Court rules woman cannot stop her biological children's adoption

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — An appellate court has ruled that a woman convicted in the abuse and death of her adopted daughter and abuse of her adopted son cannot stop the adoption proceedings of five of her biological children.

The Skagit Valley Herald reports that the court on Monday upheld a Skagit County judge's denial of Carri Williams' request to intervene in the adoption proceedings.

Williams previously agreed to give up custody rights after her 2013 convictions of homicide by abuse and first-degree assault of a child involving two Ethiopian children she and her husband adopted. One of those children died of hypothermia and malnutrition in the family's backyard in 2011.

Prosecutors say Williams and her husband abused and neglected the adopted children, feeding them frozen food and wet sandwiches.

Williams and her husband are both serving prison sentences.