Overview
- A sentencing and competency review took place Wednesday, when Kelli Bryant was sentenced on separate welfare‑fraud counts and the court examined a psychiatric evaluation of her fitness for trial.
- Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan agreed with the court psychiatrist that Bryant is competent to stand trial, meaning she understands the charges and can participate in her defense.
- Bryant received two years of probation, credit for 112 days already served in jail, and was ordered to pay roughly $29,300 in restitution after pleading no contest to three welfare‑fraud counts.
- Authorities say investigators discovered the three children in February 2025 living in severe squalor with garbage, mold and feces in the home and surviving mainly on weekly DoorDash and Instacart deliveries after being left alone since about 2020 or 2021.
- The first‑degree child abuse trial is set for August 24, 2026, and prosecutors plan to move forward while defense lawyers may still raise mental‑health issues at trial and the children remain in protective custody with relatives.