TYLER, Texas — A Tyler mother has been sentenced to six years in prison after her children were found in poor physical shape inside a house filled with the smell of feces.
Katelynn Schengeli, 26, entered a guilty plea to injury to a child charge in the 241st District Court Thursday morning, according to online judicial records.
She was then sentenced to six years in prison and received 262 days of credit for time served in the Smith County Jail, records show.
Schengeli and her live-in boyfriend, Cory Evans, 27, were arrested in late December on four counts of child endangerment at a Rhones Quarter Road home.
The Smith County Sheriff’s Office said Schengeli’s 8-year-old child called 911 because his mother was unresponsive at the location. When deputies arrived, they found Schengeli responsive but under the influence of alcohol.
She admitted to drinking liquor earlier in the day.
Evans and Schengeli are parents of 4-year-old twin girls and an 11-month-old infant, according to the sheriff’s office.
EMS said the 11-month-old was covered in feces that had spilled out of an already full diaper, which EMS crews removed and changed.
Deputies heard screaming from across the home and found the 4-year-old twin girls locked inside of a room using a large safe to block the exit door.
One of the twins was begging for water and the other was sleeping on the floor, without clothes and next to a dirty diaper. Both girls were given adequate clothing and water to drink, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff's office said the home was "extremely dirty and had a very potent odor of feces emitting from each of the rooms.”
The twin girls and the infant appeared to be in poor physical shape, and EMS personnel called the children malnourished, noting the 11-month-old was the size of a 3 to 6-month-old infant, law enforcement said.
Child Protective Services removed the kids from the home. The infant and twins were taken to an area hospital for a medical evaluation, officials said.
Evans' charges remain pending in court at this time.