse.

GCSO

Joshua Mauldin

Mauldin, his wife and his mother moved to Galveston, police said. He was looking for work.

They checked in at the Quality Inn in Galveston last week.

On Thursday, Maudlin called the front desk.

“(He) asked us to call 911, claimed the child had a bad sunburn and was bleeding, call 911,” said manager James Marx.

Then the story changed.

“The father told the police supposedly that he had dropped hot water from the coffee maker,” said Galveston police Sgt. Annie Almendarez.

But the injuries were not right and her condition worsened. Police said Mauldin finally confessed to a crime that left his infant with third degree burns.

“It brought tears to my eyes the baby burned on left side (her) hand so swollen,” said Almendarez.

Mauldin told police he came to Galveston to find work -- as a minister that is now on hold.

“There was no expression no remorse at all,” said Marx. “They were scum of the earth.”

Late Wednesday the baby was in critical, but stable condition at the Shriners Burns Hospital in Galveston. Doctors said she has already had two skin grafts.

Doctors are doing a CT scan to see what if any internal damage there may be.

A physician who spoke with 11 News said if as police suspect the microwave was on 10 - 20 seconds extremely severe injuries could certainly result - even affecting her organs.

Mauldin is jailed on $250,000 bond for felony injury to a child. Authorities said they have not yet determined the mother's role in all this.