John Jefferson
Inset: David Schonabaum (Vanderburgh County Jail). Background: Evansville, Indiana, home were infant suffered 50 rat bites (WEHT).
A jury in Indiana convicted a father whose 6-month-old son suffered 50 rat bites after their home became infested with the vermin, court records say.
Jurors on Wednesday found David Schonabaum guilty of three counts of child neglect for the boy and two other kids in the home. Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers said in a statement to the Courier & Press newspaper that the case was so horrific that it will have a lasting impact on cops and prosecutors.
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“The victim in this case was a 6-month-old baby who suffered horrific rat bites to his entire body while lying in a bassinet in his home,” Moers said. “When paramedics and police arrived 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.”
Prosecutors argued during closing arguments that the state Department of Children Services spent two years trying to convince Schonabaum to clean up the home, according to a courtroom report from Evansville NBC affiliate WFIE. A pest control specialist also gave him several reusable rat traps but there was no evidence he ever used them, prosecutors reportedly said.
Schonabaum’s attorneys reportedly argued that child services would have removed the boy from his custody if the conditions were so bad. They also said he did not have the funds to improve the home.
Sentencing is set for Oct. 2. The boy’s mother, Angel Schonabaum, and aunt, Delaina Thurman, also were charged with child neglect. Angel Schonabaum is set for trial later this month while Thurman pleaded guilty and received a two-year suspended prison sentence, records show.
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Evansville Police Department on Sept. 13, 2023, responded to a call about a baby requiring emergency medical attention at a residence located in the 1600 block of S. Linwood Avenue. The caller — later identified as David Schonabaum — told the dispatcher that he awoke to find his infant son “covered in blood” and said the boy’s fingers appeared to have been “chewed off.”
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders provided emergency medical treatment, stabilized the baby, and transported him to a local hospital. Soon after arriving, the boy was transported via helicopter to another hospital in Indianapolis for more specialized treatment.
In hospital records provided to police, doctors described the baby as suffering a “near fatal event” and required a blood transfusion after almost going into shock.
Doctors said the baby suffered more than 50 bites to his forehead, cheek, and nose alone. The boy was missing flesh from all four fingers and thumb on his right hand, exposing bone on all five fingertips. Most severe were the index and pinky fingers, which police said were “missing the flesh halfway down each finger.” The child also suffered additional bites to his arms, legs, feet, and toes. His internal body temperature was about 93.5 and his blood pressure was 50/30 when he arrived at the hospital.
“From what the doctors and nurses told the detectives, very near to death,” Evansville police Sgt. Anna Gray told local ABC affiliate WEHT when asked how serious the boy’s condition was. “The child had lost so much blood that the child actually had to have blood transfusions as well. Several fingers had to be amputated.”
She added, “The only reason that we even knew about it was because the dad woke up and the baby was covered in blood.”
Back at the home, police said the baby’s bassinet was about three feet away from the bed where his parents slept in a room that was covered with clutter, half-eaten food, and rat feces. The detective said he observed “a large amount of blood” inside the bassinet along with a “bobby pillow” and blanket that were both “covered in blood.”
The diaper disposal container also had “blood smeared all over it and what appeared to be rodent footprints left in the blood,” the affidavit states.
When asked how they could possibly allow such horrors to be inflicted on a baby, the adults said “they did not hear the child cry,” according to Gray.
“This was a case where rats had been living in the home,” Gray told WEHT. “The home was overwhelmed with rodents. They said they were trying to get rid of the rats, but I think they were like trapping about for a day at least. I mean, that’s a lot of rats.”
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report
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