Jurors heard shifting accounts, medical findings and testimony about Elysa Kelemen’s anger toward her stepson.
CHARLOTTE, Mich. — A jury convicted Elysa Ella-Ann Kelemen after prosecutors said medical evidence and her own statements showed she killed 6-year-old Kyron Kelemen in a Delta Township hotel room in 2024.
The April 23 sentence of life without parole followed a trial built around what happened inside a Travelodge room on West Saginaw Highway. Kelemen, 34, first reported that Kyron suddenly became ill, but investigators said her account changed before she admitted driving her knee into the child’s stomach after he knocked over her laptop.
Jurors first heard the case on Jan. 12, 2026, two years to the day after Kyron stopped breathing. Prosecutors played the 911 call Kelemen made after the boy became unresponsive. In opening statements, Deputy Chief Assistant Eaton County Prosecutor Adam Strong said Kelemen initially claimed Kyron had been fine, then suddenly became lethargic and vomited after she put him in the shower. Strong told jurors that the evidence would show a different cause: blunt trauma so severe it caused massive internal injury.
Investigators said Kelemen, her husband and children had been living in the hotel after being evicted from the Flint area. A charity had helped place them there shortly before Kyron died. Court statements said a 6-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy also were in the room that day. Prosecutors said Kelemen was angry with her husband over messages involving another woman and that Kyron became upset while playing a computer game. Police said he kicked a box that held the laptop, and Kelemen thought the computer had broken.
An Eaton County sheriff’s detective testified that Kelemen later described getting off the bed while Kyron was on the floor and coming down with her knee to his stomach. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death blunt force injuries of the abdomen and the manner of death homicide. Testimony described bruising from Kyron’s head to his knees and injuries to his midsection. Prosecutors said his liver and pancreas were lacerated and that the damage was too serious for the child to have remained alive for long after it was inflicted.
Kelemen’s statements became a central issue at trial. Prosecutors said her changing explanations showed guilt and that her eventual admission matched the medical findings. Defense attorney Conrad Vincent Jr. said police pressured Kelemen into a false confession and argued that her husband was responsible. Vincent told jurors Kelemen was a domestic violence victim who was afraid of her husband and took blame to protect him. Kelemen testified that she feared him and that her earlier confession was false.
The state’s case also used testimony about Kelemen’s feelings toward Kyron. Former friend Stephanie Tlajonick testified that Kelemen complained about the boy, saying he had a speech impediment and that she was sick of taking care of him. Tlajonick said Kelemen called Kyron stupid and did not like him. Prosecutors used the testimony to argue that the fatal act was not an accident or a mystery, but the result of anger toward a vulnerable child. The defense challenged the state’s account by pointing to Kelemen’s fear and the family’s turmoil.
The trial did not move in one continuous block. After testimony began in January, proceedings were halted later that month because of a health issue involving the defense attorney. The case resumed in early March. On March 10, jurors found Kelemen guilty of first-degree felony murder after a multiweek trial. The conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Eaton County Circuit Judge Janice K. Cunningham imposed that sentence on April 23, closing the trial phase of the case.
At sentencing, prosecutors framed the case as a murder and as a warning about earlier signals. Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney Douglas Lloyd said Kyron was senselessly murdered by someone who should have protected him. Lloyd said the child’s death resulted from Kelemen’s actions and from a child welfare system that ignored clear dangers. He said the sentence could not begin to reflect the harm done to Kyron or his family, but reinforced why life without parole was allowed for the killing.
Those earlier signals included several complaints to Genesee County Children’s Protective Services before the death. In September 2023, CPS was told Kyron came to school with bruises across his face, a black eye, another eye that was bloodshot red and bruising on his chest and rib cage. A month later, another complaint said he had a face full of bruises and broken blood vessels in both eyes. In November, a complaint directly accused Elysa Kelemen of physically abusing him and said it was recurring.
Kyron’s biological mother, Angelina Foghino, said she had lost custody years earlier because of addiction. She said she felt she had failed her son, but also said CPS could have removed him after the reports. Foghino said she contacted Kelemen after being alerted about the allegations and asked why she was beating her son. Kelemen denied abuse at the time. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services later called the death a profound tragedy but declined to discuss the complaints, citing privacy laws.
The trial also brought renewed attention to another death involving a child in Kelemen’s care. In 2020, Kelemen’s 4-year-old son, Carter Krammer, died after she said she found him unresponsive following a shower. Police found no visible injuries or bruises, and no charges were brought. CPS found no evidence of abuse or neglect after an eight-month investigation. The medical examiner listed both cause and manner of death as undetermined. Flint police later continued reviewing Carter’s death, but Kelemen has not been accused of wrongdoing in that case.
Outside the legal arguments, relatives described the damage left by Kyron’s death. His father, Tyler Kelemen, addressed Elysa Kelemen during the sentencing hearing by video link, saying she had not just taken one child from the family but had split up a whole family. Family members and supporters later gathered outside the courthouse, where balloons were released in Kyron’s memory. Prosecutors thanked advocates and investigators who helped bring the case to verdict.
Currently, Kelemen’s conviction stands with a life-without-parole sentence. The criminal case over Kyron’s death has reached sentencing, while questions about earlier CPS handling and Carter Krammer’s undetermined death remain separate from the murder judgment.
Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.