Judge Rules Parental Rights To Be Terminated For Mom Who Killed 2 Other Children, Stored Bodies In Freezer
DETROIT (CBS DETROIT) - A day after she pleaded guilty to killing two of her children, a judge has ruled a Detroit mom's parental rights to her remaining two children will be terminated.
Mitchelle Blair admitted she killed two of her four children and placed the bodies in a home freezer a few years ago before an eviction crew discovered them.
A guilty plea was entered Monday by Blair before Judge Dana Hathaway in Wayne County Circuit Court.
She pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree murder, claiming the kids were sexually assaulting a younger sibling.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Edward Joseph Tuesday finding there is a statutory basis to terminate the parental rights of all three parents; Mitchelle Blair and the fathers of her two surviving children -- the decision came after hearing closing arguments in the custody case.
State attorneys painted a picture of distance and culpability toward Alexander Dorsey and Stephen Berry -fathers of the surviving children - saying their lack of involvement made them just as responsible for the deaths of the siblings.
The attorneys for Berry and Dorsey said the fathers were not to blame for Blair's abuse of the children.
At one point Blair erupted and asked to be removed from the court:
"Take me out now -- my son, he wasn't going to tell, because he was happy that I killed them - they were his rapists ...," said Blair.
"You wake up every morning after 2012 and you have a sibling in the freezer and then another sibling - while these two men are waking up in their own homes without a care in the world. Oh, I'm sorry, they couldn't get a job. These children are waking up with two dead siblings in their home because these men did not care enough - to find out - to get involved in their children's lives," said Assistant Attorney General Kelli Megyesi.
A final determination will be made after a best interest hearing in the case - set for July 27.
The bodies of Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry 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 body of girl, believed to be 13-years-old when she died, inside a stand-alone freezer and called 911. When officers arrived on the scene, they found another body in the freezer, a boy believed to be nine at the time of his death.
Police believe they died months apart in 2012 and 2013.
Blair will be sentenced on July 17 in connection with the murder of her children – she faces life in prison without parole.
