'Prison of garbage and filth': Mother sentenced to 10 years for imprisoning children in home

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Seven months after two little boys were found running around a neighborhood covered in blood and feces, the person who locked them in a room for years is going to prison. 

Katie Koch will spend 10 years behind bars with 10 years of extended supervision for keeping her two sons in a bedroom.

"This was a prison of garbage and filth that these poor children were made to reside in," Milwaukee County Judge Rebecca Kiefer said Thursday.

During sentencing, we learned more about the condition of the children who escaped the home through a window last July. 

The two, ages 7 and 9 then, were not potty trained, could not read or write, and were non-verbal with limited motor skills. 

Police body camera video showed inside the home. The floors were covered with trash, feces were all over the wall, and insects and mice were found in the room with boarded-up windows that locked from the outside. 

"It's impassable due to being boarded up from the inside and bolted," a police officer said about the children's bedroom in body camera footage from July 2023. "I'm standing on panes of glass."

The state recommended 10 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision for the two charges of child neglect and one charge of false imprisonment that Koch pled guilty to.

"If they hadn't pried away the board from that window, broken through it, they would still be sitting in that room today, another year gone by, on a wet mattress, in a room covered in feces, without contact with the outside world," Assistant District Attorney Mallory Davis said.

Koch said she is sorry for the damage she did to her children and that now that her mental health is being treated, she can see the severity of what she did. 

"Looking back now, being on my medication, I am absolutely appalled, and I am sorry, and I know that doesn’t begin to touch how bad it is and how remorseful I am, but I do love them."

We also learned the children have struggled since escaping Koch's home, to adjust to society and learn basic skills like using the toilet and holding silverware. Judge Kiefer said that the lifelong scars they must live with justify Koch's prison sentence.

"This ongoing neglect is life-altering for them and will impact the entire course of the rest of their life. They're not going to be the people that they would've been otherwise if they would've received proper care," Kiefer said before sentencing Koch to prison.

Koch cannot see her children until they are adults. When she is released, her children will be adults, and it will be up to them if they choose to have a relationship with her.

Koch's boyfriend, Joel Manke, is facing similar charges of child abuse but has pled not guilty. He is due in court Feb. 28.