Background: The Greensboro, N.C., home where the fatal fire occurred (WXII/YouTube). Inset: Brandi Sturdivant (WXII/YouTube).
A North Carolina mother has been sentenced to prison after admitting responsibility for a house fire that killed her three young children.
Brandi Sturdivant, 32, was charged with three counts of second-degree murder following the deaths of her children, the Greensboro Police Department announced after the blaze.
Sturdivant pleaded guilty this week and received a sentence of 30 to 36 years behind bars, according to regional Fox affiliate WGHP reported.
The fire broke out around 8 a.m. on Dec. 12, 2022, at Sturdivant’s home on Grimsley Street in Greensboro, a midsize city in central North Carolina. Inside were her three children: 1-year-old twins and a 4-year-old.
Police said the children had been left at home without adult supervision. After investigators located Sturdivant, she reportedly said she had been using a stove in the living room to warm the house and believed it may have sparked the fire.
Prosecutors said neighbors, rather than Sturdivant, called 911 and attempted to intervene. Officers who responded found her near the end of the street, falling out of a vehicle and crying, regional NBC affiliate WXII reported.
First responders discovered the children together inside the burned home. Autopsy results showed they died from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Neighbors reportedly referred to Sturdivant as “the crazy lady next door,” and authorities said she told them she was going to kill herself. Not only did she apparently turn the oven on before she left the home, but she dialed it up to 500 degrees.
Investigators reportedly later discovered that the oven was not actually the cause of the fire but that something in the back of the home caused the blaze. They were unable to determine exactly what that cause was, though a gasoline can was found on the front stoop of the home.
