A New Jersey woman was convicted Thursday of aggravated assault after throwing hot oil on her husband, leaving him partially disabled.
Mauvette Mattadeen committed the crime against her husband, Leacroft, on April 6, 2012. She is being held in the Somerset County Jail pending sentencing.
After his wife's July 14, 2012 arraignment, Leacroft told reporters that the couple had been arguing in their Franklin Township home the night of the attack.
"I was just trying to get a divorce," he told The Star-Ledger. "She wanted to stay together."
The 53-year-old man went to sleep, but experienced a rude awakening the next morning. Around 9 a.m., Mauvette sprayed a chemical in his face that caused a burning sensation.
When Leacroft got in the shower to wash the chemical from his eyes, his wife doused him in scalding cooking oil. Then, Mauvette chased him with an ax.
Court documents say that the 41-year-old Jamaica native told him "if she could not have him, no one else would."
Leacroft was able to get the ax away from her, and get help from a neighbor. The former New York City taxi driver was flown to Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, after suffering second and third-degree burns on 23 percent of his body. He is also visually-impaired in one eye, and hearing-impaired in one ear. Despite several skin grafts, he is permanently scarred.
In July 2012, Leacroft said there are emotional scars as well.
"I still have nightmares about that day," he told reporters. "I can't go near the house anymore. It's too uncomfortable." After the attack, Leacroft went to live with his sister.
Mauvette was arrested five days after assaulting her husband, and has been in jail ever since.
Jurors rejected her self-defense claim, and found her guilty of aggravated assault on June 12. Mattadeen was found not guilty on charges of attempted murder, theft, and weapons possession.
