Detroit mother in prison for killing kids, storing bodies in freezer finds trouble behind bars

Mitchelle Blair serving 2 life sentences

Mitchelle Blair (WDIV)

DETROIT – Mitchelle Blair is in prison for killing her children and hiding their bodies in a freezer at their Detroit home.

She is serving two life sentences for the crimes, and now even more prison time has been tacked on after she pleaded guilty earlier this month to two counts of assaulting a prison employee. Blair received 38 months to five years in prison for each count, to be served concurrently to each other but consecutively to the life sentences.

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Blair has been behind bars since the gruesome discovery at her home in March 2015. Court officers carrying out an eviction at the family's apartment on Detroit's east side found the children's frozen bodies covered in plastic on March 24, 2015 in a deep freezer.

Blair was charged with two counts each of felony murder, premeditated murder and torture in the deaths of Stoni Ann Blair and Stephen Gage Berry. Investigators believe Stephen was 9 when he died in August 2012 and that Stoni was 13 when she died the following May.

Read back: Detroit kids found in freezer died of blunt trauma, thermal injuries

Blair admitted to the horrific crimes, saying she attacked the children months apart in 2012 and 2013. She said she intended to kill Stoni, but didn't know that the abuse of her son would be fatal. Blair claimed that the children had sexually abused a sibling, though she said she didn't witness the alleged assaults and didn't get police involved because she feared that she would lose her other children.

Watch the report from the day the bodies were found:

Here is video from Blair's arraignment in March 2015:

Courtroom outbursts

During a custody hearing in June 2015, Blair made an emotional outburst before she was forcefully removed from the courtroom.

"Yes, I did kill her," she yelled.

Watch the video here:

She was escorted out of the room briefly before being allowed back in.

The hearing was for a trial to settle her parental rights to her surviving children. A judge later decided there was enough basis to terminate Blair's parental rights to the children, who were ages 8 and 17 at the time.

It was not the first courtroom outburst from Blair. She had to be removed from court in April 2015 after yelling at the father of one of her living children during a parental rights termination hearing.

"You was never there for Gabby and Stoni. But you want to hop on the news and act like you was," Blair said. "He's never given a (expletive) about my daughters. Never. Never. The whole crew here now, but you were never there for them. How many birthdays did you miss?"

Watch here:


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