Life Behind Bars: Detroit 'Freezer Mom' Who Killed 2 Kids Gets No-Parole Sentence
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A Detroit woman who killed two of her four children and pledged she would do it again has been sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole.
Mitchelle Blair appeared in court Friday. She was charged, convicted and sentenced less than four after an eviction crew discovered the children's bodies in a home freezer. They had been stored there for more than a year.
The 36-year-old has said that she would be willing to be sentenced to death, but Michigan doesn't have the death penalty.
"You imposed the death penalty on your own children, and you readily admitted and you want to take responsibility of it," said Judge Dana Hathaway. "You are therefore sentenced to the Michigan Department of Corrections for the rest of your life without the possibility of parole, meaning of course that you will never get out."
Blair said she killed her 13-year-old daughter Stoni Blair and 9-year-old son Stephen Berry because they had abused a younger sibling, though she didn't witness the alleged assaults and never reported anything to police. Prosecutor Carin Goldfarb said there was no evidence of sexual assault.
Blair described how she poured scalding water on the victims, beat them with sticks and put trash bags over their heads.
"So this was your way of inflicting punishment?" Judge Hathaway asked.
"Definitely," replied Blair. "I don't regret none of this. ... I don't feel no remorse for the death of them demons."
The mother underlined that sentiment at her sentencing hearing.
"As horrendous as everybody thinks I am -- that's fine," Blair told Hathaway.
Hathaway said the primary responsibility of a mother is to protect her children and Blair failed in the "worst possible way."
Friends and neighbors said they didn't know there was trouble in the home and rarely saw Blair's four children.
The bodies were discovered in March when a court officer attempted to serve an eviction notice at the Martin Luther King Apartments, in the 800 block of St. Aubin Street on the city's east side. A bailiff saw the girl's body inside a stand-alone freezer and called 911. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the boy's body.
Police believe the children died months apart in 2012 and 2013. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Stephen died of multiple blunt trauma and thermal injuries, while Stoni died of blunt trauma to the head.
Meantime, the state has terminated Blair's parental rights to her surviving two children, ages 17 and 8. Both have since been placed with an aunt.
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