FRIENDSWOOD, Texas — On Friday, a 17-year-old accused of throwing drain cleaner powder in his friend's face appeared in court. What makes the allegations worse is the victim has autism, making the charge more serious.
The mother of the victim spoke to KHOU 11 News. Amy Morgan said her son is still in a lot of pain after a cleaning chemical powder was thrown in his face, allegedly by his own friend. She said when he opens his eyes, everything looks fuzzy.
"That drain cleaning material is tough. His cornea can look good today, but it’s possible they can just break down in a day or two, which is terrifying," Morgan said.
It's why doctors don’t know if Brody Morgan will keep his eyesight. In probable cause court, authorities said Brody is autistic and Branden Jolly threw an alkaline substance into his eyes. Brody had to get medical treatment due to the incident.
Jolly faced a judge in criminal court Friday morning for an injury to a disabled person charge. KHOU 11 had a reporter stop by Jolly’s family home to see if anyone wanted to comment, but no one answered the door.
"There’s things that can happen if you do the bad thing that you don’t think is a bad thing, something can come back to bite you," Morgan said.
Morgan thinks the chain of events could’ve been avoided.
"He was saying, 'You shouldn’t do that. That’s bad.' Something along those lines ... and I think that sort of irritated them. These boys knew Brody had autism," Morgan said.
She said her son told her Branden and another friend grabbed a package from someone’s porch in their Friendswood neighborhood and when Branden opened it, a type of powder came out. It happened on the cross streets of David Glen and Crofterglen on May 20.
"They told me they had been horsing around with salt and that he got some in his face," Morgan said.
But her son claims Branden allegedly sprayed the chemical in his face, instantly burning his eyes.
"They dragged him into the house. They brought him into the house, and he was just screaming, screaming," Morgan said.
After trying to flush his eyes out with water and saline, she rushed him to the emergency room.
"When we were at the burn unit is when we knew for sure it wasn’t salt," Morgan said.
Even though things went terribly wrong for her son, she’s still empathetic to Branden and his family.
"I do feel like he should have some punishment. I don’t know what that looks like because I don’t want him to go to jail for the rest of his life," Morgan said.
As to whether it was done intentionally, court documents stated an investigator who found the original package for the substance claims it did have a drainage de-clogger label on top of it.