Man sentenced to 16 years in jail after baby son left disfigured by rats

A man found guilty of child neglect following a rat attack that left his six-month-old son with disfiguring injuries has been handed the maximum prison sentence of 16 years.

David Schonabaum, 32, from Indiana, USA, was sentenced on Wednesday by a judge after being convicted by a jury in September on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent.

Vanderburgh County Superior Court Judge Robert Pigman found no mitigating factors to reduce the sentence, as reported by the Evansville Courier & Press. Prosecutor Diana Moers had previously stated that her office would not hold back in pursuing the "highest possible sentence."

Schonabaum and his wife, Angel Schonabaum, were arrested by Evansville police in September 2023 after David Schonabaum dialled 911 to report that his 6-month-old son had been severely injured by rats inside their home, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The Indiana Department of Child Services had previously raised concerns about conditions in the home. Investigators revealed that the infant suffered more than 50 rat bites and required treatment at an Indianapolis hospital.

An Evansville police detective noted in the affidavit that the four fingers and thumb on the child's right hand "were missing the flesh from the top of them, exposing fingertip bones."

Following the conviction of Schonabaum in September, Moers recounted a harrowing scene. She said: "The infant was laying in his crib in a pool of blood and the bites were so bad on his body including his face, mouth, and extremities that they left bone showing on one hand and he is now permanently disfigured."

Twenty-nine year old Angel Schonabaum entered a guilty plea to charges of felony neglect in September, just days before her trial was due to commence. Her sentencing has been scheduled for October 24.

The Associated Press attempted to reach out to Schonabaum's defence attorney for comment via telephone and email on Thursday.