May 23 – A McAlester couple found guilty of abusing and neglecting a 10-year-old girl for more than a year will be sentenced.
Ashley Schardein, 28, and her husband, Billy Menees, 31, were found guilty by a federal jury in February 2023 of charges of child abuse in Indian Country and child neglect in Indian Country.
The indictment against the couple states that from January 2019 through May 2020, Schardein and Menees “intentionally and maliciously caused harm and threatened harm, failed to protect from harm, and threatened to harm the girl, to torture and injure.”
According to court documents, the pair are accused of abusing the girl by punishing her excessively with emotional and verbal abuse, physical abuse including beatings, tying her hands and feet for extended periods of time, shaving her head and not allowing she uses the clothes. toilet, and restricting her diet to oatmeal, spinach and water.
U.S. District Judge Timothy DeGiusti will sentence the couple on July 26 at the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City.
Prosecutors initially charged the couple in May 2020 with child abuse by torture, kidnapping, conspiracy and several child molestation charges.
A state judge dismissed charges against the couple in May 2021 due to their Native American status and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which stripped the state of criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans in what federal statute defines as ‘Indian country’. .” The pair was immediately taken into federal custody by federal agents and remained in custody.
The couple remains charged in Pittsburg County District Court for allegedly abusing a four-year-old girl. Schardein is accused of hitting the 4-year-old in the back of the head and grabbing the 4-year-old’s arm, while Menees is accused of “intentionally permitting and permitting” the abuse, documents show.
An affidavit filed in the case said Menees told investigators that the couple kept the girl in the room because of her behavioral problems and that he was usually at work during the day while Schardein stayed home with the children.
The girl told investigators that her head was shaved because “she had been having too many pee accidents,” with Menees claiming he shaved her head because he had messed up a haircut, the affidavit said.
Numerous bruises were also found on the girl, who said the bruises on her body were the result of being hit with a scouring paddle, a strap and a sock with a bar of soap, the report said.
The documents also state that the couple claimed the girl was self-harming and claimed they had a video. Investigators reviewed the video and did not see the girl attempting self-harm.
Court records show the girl testified against the couple, along with investigators and medical professionals who examined the child.
The couple tried unsuccessfully three times to have the charges against the couple dismissed, claiming that the federal government no longer had jurisdiction over the case following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Castro-Huerta v. Oklahoma. The pair have also claimed that Oklahoma’s child abuse statute, which is used by the federal government, is unconstitutional.
DeGiusti denied all three motions to dismiss the charges, along with a motion to dismiss the charges, which alleged that a search warrant for a cell phone used to obtain evidence against the couple was not in ” good faith” was written.
A request to move the case to Choctaw Nation District Court, where the couple would have received less prison time, was also denied by DeGiusti.
