Casefile True Crime - Case 20: Stoni Blair & Stephen Berry

Episode Date: May 22, 2016

The details of this case are extremely difficult to hear. Extreme child abuse and child murder are involved. This episode won't be for everybody. There is far more courtroom audio than narration. It is a one-off for this episode. It is not something that will be a regular feature in the future. The courtroom confession is detailed and horrific. Listener discretion is advised. For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-20-stoni-blair-and-stephen-berry

The details of this case are very difficult to hear. Extreme child abuse and child murder are involved. This one won't be for everybody. There are far more audio clips than narration in this episode. It is a one-off and won't be a regular thing in the future. The courtroom confession is detailed and horrific. Listener discretion is advised. Calling case number 1556881, the people of the state of Michigan versus Michelle, Angela

Blair. Ms. Blair is charged in this case, count one, child abuse, first degree. Felony, life or any term of years. Count two, child abuse, first degree. Felony, life or any term of years. Count three, child abuse, first degree. Felony, life or any term of years. Count four, child abuse, first degree.

Life or any term of years. Count five, child abuse, first degree, committed in the presence of another child. Felony, life or any term of years. Can I get your name please? Sure. Thank you. This story takes place in Detroit, Michigan, at Martin Luther King Homes,

a low-income public housing complex containing 312 units, located on St. Auburn Street. At 11.30am on Tuesday the 24th of March 2015, an eviction crew from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office attended unit 804 in the Martin Luther King complex. The bailiffs were there to evict the tenant, Michelle Blair, who lived there with her four children.

Her two daughters aged 17 and 13, and her two sons aged 9 and 8. Michelle was described as a nice, friendly person. Her kids were described as polite and respectful. Sometime around 2012, Michelle had pulled all four of her kids out of school, opting to homeschool them instead. It was around 2014 when neighbors started to notice

that they hadn't seen Michelle's 13-year-old daughter, Stony Blair, or her 9-year-old son, Stephen Berry, for a while. Michelle explained that they had been spending a lot of time with an auntie, and that when they were back at home, they didn't really like going out and being around people. They preferred to stay inside. Michelle had been living at a unit for the last 10 years. She was unemployed, receiving a government benefit.

She had money issues, and she hadn't paid her rent. That's why she was being evicted. She owed $2,206. Michelle knew she was getting evicted. She had been served the notice and had seen the dumpsters delivered out the front, where the eviction crew planned to throw all of the stuff. Michelle didn't really want to be there

when the eviction crew arrived, so she arranged to stay with a friend, who also lived in the same housing complex. She took her eldest daughter and her youngest son with her to her friend's house, explaining that her other two children were with their aunt. The eviction crew arrived and knocked on Michelle's door. They got no answer. So they forced entry and started the eviction process.

They were met with a disgraceful mess of a unit, with rubbish and food scraps all over the floor, items of clothing and other junk thrown around everywhere. The conditions were described as barely liveable. The eviction crew got to work clearing out the furniture of the house, and they came across a chest freezer. They opened it up to see what was inside. 1130,

7th precinct, received a call, officer of the same reception, called Mabela, who was in this complex amount of cleaning homes, conducting an eviction. And it was during that eviction process that they discovered two young children

in a freezer. Further investigation revealed that it appeared to be to a male, who we're saying is approximately 11 years old, and a female 14 years old inside of a plastic bag, appeared to be frozen. The eviction crew opened the chest freezer and located the frozen body

of Mitchell's 13-year-old daughter, Stony Blair. That's when they called 911. It wasn't until shortly after that they realised there was a second body underneath, Mitchell's 9-year-old son, Stephen Berry. Mitchell Blair was also known by her nickname, Angel, described as a nice, friendly person by her neighbours. Her Facebook profile read,

Loyal to My Babies, and there is no greater blessing than being called a mum. Mitchell Blair had some serious questions to answer, and it didn't take long for police to catch up with her. We were fortunate yesterday that a member of our community stopped our investigators

and led us to the location where we found and arrested the mother of the two children found dead in her apartment. Our homicide team continues to work diligently to bring some closure to both family and their friends. The medical examiner will be performing autopsies in the next day

and at that time, we will know the cause of death of these two children. As you can imagine, this is a very complex case. While we all understand your desire and the desire to know more about what happened in the home, I will ask you to be mindful of the two children who are also in the home that are still alive.

Her two surviving children were taken into protective custody while police got to work trying to find out what happened. A background check showed that between the years 2002 and 2005, Mitchell Blair had been investigated on two separate occasions for allegations of child abuse. The abuse claims were substantiated.

