An Indiana mother who left her six-month-old son to die in a horrendous rat-infested home will not face prison time.
Angel Schonabaum, 29, was sentenced Thursday to serve three years of probation under an agreement that gave her credit for one year’s time served, the Evansville Press and Courier Reports.
You will also need to undergo a mental health evaluation and follow recommended treatment. according to Law and Crime.
Angel had initially pleaded not guilty to felony child neglect charges stemming from the September 2023 incident in which police found her infant son suffering from more than 50 rat bites on his forehead, cheek and nose, but changed his statement at the end of September, just a few days before. was scheduled to appear before a jury.
Meanwhile, the baby’s father, David Schonabaum, 32, was found guilty in September of child neglect of the baby and two other children inside his Evansville home.
Angel Schonabaum, 29, was sentenced Thursday to serve three years of probation after leaving her six-month-old son to die in a rat-infested home.
Her husband, David Schonabaum, 32, was convicted of child abandonment in September and sentenced to serve 16 years behind bars, while her sister, Delania Thurman, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of abandonment of a child. dependent and was sentenced to serve two years of probation
Prosecutors said David called the Evansville Police Department on Sept. 3, 2023, and reported that he woke up to find his baby “covered in blood” and stated that the child’s fingers appeared to have been “bitten.”
When officers arrived at the scene, they found the baby in a bloody bassinet about three feet from where his parents were sleeping, in a room filled with half-eaten food and rat feces.
Detectives wrote that there was a “large amount of blood” inside the bassinet, along with a “boppy pillow” and a blanket that were “covered in blood,” Law & Crime reports.
The child’s diaper container also had “blood smeared everywhere” and what appeared to be a series of rodent footprints left in blood.
“All four of (the victim’s) fingers and the thumb of his right hand were missing the flesh from the top, exposing the bones of the fingertips,” Detective Jonathan Helm wrote in an affidavit, describing the damage the baby suffered during the night.
“The damage to (the victim’s) index and little fingers was the most severe,” he added, noting that the appendages “were missing flesh on half of each finger.”
Authorities responded to Schonabaum’s home on Sept. 3, 2023, and found the baby in a bloody bassinet about three feet from where his parents were sleeping in a room filled with half-eaten food and rat feces.
An affidavit describes the clutter and trash that detectives observed both inside and outside the home after arriving at the scene, where they said they found several discarded foodstuffs inside the victim’s bedroom.
First responders immediately attempted to treat the baby and were able to stabilize him enough to take him to a local hospital, from where he was airlifted to another hospital in Indianapolis for more specialized treatment.
Hospital records provided to police show that doctors described the baby’s condition as “near fatal,” saying his blood oxygen level was at just 69 percent and that he required a blood transfusion after nearly going into shock.
Doctors also described how the boy had missing skin on his fingers, exposing the bones of all five fingertips on his right hand, and suffered bites on his arms, legs and feet.
“From what the doctors and nurses told detectives, (he was) very close to death,” Evansville Police Sgt. Ana Gray he told WEHT when asked about the child’s condition.
“The boy had lost so much blood that he even had to receive blood transfusions,” he said. “They had to amputate several of his fingers.”
When later asked how the baby’s parents could have allowed such horrors, Gray replied: “Their excuse was that they didn’t hear the child cry.”
“The house was overrun with rodents,” he added of the home, which detectives say contained clutter and trash, such as discarded food inside the victim’s bedroom, and also allegedly housed four other young children.
“It’s one of those situations where they just weren’t paying attention,” the department’s official statement continued.
Evansville Police Sgt. Anna Gray said the boy’s parents (pictured) “just weren’t paying attention.”
But it was later revealed that the Indiana Department of Child Services began making twice-weekly visits to the family’s home in April 2023, when a caseworker noticed the home at the time was filled with trash, feces, and animals and dirty dishes.
However, the caseworker stated that conditions at the home were “slowly improving” and that no action was taken against either parent.
Just days before the baby’s near-death experience, another DCS caseworker also traveled to the home and spoke with Angel’s sister, Delania Thurman, 25, who had moved in with her children several weeks earlier.
He reported that the house only had a “normal amount of mice.”
The social worker added that when asked about what appeared to be bite marks on the foot of one of the children, she denied that the injuries were caused by rodents.
All of the children have since been placed in foster care, including the baby once he was released from the hospital.
Meanwhile, David has been sentenced to serve 16 years behind bars for felony child neglect, and Thurman, the boy’s aunt, pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent and was sentenced to serve two years of probation. .
