A teenage boy was purposely burned and repeatedly hit with a baseball bat in a Tracy home, according to search warrants unsealed Wednesday.
Police allege that Michael Schumacher, 34, and Kelly Layne Lau, 30, held the 16-year-old boy against his will for more than a year and, along with the teen's one-time guardian, Caren Ramirez, 43, beat him, denied him food and sometimes kept him chained to the fireplace or a heavy table inside a house on Tennis Lane.
In addition, Anthony Waiters, 29, faces 10 felony counts, including torture, mayhem, child beating, child endangerment and an enhancement for using a baseball bat in carrying out abuse. Waiters lived near Schumacher and Lau on Tennis Lane.
Fifteen warrants released on Wednesday detail a pattern of alleged torture involving the 16-year-old boy.
One warrant dated from December stated that although the teen is 16, he looked much younger because of malnourishment. His body was also covered in soot and scars.
A warrant stated that in one instance, the boy was sleeping in a fireplace where he was chained when someone purposely lit the fireplace, resulting in a significant burn injury to the youth's left arm.
Documents also said the teen was regularly hit on the head with a baseball bat and on at least one occasion and was cut with a knife and strangled with a belt until he lost consciousness.
The boy was also forced to take unknown pills, consume alcoholic beverages and smoke marijuana in an effort to keep him in a lethargic state, a warrant said.
The paperwork said police searching the home confiscated belts with buckles, computer equipment, cell phones, knives, lighter fluid, bleach, plastic zip ties, two aluminum baseball bats, salt and alcoholic beverages.
Prior to Wednesday, only one warrant in the case had been unsealed.
A short arraignment for the four defendants was continued Monday. None of them entered pleas.