Her punishment was counselling. She was allowed to keep custody of her children. As part of the investigation, Mitchell's surviving children were interviewed. What they detailed was a real-life house of horrors. Both of them were physically beaten by Mitchell. They were regularly whipped with an extension cord and hit with a piece of wood.

Both had also been burnt with an iron. At the time they were taken by child services, both kids had numerous scars and injuries. Her son had 25 different scars on his back alone. There was clear medical evidence to back up their story that they were the victims of prolonged physical abuse from their mother. Mitchell was initially only charged with child abuse.

This was because the police had to wait for the results of the autopsy to determine exactly how the children died. And the autopsy was delayed as they had to allow the bodies to thaw out before it could be conducted. Mitchell was arraigned two days later, Thursday, the 26th of March. She was charged with four counts of first-degree child abuse,

which is punishable by 15 years in prison. She was also charged with one count of committing child abuse in the first degree in the presence of another child. That carries a life sentence. Her bond was set at $1 million. Within a week, the autopsies had been completed. The conclusion? There was no doubt. Stony Blair and Stephen Berry had been murdered.

Mitchell's charges were upgraded to two counts of felony murder, two counts of premeditated murder, and one count of torture. Stephen Berry was killed around the 30th of August, 2012. Stony Blair was killed about nine months later, in May, 2013. Both had been left in the freezer

until the eviction crew found them in March, 2015. How didn't anybody notice Stony and Stephen missing? Well, some neighbours did notice that they hadn't seen them for a while, but when they asked the question, they believed Mitchell's story, that they spent a lot of time with an aunt, and when they were home, they didn't like to go outside. No alarm bells were raised at school

because they didn't go there in the first place. Their fathers hadn't seen them for several years, so they didn't notice either. Sadly, Stony and Stephen were able to go missing for two years, and nobody did anything other than ask a passing question as to where they were. Nobody asked any real questions or looked closely at all. They took an eviction crew to find them in the freezer

before anybody realised they were really gone. And the whole time the kids were in the freezer, Mitchell continued to accept government benefits for them. Mitchell was subjected to numerous evaluations by doctors and psychiatrists to make sure she was competent to stand trial and that she could be held criminally responsible for her actions. But Mitchell didn't want to wait for those reports.

She just wanted to plead guilty. She tried numerous times to plead guilty and have them finalised, but the court wouldn't allow it straight away. The court needed to make sure everything was done properly. They had possible future appeals in mind. They wouldn't accept the plea until all doctors' evaluations were officially announced.

All doctors' evaluations were officially on record. My understanding to get a trial is to get to the truth, right? I'm already saying that I did it. I'm freely giving myself and accepting life in prison. If I'm already giving myself to you like, hey, I did this, what's the problem? And I'm not going to come back like, oh, I didn't understand my rights and I'm not a coward.

You know what I'm saying? I don't have that second report from Dr. Shiner yet, okay? The forensics one is not good enough? No, that's why we requested an independent too, okay? Now, my understanding is that his evaluation is complete, but we just don't have it yet. These are some very serious charges and very... I understand all of them.

Give me an opportunity now. I profess three times. I understand. These are very serious charges with very serious consequences. If you were to plead guilty to a first-degree murder charge, that is life in prison without the possibility of parole. I know this. I'm happily saying life in prison,

if you had a death penalty, I would take that. I don't care. That's my baby, period. I'm not going to change my mind. I'm not changing anything. I don't need the week to think about it. When all doctors' reports were eventually placed onto the record, the court made a ruling that Mitchell was competent to stand trial,

and she could be held criminally responsible for her actions. As such, if she now wanted to plead guilty, the court would accept it. Mitchell wasn't insane. She knew exactly what she was doing and understood the consequences of her actions. Mitchell played guilty straight away. During her guilty plea, she described the how and why of what she did. Just a warning, the following clip is very graphic in detail

that may not be suitable for all listeners. All right, Mr. Blair, we're here today because you've indicated that you want to plead guilty to two of the counts that are identified in the information since much of today's proceeding will be a dialogue between me and you. The first thing I'm going to do is swear you in. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give today

will be the truth? Yes. Thank you. What is your name, ma'am? Mitchell Blair. Ms. Blair, how old are you? 36. Are you a United States citizen?

Yes. Okay. Now, the information I have before me is that you want to plead guilty to count two, the premeditated murder of Stony Blair. Yes. And count three, the felony murder of Stephen Berry. Yes.

Am I correct that you want to plead guilty to those counts? Yes. 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. I understand. Do you understand Michigan does not have a death penalty?

