An Indiana woman whose child was disfigured in a rat attack will be on probation

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 sentence.

A Vanderburgh County judge sentenced 29-year-old Angel Schonabaum to four years in prison Thursday, but gave her credit for a year she had already served and suspended the remaining three years on probation, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.

Schonabaum pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor count of neglect of a dependent. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a message Friday 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 seriously 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 of three felony counts of neglect of a dependent. He was sentenced this month to the maximum prison term of 16 years on these 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 at the top, exposing the fingertip bones.”

Paramedics and police found the boy covered in blood in his crib, with serious bites also on his face, leaving him “permanently disfigured”, prosecutor Diana Moers said.

The Schonabaums lived with Angel Schonabaum’s sister, Delaina Thurman, in a home that investigators said was filled with trash and had an ongoing rodent infestation.

Thurman was sentenced to two years’ probation after pleading guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent, court records show.