Posted at 2:30 PM, December 1, 2025
PONTIAC, Mich. (Scripps News Detroit) — A Pontiac mother accused of abandoning her three children for years pleaded no contest to Welfare Fraud on Monday, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor.
Kelli Bryant appears in court at a preliminary hearing on May 16, 2025. (Scripps News Detroit)
Kelli Bryant, 34, faces three counts of First Degree Child Abuse, with the case moving forward. She still faces trial in the abuse cases, with no sentencing agreement or offer of leniency from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office reached.
On Feb. 14, Oakland County sheriff’s detectives were horrified to find three children, ages 12, 13 and 15, living in squalor and abandoned in a Pontiac home for four to five years.
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“I’d never smelt a home that smelled that bad without a decomposing body present,” a detective said this past winter.
If convicted, Bryant faces life in prison, with another court appearance scheduled for next month.
“The resolution of the Welfare Fraud charges in no way impacts the case against Kelli Bryant on the more serious allegations of Child Abuse,” said Prosecutor Karen McDonald via press release. “We fully intend to hold her accountable for the abuse these children suffered because of her alleged neglect.”
This story was originally written by Kellen Voss for Scripps News Detroit, an E.W. Scripps Company