I do now. Okay. Ms. Blair, what did you do to Stony Blair that makes you guilty of premeditated murder? She raped my son. I intentionally killed her. How did you do that? Starting from the beginning,

when I found out about what Stony was doing to Matthew, it was nine months later after finding out about Stephen. So for the whole nine months, we were in the house. She was still raping my child. I did not know that. When I first found out after Matthew told me, I took a minute because I was not understanding, you know, that she did that to him.

But I repeatedly punched her on many occasions. My son, I told him to tell me every single thing she did to him. So as she was telling me, he was telling me more and more things that she did. I assaulted her every time he told me what she did to him. By assault, I mean, I punched her. I have put a bag over her head until she lost consciousness. I threw hot water on her,

scolding hot water from the faucet. Did you hit her in the head with a lipstick? Yes, I hit her in her head multiple times, over and over. Was that shortly before she died? That was actually the day before she died and the day she died. Okay. I hit on her back, like with her tailbone. I kicked her.

Okay, I just want to clarify a few things. And perhaps you don't know, but did this happen? Honor about May 25th, 2014? May 25th is actually the day she died. Well, the day I killed her. And you said you killed her by putting a grocery bag over her head? Yes. That day, Maddie would tell me different things

because she was doing this to him for years. And I did not know that. He gave what I'm saying and I didn't find out. 29 months later, she had started with Steven. She ruined my son. Okay. She started with Steven before he even started. So, yes, I put a bag over her head, but it got worse that day.

Yes, I did. It got worse that day because Matthew would tell me how she would take her pad, her menstrual pad and squeeze her blood out in his mouth. Okay. And it was just, it was over with after that. It was over with. You meant to kill her? I definitely meant to kill her.

Okay. It wasn't an accident? No, not at all. If I had a chance to do it again, I would. When you went and got the grocery bag and suffocated her, that was your intention? Yes. She was standing in the bathtub.

I was throwing hot water on her. My son was standing to my right outside the bathroom door and he was telling me, everything he was telling me, I looked at her and I'm like, you did this? And she was like, yes. So I actually had a stick and I was hitting her in the head. Every time he told me something, I hit her very hard in her head and I was throwing hot water on her.

And when I actually took her out of the bathroom, I took her back in her room and I just kept staring at her and I said, she's my language, but I'm like, what the fuck would you do this to him? Just like, you know, I'm constantly asking her, she kept saying, I hate him. I'm like, you hate him? You know? And she admitted to me that she hated Gabrielle. She hated Stephen.

She hated everybody. And I'm asking her why. She says, everybody always thinks Matthew's so cute. And I'm like, so you're like your brother because you get what I'm saying. So it's, I meant to. I definitely meant to. And I do not feel any remorse for what I did to Stony. Because she had no remorse for what she did to my son.

It's not only raped him, she gang raped him with Stephen. Matthew Ross sitting on the floor and he was telling me this how I found out about both of them doing it together. It was too late. Stephen was gone. But Matthew told me that Stony would actually make him sit there. Why? In his words, him and Stony, her and Stony did the nasty stuff.

And then they did it to him. And now that's your way of inflicting punishment. Definitely. Okay. Okay. Where did that happen? What? Where did it?

The death. Her actual death? Yes. Um, I- Not the location of the house. Where did you live at the time? Oh, 8-0-4-10 on the street. Is that in the city of Detroit?

Yes. You got her? Go ahead. Can you read it? Yes. Um, I swear if she ever actually saw or witnessed any of these acts with regard to Stony or Stony. Okay.

Yeah. Did it- did you ever actually see anything of any sexual abuse of any kind between either Stephen and Stony and Matthew? I reject her question, but I will answer it because no one will say that this did not happen because it actually did. I just want to have a clear record. Because so far all you've told me was that you just heard it. Did you ever actually-

And that they admitted it. No, I did not. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. No, I understand. But as I went back in my head and thought back to all the many things that was wrong with Matthew over the years, and I'm like, that's what was wrong with you. He'll use the bathroom and say, mama, but it hurts my poop.

Oh, Matthew. So I started giving him 100% juice to make his stool softer, maybe to help me. But that wasn't the problem. It wasn't his stool. It was that he was being raped. Okay. My son looked me in my eyes and he gave me a very detailed account of everything they did.

Matthew is not a violent boy. He is a very sweet little boy. So for him to stand there and look at me and say, do it again, he was hurting. You know? Okay. At a certain point, I told him to stop talking. I said, Sony, you tell me what the fuck you did to my son. And I said, Matthew, if she's saying things that's not right, tell me.

She started telling me many things, many things. And I also asked her, so why didn't Stephen tell me that when I asked him, did anybody do this to him? Why didn't he tell me that you did it to him? Because Sony was going upstairs beating Stephen's ass, threatening him. Basically, at a certain point, after I was hitting Stephen, I didn't want to look at him. I didn't want to, I didn't want to look at him.

