ALACHUA – A 28-year-old Alachua man has been arrested on a child abuse charge after allegedly pressing a heated lighter against the arm of an 8-year-old girl, leaving two burn marks.
Steve Wallace Lanier II was charged with child abuse without great bodily harm. Judge Adam Lee set bail at $20,000.
According to an Alachua Police Department arrest report, the investigation began after the girl went to school and told her teacher about the incident.
The child reportedly said she entered the kitchen and saw Lanier playing with a lighter and moving his fingers through the flame. She said Lanier told her he would burn her if she did not leave the kitchen and then deliberately pressed the hot lighter against her arm.
A witness reportedly confirmed that Lanier burned the child but told investigators that Lanier had only been playing with her.
An Alachua police officer reported that Lanier was uncooperative with investigators from the Florida Department of Children and Families and claimed the child had scratched herself while playing.
During a follow-up investigation, the officer interviewed the child, who reportedly provided an account consistent with what she had previously told her teacher and a DCF investigator. She said Lanier and the witness were both in the kitchen when the incident occurred.
The girl again described Lanier moving his fingers through the lighter’s flame before threatening to burn her and then intentionally pressing the heated lighter against her arm, according to the report.
The investigating officer reported observing two burn marks on the child’s arm that were consistent in size and shape with the upper casing of a lighter. The injuries were photographed and entered into evidence.
The officer also wrote that an adult who keeps a lighter burning long enough to move his fingers through the flame would know, or reasonably should know, that the lighter’s metal casing had become hot enough to burn skin.
Lanier has no local criminal convictions. A 2022 charge of offering plumbing services without a license was dropped after he successfully completed a pretrial diversion agreement.
Lanier is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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