Sentence satisfies dead boy's mom

The woman who lost him to foster care had filed a multimillion-dollar suit.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The birth mother of a 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy who died wrapped up in a closet said she's satisfied with the sentence given to the foster mother convicted of his murder.
Donna Trevino said she thought when she gave up her son, he would go to a better place.
"What they did was cold and heartless," she said Friday.
Liz Carroll, 30, was sentenced by a Clermont County judge to life in prison for murder Thursday with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Prosecutors expect her to serve at least 54 years because of sentences on a total of seven charges for leaving Marcus Fiesel bound in a closet for two days while she and her husband went to a family reunion in Kentucky.
David Carroll Jr. is set to go on trial in March on the same charges as his wife. He is also charged with gross abuse of a corpse, accused of burning the boy's body and then dumping the remains in the Ohio River.
His attorney, Cathy Adams, said Friday that David Carroll will decide by Monday whether to take a plea deal, which prosecutors would have to approve.
Fiesel and two other children were removed from Trevino's Middletown home in April after allegations of neglect. In January 2006, he fell off a roof after climbing out of a second-floor window, police said.
Her decision
Trevino, 38, said she still struggles over her decision not to fight having her children taken away.
"I didn't want my kids to see anything like what I saw," said Trevino, who says she was abused as a child. "That's a lot, what I saw."
Trevino hasn't seen her oldest son in more than a decade, saying he is with his father in Alaska. Her other children, an 11-year-old son and 19-month-old daughter, are in foster care, and she's trying to get them back.
Prosecutors acknowledged during Liz Carroll's trial that Marcus could be difficult because he acted half his age. Trevino said he was too much for her to handle.
"I was out of my league with Marcus," she said. "I really didn't know what to do with him."
Trevino drew criticism when she filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit last year against the private foster care agency that helped place Fiesel, along with the Carrolls and their live-in companion Amy Baker, who was a key state witness at Liz Carroll's trial. The suit also named several Butler County agencies, which have since been dismissed from the suit.
A Butler County probate judge is scheduled Tuesday to review a proposed settlement of 207,000 from the agency, Lifeway for Youth, which would provide 800 a month to the two remaining children whether they stay in foster care or are returned to Trevino.
Critics suggested Trevino was trying to cash in on the boy after his death. She said she has been approached in public and insulted by strangers, but people shouldn't judge her until they have been in her shoes.