DETROIT — A Detroit mother pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the deaths of her two children whose bodies were discovered in the deep freezer at the family's home in March and said she doesn't "regret any of it."
Mitchelle Blair, 36, spoke about horrendous abuse Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry endured before their deaths.
She repeatedly punched Stoni, put a bag over her head until she lost consciousness, threw scolding hot water on her, hit her on the head "over and over," and kicked her.
She said she meant to kill her, adding "and I do not feel any remorse for what I did to Stoni."
"If I had a chance to do it again, I would," Blair said during the hearing in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.
Blair did not mean to kill Stephen, but she was intending to inflict serious bodily harm, she said.
Blair admitted in Wayne County Circuit Court on Monday that she kicked him, punched him, made him drink window cleaner, burned him with hot water including his genital region, lifted him with a belt around his neck, put a bag over his head.
"His skin came off," she said of the injuries caused from burning him.
She said she doesn't claim Stephen as her son or Stoni as her daughter. Blair maintains she was protecting her youngest son from abuse by the siblings, but officials said they have no evidence to substantiate Blair's allegations.
"I have two children," Blair said. "That's it. Stephen and Stoni are demons, period."
Blair, who faced charges of felony murder, first-degree premeditated murder, torture and first-degree child abuse, pleaded guilty to two charges Monday before Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway.
Stephen Berry, left, and his sister Stoni Blair will be buried side by side. (Photo: Handout)
She pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder in the death of Stoni and one count of felony murder in the death of Stephen and will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole when she is sentenced July 17.
"You understand that if I accept a guilty plea, you'll be subject to a mandatory sentence of life in the Michigan Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole for both cases," Hathaway asked.
"I understand," she replied, adding it's her choice to enter the plea.
Her attorney, Wyatt Harris, said he discussed the plea with Blair at least three times.
"She was in a difficult situation," he said after the hearing.
The bodies of Stoni and Stephen were discovered in a white freezer kept in the family's living room at the Martin Luther King Apartments by a crew carrying out an eviction notice on March 24.
Blair's other two children, an 8-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, are in the care of a relative.
Blair is accused of killing Stephen in 2012 when he was 9, and Stoni in 2013 when she was 13.
Stephen died from multiple blunt trauma and thermal injuries and Stoni died of blunt trauma to the head, according to the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.
Blair said she never starved Stephen but admitted to starving Stoni.
"Oatmeal is all that girl got and she's lucky she got that once a day," Blair said. "She's very lucky she got that."
Blair said she doesn't regret any of her actions.
"I don't feel no remorse for the death of them demons," she said.
Blair, who said she would take a polygraph test, was found competent to stand trial by the state forensic center as well as in an independent psychiatric examination.
She said she was going to turn herself into police after Stephen's death, but her other son told her "I don't want you to go."
At that point, she put Stephen's body in the freezer and decided she was going to stay with her children as long as possible.
Officials said Blair severely abused all four of her children.
In a separate child protective proceeding, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is seeking to terminate her parental rights as well as the parental rights of their fathers, Steven Berry and Alexander Dorsey, both of whom are fighting to keep their rights.
Closing arguments are scheduled to take place in that case Tuesday.
