Horrific death of toddler leads to 25 years to life for heroin addict

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A judge sentenced a heroin addict to 25 years to life in prison Friday for the killing of a toddler in a murder so horrific an officer testified in tears about finding the boy's body leaning against a hospital wall.

''When a police officer came into this trial to testify about finding Joshua's body, he was crying three years after the child's death,'' prosecutor Elizabeth Henderson said. ''This was the most heinous, brutal child murder I've seen.''

In March, a jury convicted Trent Fouts, 35, of murdering 20-month-old Joshua Massengill while he was caring for the boy in January 1997. Joshua's mother, Jenise, was sharing a motel room with Fouts and left Joshua in his care.

''He just got away with murder,'' a distraught Massengill said outside court. ''We took away his being able to run, that's it, that's all. Other than that, we're giving him free meals and a place to sleep and Josh is gone. Josh is dead.''

Joshua was found propped up against a wall at a convalescent hospital. The boy was scalded and bruised. The skin on his genitals was nearly rubbed off. There were nearly two dozen marks on his head that showed he was struck repeatedly with a long, thin object, such as a broken car antenna.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Weatherspoon handed down the sentence. Jurors did not find true a special circumstance of molestation that would have made Fouts eligible for the death penalty.

Fouts, an admitted heroin addict, testified he had gotten high just before Jenise Massengill left Joshua in his care. He said Joshua's injuries resulted from a series of accidents.