A 4-year-old Michigan girl told police yesterday that her mother "cooks me like a turkey in the oven," the Detroit News reported.
Reyna Valentino, 40, called police Jan. 23 and confessed to burning her daughter in the oven, singeing the child's eyelids with a hot nail and beating her other daughter, 5, with a crowbar.
"I felt fire. It burned my back," Valentino's daughter told police in an official account. "She hurts me with a screwdriver all the time."
If convicted of the first-degree child abuse charges, the Hamtramck, Mich., woman faces life in prison.
"She said her heart is hurt and broke because momma doesn't love me anymore," police said of the 4-year-old.
Neighbors said they didn't recognize any signs of abuse in the two-story, suburban home with a "1 God" sign in the front window.
"I didn't realize what was going on. It's horrific. I'm just happy the kids are alive," neighbor Deandre Martin, 28, told the News.
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Valentino and her husband, Randy, have three other children - two older boys and a younger infant. All of the children are currently in foster care as Valentino awaits trial.