So I told him to go to his room. When it came time to eat, I didn't want to take no food up. So I sent Sony up because she volunteered, not knowing at that time that Sony was raping either of them. But every time she went upstairs, I wouldn't have known if she hit him or not because I had put the Benny Bruises on him. So every time she went upstairs, she admitted to me that she was hitting him also, knocking the hell out of him, telling him, you better not tell her nothing.

Okay. Forget what I'm saying. I understand. When she admitted these things to you, were you always being physical with her? The first time, no, we were sitting there. Okay. She denied it, denied it, denied it constantly. I'm like, Sony, you better tell me if I can prove Matthew's sitting here.

He don't know nothing about it. He constantly took, you get what I'm saying. Who would admit that? Who would admit that if they did not do it? Okay. All right. Tell me what happened to Steven. Basically the same thing.

Can I ask you a question first? The people standing behind me, this woman who just asked the question, is she trying to make it seem like this did not happen? No, no, no. We just have to have a clear record. Okay. This is your time to talk. Go ahead.

You're always trying to do it. Just make sure you don't do that kind of stuff. Okay. And so don't worry. The woman behind you, just do it. She actually did it. I mean, right now, man, this is just you choosing to plead guilty. The people did not have any sort of plea agreement.

Yeah, because you know, it's like, I'm willing to take a polygraph test. It's like, because I understand people don't want to hear me, period, but I'm going to take it on everything. I'm listening to you. Tell me what happened to Steven. I came home one day. My daughter Gabrielle, my oldest, met me at the door and she's like, mom, come see what Maddie's doing with his dials.

And I'm like, what is he doing? He was making one dial, his little wrestleman, hump on top of the other. No, I'm like, Maddie, why was you doing that? I said, anybody ever do this to you? He said, no. I said, then why are you doing that? And he said, yes, Steven did. And I was like, so this is the first I'm hearing about that period.

This was nine months before Stony. Okay. Stony wasn't downstairs. And she was always in the background. I wish to God I had questioned everybody together, but I didn't. Did you say this was around August 30th, 2012? No, this was before August 30th. August 30th is when he died.

Okay. This was maybe a week, a week and a half. Before he died. Yes. Okay. So that, Matthew telling you that set off some action? Yes. I went upstairs because Steven was upstairs in his and Matthew's room.

And I went upstairs and I said, Steven. Matthew said you was humping on him. And then Steven stood up and he looked at me and right then I could tell. I could tell something was wrong in his face because he was just like this. Ain't no more kid. I know my kid would have been like, what? That's not what he did. He stood up and looked at me like he had lost his mind.

Okay. And it just hearing that from him had me fucked up in my head period. But I asked him, I said, Steven, tell me the fucking truth. What are you humping on Matthew? He said, yes, but that was all. And I said, did you hump on him with your underwear off? He said, no, Matthew yelled out, yes, he did. And I just remember going in the hallway, walking back and forth like, and I walked

back up and I was like, you fucked your brother. You fucked your brother. So I'm looking at them too. I'm looking at them like, what? I can't understand. So I started punching Steven. You know, I'm like, what the fuck are you doing to him? I just, I just started asking him questions.

Matthew at this point is just spilling out. He's just spilling out. And mom, and he's doing like this and he's doing this thing almost every night. He's telling me how he was. The reason I put bags over Steven's head is because if we had many, I thought many peed in the bed. My son was never a bad winner. Didn't know it was Steven waking up every morning, pissing on Matthew.

Like he was a damn piece of shit. Okay. They had bunk beds. Steven would get out the bed in the middle of the night. You would rape him in his own bed. You would pee on him instead of going to the bathroom. I'm waking up every morning thinking Matthew was a bad winner. So we just washed him up and going, you were a bad winner.

Let's talk about what you did to Steven. The reason I put bags over Steven's head, because my son told me that the plastic on his bed, because I thought he was a bad winner. He said, sometimes mom, I couldn't breathe. Steven was laying on me and he had my face down in the plastic on the bed. I couldn't breathe and he was humping on my butt like a basketball. That's when I got Garbage Bag and started putting it over Steven's head. And I started asking him, bitch, you know what I'm saying?

You see, this feel like you can't breathe. Stop it. That's my son. You could not breathe on top of getting ready. He was six years old at the time. You get what I'm saying? So I put a bag over his head. He lost consciousness.

I did that a couple of times. He told me that Mattie would be face down. He had stuff around his neck. So I grabbed Steven. I grabbed a belt and I put a belt around his neck and I lifted him up. Like, do you like how this feels? Me and choked with a belt. So I dropped him.

