A McAlester woman found guilty of abusing and neglecting a child for more than a year was sentenced Tuesday to serve 20 years in a federal prison.
Ashley Schardein, 29, and her husband, Billy Menees, 31, were each found guilty by a federal jury in February 2023 on counts of child abuse in Indian country and child neglect in Indian country.
Billy Menees
The indictment filed against the pair states beginning in January 2019 and continuing into May 2020, Schardein and Menees abused the child through emotional, physical, and verbal abuse.
Schardein was sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge to serve 20 years for each count to be served concurrently. Along with the prison sentence, court records state Schardein is ordered to participate in a treatment program for narcotic addiction, drug dependency, or alcohol dependency and a treatment program for mental health.
Following her release from prison, Schardein is to be supervised for five years, according to court records. She is also not have contact with the child.
Federal court records show Menees is scheduled to be sentenced April 4 at the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City.
The couple was originally charged in Pittsburg County District Court in May 2020 with child abuse by torture, kidnapping, conspiracy, and several charges of child abuse.
Court records state the couple abused the child by excessively punishing the child with emotional and verbal abuse along with physical abuse that included spanking, tying the child’s hands and feet for long periods of time, shaving the child’s head, not allowing the child to use the restroom, and restricting the child’s diet to oatmeal, spinach, and water.
A state judge dismissed the charges against the couple in May 2021 due to their Native American status and the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma that stripped the state’s criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans in what is defined by federal statute as “Indian Country.”
Both Schardein and Menees remain charged in Pittsburg County for the abuse of a separate child.