It is difficult to pity Liz Carroll

Liz Carroll will serve out term on $10 a month
Coolidge, Sharon. Cincinnati Enquirer, April 5, 2007, pg. A1.

Liz Carroll's punishment for killing her 3-year-old foster son, Marcus Fiesel, is more than just life behind bars - it will be a harsh, spartan life without the little things.Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Alex Triantafilou made sure Wednesday that Carroll will rarely be able to buy luxuries from the prison's commissary, items like toothpaste or snacks or lipstick.

Triantafilou ordered Carroll to pay restitution - which could be as much as $1 million - for the two weeks law enforcement authorities spent investigating Marcus' disappearance before her girlfriend, Amy Baker, revealed the disappearance was faked and the child was dead.

The specific cost will take a few days to prepare, according to Hamilton County prosecutors.

Under the judge's order, all but $10 will be taken every month from Carroll's commissary fund, composed of the few cents an hour she'll earn at a prison job, or money given to her by friends and family.

Items from the commissary cost about what they would outside of prison walls. A list from the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville from last fall shows a Colgate toothbrush cost $2.15, Crest Tartar Protection cost $2.70 and Dove soap $1.07.

"This has been a long and difficult road for our community," Triantafilou said. "It's my hope today ends it." He chastised Carroll after she tried to point out that Baker was given immunity in exchange for her testimony.

"What I find most striking in today's case is that it has nothing to do with Amy Baker, yet I had to hear her name again," Triantafilou said. "This is about your conduct, standing at a podium and turning this community upside down with your lies and conduct."

Carroll, 31, pleaded no contest to two counts of inducing panic, one count of making false alarms and two counts of perjury.

Triantafilou sentenced Carroll to spend 14½ years in prison - the maximum allowed by law. That sentence will run concurrently with the life sentence with no chance for parole for at least 54 years that Carroll got when she was found guilty of Marcus' murder in February.

Prosecutors said Carroll and her husband, David Carroll Jr., bound the developmentally disabled boy in a blanket with strapping tape and left him in a closet at their Clermont County home Aug. 4. They then left town for two days to attend a family reunion in Williamstown, Ky. Marcus was dead when they returned, authorities said.

David Carroll Jr., 29, then incinerated Marcus' body in a remote chimney in Brown County, with the help of Baker, the couple's live-in girlfriend, and tossed what wouldn't burn into the Ohio River in Maysville, Ky., prosecutors said.

The trio then concocted the disappearance story to dupe foster-care authorities who were scheduled to visit the Carrolls and check up on Marcus, prosecutors said.

Liz Carroll pretended to faint at Juilfs Park in Anderson Township and then reported Marcus missing, setting off a two-week search.

The inducing panic and making a false alarm charges stem from that lie.

Then, on Aug. 28, Carroll lied under oath before a Hamilton County grand jury, said Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier.

She said she didn't know if Marcus was alive and said she last saw him right before fainting at the park.

Carroll finally broke down and admitted to the grand jury that Marcus was dead, a story Baker had already told the grand jury, Piepmeier said.

Carroll shuffled into the courtroom Wednesday in a khaki jumpsuit. Shackles restricted her arms and legs.

"I would like to apologize for the lies and pain that I caused," Carroll said. "Even though the words were untrue, my love, pain and fear were very real."

She broke down as she read from a crumpled piece of paper.

"I lied to protect my other babies, but the lies caused more pain and confusion for them," she said.

She said she prays with Marcus before going to bed. "I can't let go," she said. "He knows how much he is loved and he gives me the strength I need to get through this.

"I am so sorry for my lies and the pain they caused," she concluded. "I hope people can forgive me."

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters chalked up Carroll's tears to being upset about being caught.

"She spent well over a week plotting how to deceive the community," he said. "The reality is coming home for her. She won't even have a chance to get out of prison until she is in her mid-80s."

A Clermont County jury Feb. 21 found Carroll guilty of murder, involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping, felonious assault and three charges of child endangering.

David Carroll Jr. pleaded guilty in Clermont County to charges of murder and gross abuse of a corpse. He was sent to prison for 16 years to life. As part of the Clermont County plea deal, charges of inducing panic and making false alarms in Hamilton County were dismissed.

Liz Carroll came to the Hamilton County Justice Center from the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, which is northwest of Columbus, on March 23. She'll now be taken back to the prison.

Kentucky authorities have launched their own investigation into Marcus' death.

Maysville police detectives are looking into the possibility of filing charges against Baker.

Mason County Attorney John Estill confirmed Tuesday that one charge being considered is abuse of a corpse - in this instance, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

The Marcus search
36 Uniformed Hamilton County sheriff's deputies
25 Task force officers
16 Anderson Township Fire and Rescue personnel
5 Anderson Township road personnel
3 Hamilton County Engineer's Office personnel
32 Urban Search and Rescue personnel
2,000 Approximate number of volunteers
Hamilton County Sheriff's Office