A McAlester man found guilty of abusing and neglecting a child for more than a year was sentenced Friday to 16 years in federal prison, just days after his wife was sentenced to 20 years for the same crimes.
In February 2023, a federal jury found Billy Menees, 31, and his wife, Ashley Schardein, 29, guilty of child abuse and neglect in Indian country.
The indictment alleges that Schardein and Menees mistreated the kid emotionally, physically, and verbally from January 2019 until May 2020.
Menees was sentenced on Friday by a federal judge in Oklahoma City to 16 years in prison on each count, to be served concurrently.
According to court records, Menees will be supervised for five years after his release from prison. He is also not permitted to have contact with the child.
Schardein was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday. According to court records, Schardein was also ordered to engage in a treatment program for narcotic addiction, drug dependency, or alcohol abuse, as well as a mental health treatment program.
In May 2020, the pair was charged in Pittsburg County District Court with torture, kidnapping, conspiracy, and multiple counts of child abuse.
According to court records, the couple abused the child by excessively punishing him with emotional and verbal abuse, as well as physical abuse such as spanking, tying his hands and feet for long periods of time, shaving his head, refusing to let him use the restroom, and restricting his diet to oatmeal, spinach, and water.
In May 2021, a state judge dismissed the couple’s charges based on their Native American status and the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which removed the state’s criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans in what is described by federal statute as “Indian Country.”
Both Schardein and Menees are still facing charges in Pittsburg County for the abuse of a separate kid.
