GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — One day after being charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of her young children, a Greensboro mother appeared in court.
Brandi Sturdivant, who was initially arrested for three counts of child abuse in January 2023, was charged with second-degree murder on Monday, in connection to the deaths of three of her children, twin 1-year-olds and a 4-year-old, in December of 2022.
Tuesday marked her first appearance in court on these new charges.
She requested a public defender in the case. The state requested a bond of $2 million in the case of the murders. She was already being held on a $170,000 bond that she could not afford to pay.
The judge gave her a bond of $1 million and set her next court date for May 23, 2024.
One of the lead detectives on the case since said police met with the district attorney and presented the facts of this case at the end of last week. After that, police decided to move forward with the three second-degree murder charges on top of the three child abuse charges Sturdivant was already facing.
When asked why it took more than a year to make this decision, the detective said they didn’t want to rush and wanted to make sure they looked at every piece of evidence.
The detective said they do not expect to bring any more charges against Sturdivant in this case.
Background
On Dec. 12, 2022, the home Sturdivant was renting on Grimsley Street in Greensboro caught on fire just before 8 a.m. Neighbors reported to investigators that they hadn’t seen her car in the driveway that morning until she appeared just before 8 a.m. asking for help.
Fire officials quickly responded, finding the three toddlers dead inside the home.
According to Sturdivant, she didn’t use the baseboard heating in the house and instead used the oven to heat the home. She initially claimed she had been home, but corroborating reports from neighbors and school officials confirmed she had dropped off her elementary-aged child at school that morning, leaving the toddlers at home alone.
Sturdivant was charged with three counts of child abuse just over a month later.
As the investigation continued, more details came to light. One of the children was found with cocaine in his system, and there had been multiple complaints to DSS about Sturdivant being negligent with her children. The children had been removed from the home once due to an infant boy being found filthy and covered in feces but were returned just over a week later.
DSS faced scrutiny over the handling of Sturdivant’s case as well, being forced to submit a corrective action plan to the state and change how they handle cases.