A mother from Michigan who admittedly attempted to kill both herself and her autistic daughter is due for sentencing, which could likely be life imprisonment.
Family and friends describe Kelli Stapleton, 46, in conflicting views. Two former in-laws describe Stapleton as manipulative and selfish, while supporters are saying that she was a loving mother only driven to despair.
Stapleton pleaded guilty to first-degree child abuse last month, as part of a deal that avoided a trial on charges of attempted murder.
Stapleton admitted that she drove with her autistic daughter Isabelle to a remote location in Benzie Country in September 2013. Once at the location, Stapleton said that she gave her daughter a sleep-inducing drug then brought in two charcoal-burning grills into the van as an attempted murder-suicide.
However, both mother and daughter survived the ordeal. Isabelle, who has a nickname of Issy and is currently 15 years old, suffered damage to her brain because of the incident, but has greatly recovered from it.
"The person that committed that act is not Kelli," said Stapleton's stepmother Sandy Johnson to Circuit Judge James Batzer.
Johnson added that Stapleton was "broken, desperate" after years of struggling to acquire proper treatment for Issy, while going through several physical assaults from her daughter that have sometimes led to concussions.
However, Eileen Stapleton, Kelli Stapleton's former mother-in-law, said that Kelli was trying to move the blame away from her as she described Issy as "a monster."
Eileen Stapleton said that Kelli Stapleton does not want Issy anymore and that Kelli's actions of going out the vehicle several times over her alleged murder-suicide attempt showed that she was only faking a suicide and only wanted to kill Issy.
"She is smart enough, strong enough and determined enough that if she wanted to kill herself she would be dead," said Eileen Stapleton.
Some think that Stapleton was overwhelmed by the autism of her daughter, which once led to her going unconscious after being beaten by Issy as sister Ainsley, who is two years younger than Issy, watched in horror. Some think that Stapleton did not want to kill herself and only wanted to kill Issy to be free from the responsibilities.
However, Ainsley, in a letter that she wrote to the court, said that she only wants her mother back.
"I know what my mom did isn't forgivable but I understand what she's going through," Ainsley wrote.
