PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 A critical legal hurdle has been cleared here in the Kelli Bryant child abuse case. It’s a case that’s absolutely shaken the Pontiac community.<\/p>\n
Watch Darren Cunningham’s video report: <\/p>\n
Pontiac mother in horrific child abuse case found competent to stand trial<\/p>\n
Bryant faces three counts of child abuse after investigators uncovered a horrific scene in February 2025 at an apartment on Lydia Lane. The children were found living alone in filth and squalor.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, Bryant’s competency hearing took place. Oakland County circuit court judge Mary Ellen Brennan agreed with a psychiatrist\u2019s findings that Bryant is officially competent to stand trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the above, it is my opinion that she is competent to stand trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators say three of her children had been locked inside an apartment for four to five years surviving on food provided to them just once a week. Bryant lived elsewhere.<\/p>\n
RELATED STORY: Neighbor says abandoned Pontiac children would sometimes call out the window<\/p>\n
Neighbor says abandoned Pontiac children would sometimes call out the window<\/p>\n
While the child abuse trial is now officially moving forward, Bryant did receive a sentence Wednesday on separate charges of welfare fraud\u2026 charges stemming from her collecting state benefits for those children while keeping them hidden from the world.<\/p>\n
RELATED STORY: Mom in Pontiac abandonment case pleads no contest on Welfare Fraud charge, still faces child abuse charges<\/p>\n
‘I sacrificed my children.’ Mom in Pontiac child abandonment case bound over for trial<\/p>\n
The judge asked, \u201cMs. Bryant, do you wanna be heard on the sentence? So this is.. we\u2019re just talking about the welfare fraud case. Anything you wanna say before I go through the sentence?”<\/p>\n
Bryant replied, “No, ma\u2019am.”<\/p>\n
Bryant received 112 days for each of the three counts of welfare fraud and two years probation. She’s also been ordered to pay $29,300 in restitution. Because she\u2019s already incarcerated, she was given credit for the time she\u2019s been locked up.<\/p>\n
With the fraud charge addressed and competency established, the focus now shifts entirely to the upcoming criminal trial in late August where prosecutors say they are ready to seek justice for those three children.<\/p>\n
7 News Detroit stopped by the apartment where the children were found and spoke with a neighbor.<\/p>\n
Ron Williams said, \u201cI think she\u2019ll be held accountable for the actions that she took with the kids. I think it\u2019s warranted and just gotta wait and see what happens. So, yeah I think it\u2019s a bad situation for the kids and I hope the kids are doing well now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryant\u2019s trial has been set for August 24th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) \u2014 A critical legal hurdle has been cleared here in the Kelli Bryant child abuse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4551,102774,794,4553,143,145,144,148045],"class_list":["post-364802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-7-action-news","tag-7-news-detroit","tag-detroit","tag-metro-detroit","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-wxyz-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}