YOUNGSTOWN — Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court has again denied early release to Shain P. Widdersheim, 44, who he sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2013 for allowing her boyfriend to abuse her three sons, including the boy he killed, Teddy Foltz, 14.

Her boyfriend, Zaryl Bush, now 55, killed Teddy in January 2012, five days after Bush beat the boy. Bush is serving 33 years to life in prison for his crimes, which include aggravated murder. Bush lived on Creed Street in Struthers at the time Teddy was killed.

Prosecutors and police said Widdersheim kept family and others from seeing Teddy and his twin brothers, then 11, and Bush abused all three for a significant period of time, including forcing the twins to beat Foltz, as well as beating all three himself.

Widdersheim, who is housed in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, has an expected release date of Aug. 22, 2027, but she is asking to be released about three years early.

In Widdersheim’s newest request for judicial release, she wrote that “My past behavior of allowing myself to fall prey to abusive relationships has cost me and my sons a great deal of grief.”

As part of Widdersheim’s handwritten request for judicial release filing, she included certificates showing the education programs she has completed while in prison and letters of support from various people.

Krichbaum acknowledged the “great number of prison educational and rehabilitation programs” Widdersheim has completed since entering prison Oct. 21, 2013. The judge said it “appears that Ms. Widdersheim has made the most of her time in the penitentiary to rehabilitate and better herself.”

He noted that prosecutors asked for Widdersheim to get 10 years in prison, but he considered the “reprehensible conduct” Widdersheim exhibited and gave her 15 years instead.

Krichbaum’s ruling states that he “then considered and now considers that (Widdersheim) allowed consistent abuse and torture to be visited upon her son, Teddy Foltz, and his brothers for a lengthy period of time during her relationship with” Bush.

“The victim was habitually abused, beaten and tortured and threatened by Zaryl Bush,” the judge wrote.

The ruling notes that Teddy “was observed to have sustained injuries by personnel at the school he attended, but he explained those injuries as being inflicted upon him by his brothers while roughhousing. Neither the school nor Children Services took any action to investigate and perhaps discover the real cause of Teddy Foltz’s apparent injuries,” he stated.

“More alarmingly, Ms. (Widdersheim) never reported any of the abuse inflicted upon Teddy Foltz, nor did she attempt to stop it,” the ruling, released Monday, states.

“On the night Teddy Foltz was so severely beaten by Bush that the injuries led to his death, Ms. (Widdersheim) was with Bush when they found the runaway Teddy Foltz, and when they secured him in their car, Bush told the victim, ‘You’re mine tonight,'” the ruling states.

“When they returned to Bush’s residence, Ms. (Widdersheim), instead of staying to protect her son and knowing what was going to happen to the child, left him with Bush while she went out to purchase lottery tickets.

“When she returned, the vicious beating of Teddy Foltz had already occurred, and Bush and (Widdersheim) moved the victim to (Widdersheim’s) residence and attempted to cover up the beating by claiming that the victim had fallen in the shower,” the ruling states.

“That story was maintained by Widdersheim until the death of Teddy Foltz several days later. Ms. (Widdersheim) visited the hospital only very briefly each day of Foltz’s hospitalization and ordered that no one be allowed to visit him,” the ruling states.

The ruling notes that most people serving a 15-year prison sentence “who do so well for 12 years should be favorably considered for early release. As the law existed previously, (Widdersheim) would have been eligible for parole on or before serving 12 years of a 15-year sentence.”

But to “look favorably on Widdersheim’s request for early release, the judge would “have to discount the facts of this crime,” Krichbaum stated.

It was Widdersheim’s “solemn duty to protect her child. She completely failed to do so in any way, including the accommodation of the final, brutal beating of Teddy Foltz and her repeated attempts to cover up the murder of her own child,” the judge stated.

“This court cannot justify allowing (Widdersheim’s) efforts at rehabilitation while incarcerated override the magnitude of (her) responsibility for the horrific crimes she committed.”

The Vindicator interviewed Widdersheim in February 2014 in the Mahoning County jail, where she was being housed while she was involved in custody issues involving her twin sons. This was after she was convicted and sentenced to prison.

She claimed she was in too much fear of Bush to stand up to him, did not know about resources such as homeless shelters and Bush told her he had connections in Struthers who would protect him from being charged with criminal offenses.

This was the third time Widdersheim asked for early release. Krichbaum did not act on her August 2023 request, effectively denying it. The judge denied Widdersheim’s first request for early release Jan. 24, 2022.

Widdersheim was convicted of four counts of child endangering and one count of obstructing justice.