Columbus Woman Sentenced in Beating Death of 4-Year-Old Boy

Posted on 9/23/2025

Defendant:

A Columbus woman convicted of killing her boyfriend’s 4-year-old son in 2021 will spend at least the next 25 years behind bars.
 
Michelle Hilyard, 52, was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison for the May 2021 death of 4-year-old Bryson Brown. On Sept. 12, a Franklin County jury found Hilyard guilty of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and endangering children.
 
Hilyard, a mother of 10, had previously served prison time after she was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing two of her children in Vinton County. All of her children have been taken from her custody.
 
Case Background
 
Just after 5 a.m. on May 26, 2021, Columbus police were called to the 1000 block of Geers Ave. on the east side of Columbus on the report of an unresponsive 4-year-old boy. Bryson Brown was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after 6 a.m.
 
Columbus police said Hilyard, the girlfriend of Brown’s father, hit the child several times with a board, causing him to fall down the stairs. His father discovered him unresponsive in bed several hours later. Brown’s death was determined to be the result of multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
 
Hilyard was arrested on June 3, 2021, and has been held in Franklin County Jail on $1 million bond.