Sentencing continued for Teddy's mom

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A sentencing date today for the mother who is accused of allowing her ex-boyfriend to abuse her three sons, killing one of them, has been continued.

A spokesman for Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court said the hearing for Shain Widdersheim, 31, of Creed Street in Struthers, has been moved to Aug. 28 because her attorney has a trial this week in another courtroom.

Widdersheim was to be sentenced on four counts of child endangering and one of obstruction of justice stemming from the Jan. 26 death of her son, Teddy Foltz, 14, who died from a beating he received Jan. 21.

Her ex-boyfriend, Zaryl Bush, 42, was sentenced in July by Judge Krichbaum to 33 years to life in prison for his role in Foltz’s death.

Prosecutors say Bush, also of Creed Street, beat and tortured Teddy and his twin brothers over a period of at least two years, beatings that led to Teddy’s death.

Prosecutors are recommending a 10-year sentence for the mother.

Widdersheim is accused of doing nothing to stop the abuse and allowing it to happen. In Bush’s sentencing hearing, police said Widdersheim helped Bush hunt Foltz down after he fled from an earlier beating. She then went to get lottery tickets after they found the teen, and Bush beat him — the beating that led to his death.

The twin boys witnessed their brother’s beating and were forced to help clean up the scene and conceal the crime. They are now living with a foster family, and social workers said at Bush’s hearing that they are doing well but they miss their brother.