In an impassioned court filing, Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin Bonish expressed vehement opposition to the early release of a Struthers woman serving 15 years in prison for failing to stop her boyfriend from murdering her son.

For the third time since Shain Widdershaim went to prison in 2013, the mother of murdered Struthers teen Teddy Foltz is asking for judicial release.

Widdershaim, 43, was convicted of child endangering and obstructing justice in 2013 in connection with the beating death of her 14-year-old son.

Zaryl Bush was convicted of murdering Teddy Foltz and is serving 33 years to life in prison.

In her opposition filing, Assistant Prosecutor Bonish notes that two years before the murder, Bush forced Teddy Foltz to walk on hot coals and run outside in extreme weather.

Bonish says Bush abused Widdershaim’s twin boys, forcing one of them to take cold showers and stand nude in front of a fan, slamming their head into a wall, hitting one of them with a pool stick and belt, kicking another down the stairs, and forcing one of them to stand outside in extreme weather conditions.

The court filing says the mother permitted the abuse to go on and did nothing to protect her children, allowing Bush to spend time with children while she wasn't there.

Shain Widdershaim
Shain Widdershaim  

 

On January 21, 2013, Bush punched Teddy in the face, kicked him in the head, picked him up, and slammed his head into a wall, according to Bonish.

Teddy's younger brother watched Bush wash his hands in bleach and took rags soaked in Teddy's blood to Widdershaim's home where he staged a scene to make it look like Teddy had fallen in the shower, according to court records.

Widdershaim never called 9-1-1 but drove Teddy to a hospital on her own.  When Teddy Foltz arrived at the hospital, his feet were frostbitten.

The prosecutor states that Widdershaim repeated Bush’s concocted story to nurses, claiming that Teddy was injured during a seizure in the shower, "While her son lay dying, Defendant did everything she could to cover Bush's crimes,” Bonish writes.

Police said that Widdershaim only made brief visits to her hospitalized son and ordered that only she could see Teddy, depriving other family members of seeing him before he died.

"She failed to protect her children, and T.F. (Teddy Foltz) paid for her failures with his life...she clearly made up lie after lie. Not even mention(ing) the children were with Bush that day," Bonish writes.

Teddy Foltz died five days after entering the hospital.

“To punish this offender, this court determined that a term of 15 years in the penitentiary was necessary to protect the public from future crime by Defendant and others and to punish Defendant for her role in the abuse of her three sons and ultimately the death of T.F.  It cannot be forgotten that T.F.'s life is over because Defendant chose to protect a man over her children,” Bonish concludes.

Saying that Widdershaim must be punished for her crimes, Bonish tells the court that Widdershaim doesn’t deserve early release and should serve the balance of her sentence in the penitentiary.

According to state records, Widdershaim will be eligible for parole three years from now.

No  date has been scheduled for Widdershaim’s judicial release hearing.