Man forgives mom for acid attack after accepting Christ

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Man forgives mom for acid attack after accepting Christ

Demetrius P. Guyton with his wife, Camille, and their son, Jeremiah, at their Hartselle apartment Friday. BUY THIS PHOTO (More info)

HARTSELLE — The woman rushed to him in the hallway of what he thought was his cousin’s home in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“I said, ‘Hey, cousin,’ ” recalls Deme­trius Guyton. “She replied, ‘I’m not your cousin. I’m your mother.’ ”

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He was seeing her for the first time — the mother who apparently tried to kill him in a Jasper hospital, when he was less than 3 months old.

Police charged her with giving the infant a bottle that contained a mixture of castor oil and hydrochloric acid.

According to testimony during the trial in Walker County Circuit Court, she had applied for a $25,000 life insurance policy on her son four days before the July 16, 1984, incident.

Authorities said he vomited the acid, burning the skin on his face, chest and neck, leaving patches of scars.

On May 2, 1985, the jury found her guilty of first-degree assault. She served 14 years at Tutwiler Prison for Women.

Reunion

The scars remain, but Guyton said he began shedding the animosity when he gave his life to Christ during his own prison term.

The meeting with his mother came April 30, 2009, two days after his 25th birthday.

His cousin, whom he had not seen in 20 years, invited him and his older brother to her college graduation and a family reunion.

“I didn’t know Mother was going to be there,” Guyton said. “I dropped my bags, and we embraced. I had to be an instrument that God could use to kill the hate.”

Reaching that point wasn’t easy. He had surgeries in Jasper, spent a year at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham and lived in a foster home. His father’s mother got custody when he was 4.

He moved to Boligee with his grandmother when he was 13. Four years later, he returned to Jasper, where he began running the streets, living a gang life and selling drugs.

At 18, he married a wo­man he had met in a club and relocated to Hamilton. He came home from his job at a mobile home plant, found his wife with a friend and got into a fight.

Assault

“I was first charged with attempted murder before it was reduced to second-degree assault,” he said.

He served 3.5 years in state correctional facilities, his final nine months at Decatur Work Release.

While in prison, he began preaching and writing a manuscript for a book titled “The Chosen One: A Touch from Above.” He is seeking a publisher.

He remarried in May, and the family moved to Hartselle about three months ago. He and his wife, Ca­mille, have a ministry, Healing Waters.

Theotis Kimbrough of Greater New Beginnings Baptist Church in Hamilton was his pastor for about eight years.

“I think Demetrius is a great example of an individual who struggled to turn his life around so that he could be a benefit to society,” Kimbrough said. “I think that he will be a great asset to anyone he is working with, that young people’s lives will be touched and changed.”

His grandmother, Ruthie Mae Dunlap, spoke to The Daily from her home in Boligee.

“Oh, he’s got manners,” she said. “He always tells me he appreciates what I did for him. He said he hasn’t forgotten where he came from. It seems he’s changed his life.”

The Guytons joined Central Baptist Church on Sunday. god is great