State rests case against man accused of neglect after baby is bitten by rats

EVANSVILLE, In (WEHT) – Prosecutors have rested their case against an Evansville man who is charged with neglect after his child was bitten over 50 times by rats.

David Schonabaum is charged with Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury after his six-month-old son was alleged to be found covered in over 50 rat bites to his forehead, right cheek, nose, fingers and toes.

The rest of the state’s witnesses were called including another one of Schonabaum’s sons. He said when he would visit, there was rats and mice in the house.

Former Maglinger employee Allison Grant said she provided services to the house earlier in the year due to concerns from Department of Child Services about the condition of the home. She said the checks included sanitation of the home due to the presence of rats, maggots, flies, roaches, dirty floors, trash and other issues. She also said there was dog feces throughout the house and chickens in the kitchen.

Grant claimed after addressing the issues, there would be periods of visual improvement followed by periods of regression. She also claimed before the incident, there was improvement with no rodents being present.

Terminix Olivia Eli said she was over at the house five times prior to the incident. She said she would see clutter, trash, feces and German cockroaches. She also said there were improvements made at first but made it clear that as long as the cleaning was not kept up, the rat problem would not improve.

She testified there would always be clutter around the baseboards, making setting traps difficult since rats use the baseboards to run. She also said after some time, she would provide Schonabaum with five to ten traps two separate times with no evidence that the traps were used.

During cross examination, Eli said she was originally called to the house for the roach problem, and the rats became an issue a couple of months later.

Other people that did testify included DCS member Taylor Forston, pediatric surgeon Dr. Brett Engerecht from Ascension St. Vincent in Indianapolis, Dr. Cortney Demetris from Payton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, nurse practitioner Stratton Dowland and registered nurse at St. Vincent Brandi Beron.

Dowland and Beron said they treated injuries to two other children that were at Schonabaum’s house due to them claiming that a mouse had bitten their toes.

During cross, Beron said that one cannot distinguish a rat bite from a mouse bite.

The defense did not call any witnesses, and Schonabaum chose to not testify. The trial will resume on Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. Closing arguments followed by the start of jury deliberations are expected to be given on Wednesday.

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