Indiana woman whose infant was disfigured in a rat attack gets probation
This combination of undated booking photos provided the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office shows Angel Schonabaum, left, and David Schonabaum. Credit: AP
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — An Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to neglect after a rat attacked her 6-month-old son and left him with disfiguring injuries has been sentenced to probation, weeks after her husband received a lengthy prison term.
A Vanderburgh County judge sentenced Angel Schonabaum, 29, to four years in prison on Thursday but gave her credit for a year she has already served and suspended the remaining three years to probation, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.
Schonabaum pleaded guilty to a felony count of neglect of a dependent in September. Her attorney didn't immediately respond to a Friday message seeking comment.
Police arrested Schonabaum and her husband, David Schonabaum, in September 2023 after he called 911 to report that the Evansville couple's infant son had been severely injured by rats in their home, according to authorities.
The child suffered more than 50 rat bites and required hospital treatment, investigators said.
A jury convicted David Schonabaum in September on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent. He was sentenced this month to the maximum 16 years in prison on those charges.
An Evansville police detective wrote 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 found the boy lying in blood in his crib with bad bites also on his face, leaving him “permanently disfigured,” said county prosecutor Diana Moers.
Moers’ office said Thursday in a Facebook post 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.”
The Schonabaums had lived with Angel Schonabaum’s sister, Delaina Thurman, in a home investigators said was filled with trash and had an ongoing rodent infestation.
Thurman was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent, according to court records.
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