PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Pontiac mother will spend at least the next six years behind bars after she abandoned three of her children in a squalid apartment without running water or working toilets.
The children lived in extreme neglect, malnourished, with feces everywhere, and were left alone for five years.
Prior to sentencing Kelli Bryant, 35, to a minimum of 6 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison, the judge tried explaining Bryant's carelessness to her.
Judge Mary Ellen Brennan said, "They were surrounded by garbage. They were surrounded by rotten food and human feces. The police report references the girls slept on Little Caesars boxes."
Brennan questioned, “If you were not able and willing to care for them, could not have let somebody else?"
Even though the judge's questions and statements were rhetorical, Bryant often nodded her head up and down as if to agree.
In July, she pleaded no contest to three counts of first-degree child abuse.
Judge Brennan said, "They were surrounded by garbage. They were surrounded by rotten food and human feces. The police report references the girls slept on little caesars boxes."
“If the Department of Corrections housed you the way you housed them, you’d file a lawsuit against them. And you’d win," the judge said.
To that, Bryant also nodded in response. She's already serving time for welfare fraud for the $30,000 she collected for her children. That sentencing was in June.
During this sentencing, she declined to address the court when given the opportunity. However, her defense attorney did and blamed Bryant’s actions on untreated trauma.
Cecilia Quirindongo-Baunsoe, Bryant's attorney said, “The court knows what her life and circumstances look like. It’s no excuse, but it was a significant amount of untreated trauma and I think ultimately les to why we’re here today. I know she has regrets. I know she loves her children. All of them.”
7 News Detroit spoke with Oakland County Prosecutor Karen MacDonald after the sentencing.
She said, “At the end of the day, we've held this mother accountable, this parent accountable but it doesn't take away the abuse and the effects of that, and it doesn't take away that these kids did not have a parent that cared for them. I'm sure there's ever closure on that.”
