A North Carolina mother will spend decades behind bars after admitting to her role in a house fire that killed her three young children.
Brandi Sturdivant, 32, pleaded guilty this week after she was charged with three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of her children, according to local reports.
She was sentenced to between 30 and 36 years in prison, WGHP reported.
The tragedy happened on Dec. 12, 2022, at Sturdivant’s home on Grimsley Street in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Around 8 a.m., the house caught fire while three children — 1-year-old twins and a 4-year-old — were trapped inside. Police said the children were home without an adult at the time.
When investigators later spoke with Sturdivant, she reportedly told them she had been using a stove in the living room to heat the home and believed that may have started the fire.
But prosecutors said neighbors, not Sturdivant, were the ones who called 911 and desperately tried to help.
Responding officers found Sturdivant at the end of the street, crying and falling out of a car, WXII reported.
Inside the home, first responders found the children huddled together. They had suffered severe burns, and autopsies later determined they died from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Authorities said Sturdivant had left the children alone in the home before the deadly fire erupted.
Neighbors reportedly referred to her as “the crazy lady next door,” and investigators said she told them she was going to kill herself.
Prosecutors said Sturdivant had turned the oven on before leaving the home and set it to 500 degrees.
However, investigators later determined the oven was not actually what started the fire. Instead, officials said the blaze began somewhere in the back of the home, though they were unable to identify the exact cause.
A gasoline can was also found on the front stoop of the home, according to reports.
Following her guilty plea, Sturdivant was sentenced to decades in prison, bringing a devastating case that shocked the Greensboro community to a close.
“The crazy woman next door.”
Getting tired of murderers, who are black, always being able to use diminished mental capacity as a legal defense.