Dad gets 5 years behind bars for locking 6 kids in storage unit

MILWAUKEE (TCN) -- A father who was convicted of locking his six children in a storage unit has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years of extended supervision.

Court TV reports that on Sept. 16, 2025, police were called about a baby crying inside a locked storage unit. Responding officers cut open the padlock and found six children, ages 9, 7, 5, 3, 2, and 2 months. The storage unit contained a bare mattress and a sectional sofa that the children were sleeping on. 

The storage unit did not have a light source and the children had a bucket to use as a restroom. Police found the children’s father, 34-year-old Charles Dupriest, and mother, Azyia Zielinski, asleep in a car outside. Both were arrested. 

Zielinski pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March to a stayed term and avoided prison, Court TV reports. In addition, Dupriest requested a stayed term; he has already served 205 days. 

Dupriest was convicted in January of five counts of felony child neglect, three counts of misdemeanor child neglect, and one count of possession of a gun by a felon, Spectrum News reports. The five-year sentence will be for the gun charge, and each of the felony neglect charges are for 18 months, to be served concurrently. Following prison time, Dupriest will have five years of extended supervision.

In an interview with police, the 9-year-old child, whose name has not been released, said he was responsible for taking care of his younger siblings in his parents’ absence, according to Spectrum News. He said he was hungry and had no way to contact his parents or anyone else if there was an emergency.
Storsafe, where the storage unit was located, provided video surveillance footage to authorities, WITI reports. In the video, the couple could be seen dropping the children off at the unit. The employee said he had seen a bed in the unit at one point and told management, who had issued an eviction notice.

Prosecutors said Dupriest, who has previously been convicted on sexual assault, weapons, and assault charges, had an “air of entitlement” at trial. Court TV reports that on the day the children were found in the storage unit, their parents had been offered a safe place to sleep, but Dupriest reportedly refused the offer.

When he spoke in court and requested a stayed sentence, Dupriest said, “I understand that this situation is very serious and I understand that it’s affected [my children]. My absence has affected them. And be being absent from them further would continue to affect them negatively,” Court TV reports. 

Prosecutor Tom Hasle said, “This case is not about punishing poverty. It’s about holding parents accountable for choices that put children in danger.”

MORE: