An Indiana mom, who admitted to neglect after her six-month-old son was horrifically attacked by a rat, leaving him with disfiguring injuries, has been handed a probation sentence.
This comes just weeks after her husband was given a substantial prison term. In an incident which shocked the country the boy suffered extensive rat bites and his fingers had been chewed to the bone.
Angel Schonabaum, 29, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday by a Vanderburgh County judge. However, she was credited for a year already served and the remaining three years were suspended to probation, as reported by the Evansville Courier & Press.
In September, Schonabaum pleaded guilty to a felony count of neglect of a dependent. Her legal representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment made on Friday.
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Schonabaum and her husband, David Schonabaum, were arrested in September 2023 after he dialed 911 to report that their infant son had been severely injured by rats in their Evansville home, according to law enforcement.
Investigators revealed that the child had suffered more than 50 rat bites and required hospital treatment.
David Schonabaum was found guilty by a jury in September on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent. He received the maximum sentence of 16 years in prison for these charges earlier this month.
An Evansville police detective noted in a probable cause affidavit that all of the fingers on the child’s right hand “were missing the flesh from the top of them, exposing fingertip bones.”
Paramedics and police arrived to a horrific scene where they discovered a young boy lying bloodied in his crib, having suffered severe bites even on his face, which left him “permanently disfigured,” county prosecutor Diana Moers revealed.
Diana Moers’ office took to Facebook on Thursday stating that Angel Schonabaum “was not residing in the home at the time of the rat-bite incident; however, she was held accountable for the deplorable conditions of the home which she was responsible for when residing there.”
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The house, once occupied by the Schonabaums and Angel Schonabaum’s sister, Delaina Thurman, was reportedly in an abysmal state, filled with rubbish and suffering from a relentless rodent problem.
After entering a guilty plea to two counts of neglecting a dependent, Delaina Thurman received a sentence of two years probation, court records confirm.