Jenelle Evans' Husband David Eason Facing Upgraded Felony Child Abuse Charge

Jenelle Evans' husband, David Eason, is now facing a more serious charge in his criminal child abuse case as it pertains to her teenage son ... and the charge itself is troubling. An official at the Columbus County Courthouse in North Carolina confirms to TMZ that Eason's charges have, in fact, been recently updated ...

and it's bad news for him, because now he's got a felony that he's facing. We're told that, as of right now, he's in their system with one count of misdemeanor child abuse and one count of felony assault by strangulation. Before this, we'd been told that David was facing just a single charge misdemeanor child abuse but now ...

that's changed, and it appears as if a new one has been added ... which perhaps isn't surprising based on what allegedly happened. TMZ broke the story ... law enforcement in NC accused David of roughing up Jenelle's 14 year old, Jace, in late September and the injuries he allegedly sustained included marks on his arm and neck.

It appears that as the investigation continued, officials determined a separate strangulation charge was warranted which just ups the ante on the case. Of course, we'd been told there was a possibility Jenelle herself might possibly be charged in connection to this too ... but that apparently hasn't happened yet.

Speaking of Jenelle ... she was airing some grievances of her own on social media Friday teasing the possibility of doing a doc about her own life ... and inviting production people to hit her up for the opportunity to collaborate. The last we heard on Jace ... he was living with his grandmother (Jenelle's mom)..