A woman who left her three children to live alone for years in a “squalid” Michigan apartment, where prosecutors said they had no access to running water or working toilets, has been sentenced to prison.
Kelli Bryant, 35, of Pontiac, who pleaded no contest in July to first-degree child abuse, “effectively abandoned” the children, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.
A judge sentenced Bryant to six to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, September 1, in connection with the neglect, the prosecutor’s office said in a news release.
“You failed them,” Judge Mary Ellen Brennan told Bryant at her sentencing hearing, referring to her children, CBS News reported. “You failed them hour after hour, month after month and year after year.”
Oakland County deputies found the children alone in the apartment while carrying out a welfare check in February 2025, according to prosecutors.
They discovered a 12-year-old girl, a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy had been living with mold, trash and a toilet that was overflowing, per CBS News.
All three children hadn’t been to school or gone outside, prosecutors said.
An investigation revealed the children had been left alone in the apartment since 2020, CBS News reported.
“The defendant instructed the kids that they were not to answer the door or leave the house,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said. “All three children expressed fear about what their mother’s response would be if they left the home. The defendant concealed the children from family and friends and lied about who was caring for the kids and their whereabouts.”
Bryant would occasionally leave food outside the door of the residence, according to prosecutors.
Bryant’s defense attorney, Cecelia Quirindongo Baunsoe, contended “multiple failures” resulted in what the children endured and said Bryant “takes responsibility, she knows she did wrong,” The Detroit News reported.
In a sentencing memorandum viewed by the newspaper, Quirindongo Baunsoe wrote that Bryant had been sexually assaulted outside the residence where she abandoned her children.
“Her trauma history and untreated mental illness directly contributed to her inability to safely care for her children,” Quirindongo Baunsoe also wrote in the filing.
After the children were discovered in the apartment, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard described the residence as a “biohazard,” with evidence technicians having worn hazmat suits and gas masks while inside, the newspaper reported.
“This sentence holds Kelli Bryant accountable for the horrific neglect of three children,” McDonald said in a statement. “Her plea spared the children from testifying at trial and ensures she remains incarcerated until they are all adults.”
In December, Bryant separately pleaded no contest in connection with welfare fraud charges in relation to her children’s benefits, according to the newspaper. She was sentenced to two years probation in that case.
Bryant lost her parental rights in April, according to prosecutors.
