Mother of children locked in Milwaukee storage unit pleads guilty to misdemeanor child neglect

The mother of six children found locked in a Milwaukee storage unit in September pleaded guilty Jan. 8 to two misdemeanor child neglect charges.

Four counts of child neglect were dismissed as part of a plea deal, according to court records.

Azyia Zielinski, 27, was arrested and charged after police found her six children – ages 2 months, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 years old – in a locked StorSafe storage unit at 5555 N. 27th St. on September 16, 2025. The children were sleeping on a sectional sofa and a twin bed and using a bucket as a toilet. The unit had no electricity or running water, according to a criminal complaint.

The children’s father, Charles Dupriest, 33, was charged with eight counts of child neglect — five felony counts and three misdemeanor counts — as well as one count of possessing a firearm while convicted of a felony.

In both parents’ criminal cases, the child neglect charges were felonies for the children under 6 and misdemeanors for the two older children.

Police found Zielinski and Dupriest sleeping in a vehicle nearby, according to testimony from a Milwaukee police detective during Dupriest’s preliminary hearing. Zielinski told investigators she kept the children in the storage unit for about a month and a half after the family was asked to leave a local shelter.

The unit had no electricity or running water. The 7-year-old told police he wouldn’t know how to get out in an emergency, according to the complaint.

Dupriest has a jury trial scheduled for Jan. 12.

Zielinski’s sentencing hearing is set for March 19 at 10:30 a.m.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mother of her children locked in Milwaukee storage unit pleads guilty