Courtroom footage of Kelli Bryant at her sentencing hearing (WJBK).
A Michigan woman who pleaded no contest to leaving her three children by themselves in a filthy condominium has been sentenced to prison.
Kelli Bryant, 35, was sentenced to six to 30 years in prison on Tuesday after she pleaded no contest to three counts of child abuse in July. Bryant's three children, ages 15, 13, and 12, were found by Oakland County Sheriff's deputies in February 2025 during a welfare check. The home in Pontiac, Michigan, was overrun with filth, and the children told police that they had been on their own since 2020 or 2021.
Police said Bryant had essentially abandoned her children so she could live a child-free lifestyle.
According to police, the kids spent their days watching television and playing video games. Bryant and a "stranger" would drop off food. The living conditions were so bad that garbage was stacked as high as 4 feet, feces were throughout the home and filled the bathtub, the toilet was overflowing, and mold was everywhere. The son slept on a mattress on the floor while the two daughters slept on pizza boxes.
The children were also unaware of how to take care of themselves and had trouble walking because their toenails were so long.
Oakland County Sheriff's Det. John Brish testified in court during a preliminary hearing that when he interviewed Bryant, she showed up well-groomed and dressed, with her nails and hair done. She reportedly admitted to Brish, "I hurt my children. I sacrificed my children, probably."
Bryant entered her plea on July 16. She was also sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to welfare fraud. Bryant accepted public assistance payments intended to support her children during the years she let them fend for themselves. Her parental rights were terminated in April. All three children were placed in the custody of relatives.
During Tuesday's sentencing hearing, which was covered by Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK, Oakland County Sixth Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan told Bryant, "The toilet was not working and overflowing. Human feces in the bathtub, so [the children] couldn't have access to that. If the Department of Corrections housed you the way you housed them, you'd file a lawsuit against them. And you'd win."
Brennan later told Bryant, "During this time, your needs were met. Not perfectly, but you moved about in the world. You used toilets that flush. You had human contact. You had your physical needs met. And you were not sleeping on pizza boxes, surrounded by filth."
Bryant's sentence, with its minimum of six years behind bars, ensures that by the time she is eligible for parole, all of her children will be adults.
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