I held him up until he lost consciousness as well. You were intending to... No, I did not intend to kill Steven. No, no, no. I'm not... Listen to my question. You were intending to inflict serious physical harm but not killing him. Definitely.

Okay. Did you also punch him? Yes, I did. Most of the time? Yes, I did. You talked about choking him. Did you also burn him? Yes, I did.

Okay, how did you do that? Hot water. Cold and hot water. Okay, again, you knew you were seriously harming him but you didn't intend to murder him. No. Okay. But your actions ultimately caused this down? Yes, they did.

Were you Steven's mother? Yes. He was in your custody? I don't claim him as my son now and I do not claim Stony as my daughter. I have two children. That's it. Steven and Stony are demons. Period.

Listen to my question. At the time he died, he was in your custody or care? Yes. How old was he? Steven was nine. And again, did this happen in your house in the city of Detroit? Yes. What you did to Steven was punishment for what you did to Maddie.

Is that right? For what he did to Maddie. Oh, you're sorry? For what Steven did to you? Yes. That was punishment. And if I had killed Steven, intentionally I definitely would be proud to say I did. You weren't allowing them to treat your other children like that's for you?

What do you mean? You weren't allowing them to sexually assault. No, I wasn't allowing that. I did. I never knew. Did you hear what I'm saying? That's exactly what I wanted to know. You didn't know until afterwards.

So, man, I don't regret. None of this. I don't regret any of it. Matthew was my son. That's my baby. It's no way that his brother and sister should know what he feels like inside. It's no way. Understood.

I don't feel no remorse for the death of them demons. Okay. All right. I'm going to accept the plea unless either counsel is satisfied with the testimony that was just provided by Ms. Blair. I believe there was a sufficient actual basis to accept the plea at this point. Her claims that both Stoney and Steven were sexually assaulting her youngest son were never substantiated.

The reason she says she reacted so violently was that she herself was sexually assaulted when she was younger. She reported the assault to her mom and her mom failed to do anything about it. Her mother's failure to protect her affected her for the rest of her life. It led her to tell her own kids that if anybody ever touched them to tell her about it straight away so she could do something. When the youngest son reported to her that he was assaulted by Stoney and Steven, she reacted.

Alexander Dorsey was the father of Stoney Blair and the surviving 17-year-old girl. He hadn't seen either of his children for two years prior. He says that Mitchell barred him from the home. He had a prior criminal history and he actually owed $39,000 in child support. It was deemed that he failed to protect the children from an unfit home environment where the children were physically abused, tortured and murdered. It was not only our custody of his surviving daughter. Stephen Berry Sr. was the father of Stephen Berry and to the surviving 8-year-old boy.

He last saw his children three years prior. He also says that Mitchell prevented him from seeing them. He owed $10,000 in child support payments. He also had a criminal record and it was also deemed that he neglected to protect his children from an abusive environment. He was not awarded custody either. Both surviving children lived in absolute terror and will need extensive trauma therapy and counselling.

The 8-year-old boy was displaying problems with his neurological development due to the horror he experienced every day. Although Alexander Dorsey was not awarded custody, unlike Stephen Berry Sr. he actually retained his parental right and the judge did this for good reason. If he removed Dorsey's parental right then his daughter would only qualify for services until she was 19 years old. But by keeping Dorsey's parental right intact, she qualifies for services until she is 20. By services they are talking about helping her go to college, classes to teach her to

live independently and obviously therapy. The court ruled it would be in her best interest to qualify for these services for an extra year. She mentioned that she wanted to go to college and become a veterinarian. The judge said it would be totally up to her what sort of relationship, if any, she wanted to have with Dorsey. Michelle Blair's parental rights to her two surviving children were terminated. She was sentenced on the 17th of July 2015. Despite what happened to you when you were a child, you had the opportunity to grow up.

True. You had the opportunity to become an adult. You had the opportunity to make your own decisions with respect to running your own life. And you were blessed with four children. Stormy and Stephen aren't ever going to have that. They don't have those same opportunities. And when I think about all of the possible joys that they could be missing out on, one thing that strikes me as the greatest tragedy here is that they will never know what a life is like

without experiencing, fearing their mother. They will never know the joy of what could have been in their life without having you in it. They lived in terrible fear of you. And I find that just so sad in this case. After all of a sudden done, you imposed the death penalty on your own children. I did. And you readily admit it, and you want to take responsibility of it. You're therefore sentenced to the Michigan Department of Corrections for the rest of your life without possibility of parole,

meaning of course that you will never get out.