After more than 50 untreated rat bites in the family’s run-down home last year in 2023, the 6-month-old son of the father was found guilty on three felony counts, according to prosecutors. The boy “nearly died.”
On September 11, a jury found David Anthony Schonabaum guilty of three felonies, according to the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office.
After Schonabaum, now 32, called 911 to report that he found his infant son “covered in blood,” first responders found the baby “in his bassinet in a pool of blood with over 50 bites to his body including his face and extremities” last September, according to the prosecutor’s office statement last week.
“The infant’s right hand suffered the most traumatic injuries with all four fingers and the thumb missing flesh and exposing the fingertip bones,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Authorities claim that the Department of Child Services had already visited the Evansville, Indiana, home to “address the safety concerns” and to enlist the assistance of a “third party” in fixing it up. Schonabaum was informed that his “participation was necessary” to help maintain the home. Photographs taken of the house the day the 6-month-old kid was discovered almost bleeding to death, according to the prosecutor’s office, “revealed the home in a deplorable, unlivable condition.”
“A medical professional testified at the trial to the severity of the infant’s injuries, reporting the infant child nearly died from blood loss,” the prosecutor’s office added. “This baby now faces permanent injuries from this incident.”
Schonabaum’s most serious accusation, child carelessness causing significant physical injury, carries a potential maximum term of 16 years in jail, according to a statement released by Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers last week.
In Moers words, the baby boy had been “permanently disfigured” by the rat bites.
“The home he was forced to live in with his young siblings was overrun by rats and bugs, and the photos of the home show it full of trash and rat faeces,” Moers added. “This baby lived in an absolute house of horrors along with his siblings and pet dog.”
Calling the situation “unimaginable,” Moers continued: “This case is horrific, and we will live with the images of this baby forever. It is completely shocking to the conscience that anyone would live in these conditions, much less allow their children, baby, and animals to live among absolute filth when they cannot help themselves.”
