Detroit mother pleads guilty to killing children found in freezer

By Serena Maria Daniels

DETROIT (Reuters) - An unrepentant Detroit woman pleaded guilty on Monday to killing her two children, who were found in a freezer in March by a crew carrying out an eviction order at her apartment.

Mitchelle Blair, 36, who told a judge on June 19 that she had confessed three times to killing her daughter, Stoni Blair, 13, and son, Stephen Berry, 9, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Blair told Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway the two had sexually assaulted and abused her surviving son. Blair said she did not see any of the abuse take place.

Blair had waived her right to a competency hearing and preliminary examination earlier in June and said she wanted to plead guilty to protect her surviving son.

"I don't feel no remorse for the death of those demons," Blair told Hathaway. "If I had a chance to do it again, I would."

She was accused of killing Stephen in 2012 and Stoni the following year. An autopsy found that both died from multiple blunt trauma and Berry also had burns. A surviving daughter and son are living with a relative.

Blair said her surviving son had told her Stephen was abusing him. In August 2012 she had put a plastic bag over Stephen's head, scalded him with hot water, punched him and had suspended him by his neck with a belt, but did not mean to kill him, she said.

Blair said she repeatedly punched Stoni after her younger son told her the teen had been sexually assaulting him. Blair said she suffocated her with a plastic bag, poured scalding hot water on her and struck her head repeatedly.

Blair was charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, torture, child abuse, and committing child abuse first degree in the presence of another child. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Hathaway set formal sentencing in the case for July 17.

(Reporting by Serena Maria Daniels; Editing by Bill Trott)