Plea bargain lets David off with an easier sentence than Liz Carroll

The death of a child
Cincinnati Post, Feb. 28, 2007.

In theory, David Carroll Jr.'s guilty pleas mark the end of the courtroom saga stemming from the death of three-year-old Marcus Fiesel last August.

But the way it played out Tuesday, we suspect there will long be a question about the quality of justice that was administered in Clermont County Common Pleas Court.

Carroll, to be sure, left no doubt about his role in the death of the autistic foster child who had been entrusted to his care. Under questioning by Judge Jerry McBride, Carroll acknowledged that he helped wrap Marcus in a blanket and lock him inside an upstairs closet in the Batavia home he shared with his wife, Liz Carroll, and his girlfriend, Amy Baker.

Investigators say Carroll, the two women and the Carrolls' other children drove to a family reunion in Williamstown, Ky., on Friday, Aug. 4, and didn't return until Sunday, Aug. 6. In court Tuesday, deputy prosecutor Daniel "Woody'' Breyer said that David Carroll had expressed concern about leaving Marcus behind, and that he was the one who roused the family early to return to Batavia to check on him.

But when they got back, David Carroll said, "he was gone...he was dead.''

After accepting Carroll's pleas, McBride imposed the maximum sentence, life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 16 years.

This sentence was notably lighter than the one imposed last week after Carroll's wife was convicted by a Clermont County jury of murder and six other charges stemming from Marcus' death. Liz Carroll, 30, won't be eligible for parole for 54 years. Baker, meanwhile, escaped prosecution in exchange for her testimony against the Carrolls, provided that no evidence emerges implicating her directly in Marcus' death.

We're not inclined to second guess the plea bargain offered to David Carroll. It was, as prosecutors noted, the same deal offered to Liz Carroll. The guilty plea from her husband saves the expense and uncertainty of a trial, which likely would have been moved to another part of the state because of pre-trial publicity here. And both the judge and the prosecutor said they expect David Carroll to remain in prison for far longer than 16 years. We can only hope those predictions are proven correct.

Liz and David Carroll have both insisted that Baker played a significant role in Marcus' death, and no doubt some who have followed this case closely will come away from it wondering if justice was fully served. But prosecutors told reporters they don't believe the Carrolls' assertions about Baker's role in Marcus' death and the subsequent attempt at a cover-up. And because there was so little physical evidence to help investigators sort out who did what, this was a case that relied heavily on testimony from those involved in the triangle.

If there was any good to come of this, it is the renewed attention now being given to the foster care system. The agency that placed Marcus has lost its Ohio license in the wake of his death, and state and local officials are tightening procedures to ensure the safety of foster children.

But the most hopeful development is the recognition of the need for good foster homes, and of the enormous contribution that is quietly being made, day in and day out, by the overwhelming majority of conscientious foster families. The Carrolls may have been in it for the money. But that's not what motivates most foster families. They're in it because they care, and some also because they hope someday to adopt one of those children as their own.

Judge McBride on Tuesday noted the obligation that Carroll had to do his best to protect the child who had been placed in his care. All of us, individually and as a society, have a similar obligation. If nothing else, we hope that Marcus' death will lead us all to take that responsibility to heart.