Kimberly Sullivan, the Connecticut woman accused of keeping her stepson locked inside a small room for more than two decades, has rejected two plea deals that could have put her behind bars for decades.
The 57-year-old now appears headed toward trial after prosecutors offered her a chance to plead guilty to several charges in exchange for a 30-year sentence.
Highlights
- Kimberly Sullivan rejected two plea deals that would have resulted in 30-year prison sentences.
- Her case came to light after her 32-year-old stepson allegedly set fire to the family home.
- Sullivan denied the allegations, while her case is expected to proceed to trial in January 2027.
The case came to light in February 2025, when her then-32-year-old stepson allegedly set fire to the Waterbury home in what authorities said was an attempt to escape. He was found weighing just 68 pounds.
A mom rejected two plea deals after being arrested for holding stepson captive for two decades
Sullivan turned down both plea offers on September 4, according to The New Haven Register.
Under the deals, she would have pleaded guilty to kidnapping, a*sault, unlawful restraint, and cruelty to persons. Both offers involved a 30-year prison sentence, but the conditions differed.
One would have allowed her to be released after 20 years. The other would have suspended the sentence after 10 years.
Her attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, had already indicated in July that a deal involving prison time was unlikely.
“It’s a non-starter,” Kaloidis said. “I don’t anticipate the case resolving with anything that involves incarceration.”
Sullivan’s case will now likely proceed to trial. A judge said the main part of the trial could take place in January 2027.
Now, she faces two first-degree kidnapping charges, along with first-degree a*sault, first-degree unlawful restraint, and intentional cruelty to persons. Each first-degree kidnapping charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in Connecticut.
The judge also rejected Sullivan’s request to have her electronic monitoring device removed. The court noted that she had not tried to flee since her arrest.
Sullivan has remained free on a $300,000 bond since March 2025.
The case began after a house fire in 2025 ignited by a stepson who had been locked away for most of his life
The man, who has not been publicly identified and is referred to as “S” in some documents, was then 32.
Authorities said he had spent much of his life inside an upstairs storage room at the Waterbury home.
According to his account to investigators, Sullivan pulled him out of school when he was around 10 or 11 years old.
He was then kept inside a room measuring roughly 8 by 9 feet.
Court documents said he spent around 22 hours a day inside. At times, he said he was locked in for a full 24 hours.
He told investigators that he was usually allowed out in the morning to complete chores around the house.
“He stated that he was tasked to complete several chores in the house, which may take him between 15 minutes and two hours, depending on what he had to do,” court documents stated.
After that, he would usually be returned to the room and locked inside until the following day.
His food was also severely limited, according to his account.
“When asked if he was hungry every day, he stated, ‘All day, every day, my entire life,’” the court papers said.
He told investigators that he generally survived on two sandwiches, a snack, and limited water. He also said he sometimes had to drink from the toilet.
Because he had no normal bathroom access, he used bottles and newspapers.
He said he spent long hours counting cars through a window, listening to the radio, and teaching himself to read using a dictionary.
He also said he cut his own hair and had not properly bathed for years.
Furthermore, the man’s alleged captivity came to public attention when he set fire to the home
Responding firefighters initially arrived to deal with what appeared to be a house fire. They then discovered the severely malnourished man inside.
He weighed only 68 pounds.
Authorities said he quickly began telling investigators about his life inside the house.
Prosecutors later described his condition in extremely stark terms, saying he was “without exaggeration, akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s d*ath camp.”
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo also described the alleged treatment as the worst case he had witnessed during his 33 years in law enforcement.
Sullivan has denied the allegations.
She has denied locking her stepson in the room or starving him. Her attorney has also argued that the man could have left the house if he wanted to.
“This is a woman who has never committed a crime in her life,” Kaloidis said.
The defense has also questioned the evidence against Sullivan.
After obtaining access to the stepson’s medical records during the case in October 2025, Kaloidis said the defense was still trying to understand what prosecutors had.
“We are really trying to see what evidence they have and what evidence they are going to produce at trial. I don’t know what’s in there. We’ll know when we see them,” he said.
When asked whether Sullivan had starved the man, Kaloidis told The Post, “It wasn’t true then, and it’s not true now.”
One of the most troubling parts of the case is that concerns about the boy reportedly existed long before the fire
Waterbury Police said the family first came to investigators’ attention in 2005 after the child’s school raised concerns with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.
The agency reportedly visited the home twice.
Tom Pannone, who was the boy’s elementary school principal, later said staff members had noticed something was wrong.
“Everyone really was concerned with this child since he was 5 years old. You knew something was wrong. It was grossly wrong,” Pannone told NBC Connecticut.
He said school staff had seen the child stealing food and eating from garbage.
“We knew it. We reported it. Not a d*mn thing was done. That’s the tragedy of the whole thing.”
The Department of Children and Families later said it could not find records connected to the family in its current or historical databases.
The agency explained that under Connecticut law, unsubstantiated ab*se and neglect reports are destroyed after five years if no further complaints are made.
“We will continue our search and ask anyone with additional information to contact the Waterbury Police Department,” DCF said.
The house where the alleged a*use took place was badly damaged in the blaze
Photographs from inside showed burned rooms, exposed beams, loose wires, dirt, broken glass, and debris.
Much of the upstairs area where the man was allegedly kept was destroyed.
One small detail remained in the damaged room- a stained lace angel wing attached to the exposed wood.
The rest of the house gave little indication of the life that had allegedly been taking place there for years.
A neighbor, Zeffrey Guarnera, said he rarely saw Sullivan and had not known she had a son living in the home.
“There was no him,” Guarnera said. “There were two daughters; that’s who I ever saw. When I found out there was a him, I was shocked.”
Another neighbor recalled seeing a young man briefly at the upstairs window years earlier.
“He waved at her, and she waved at him, and she didn’t think nothing of it, but we haven’t seen him since,” Guarnera said.
Since Sullivan’s arrest, she had stayed out of the public eye
Shortly after the fire, Sullivan was arrested, but later released on bond.
She has largely stayed out of public view since then.
At one court appearance, roughly a year after her arrest, she covered her face with sunglasses and a hood while walking into and out of court.
She did not respond when reporters asked questions about the allegations.
Her attorney said the intense media attention had made it difficult for her to live normally.
“As you can imagine, any time your face is plastered all over the news, you become public enemy number one. It does make it difficult to go out and resume a normal life,” Kaloidis said.
Sullivan’s Waterbury home was left badly damaged by the fire, while her stepson has been living at an undisclosed location and was reportedly recovering after his hospital stay.
"Why is she still out is my question?" asked one user
