Man sentenced to prison for locking 7-year-old boy in wooden box for hours every day

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man has been sentenced to prison for abusing a 7-year-old child. As a form of punishment, he forced the boy to remain in a locked wooden box for hours.

Michael Danny Rus quietly left the Kent County District Court courtroom on Monday, August 19, after learning his sentence – two to 10 years in prison – for second-degree child abuse.

Rus, 48, and his girlfriend Jessica Ann Kilgore were charged in February after Kent County Sheriff's officials visited the couple's Cedar Springs home to investigate a Child Protective Services report about a boy living in a box.

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At the home, police found a shirtless seven-year-old boy in a makeshift room described as a wooden box three feet wide and four feet deep.

The boy is related to one of the defendants.

According to police, the couple admitted that the boy slept in the box and stayed there for about ten hours a day. He slept on a small piece of foam that was about 90 x 60 cm in size and 10 cm thick.

The couple also told police that as punishment they forced the boy to walk, withheld food from him and forced him to stand outside in the cold.

In June, Rus pleaded guilty to second-degree child abuse, in exchange for prosecutors dropping charges of false imprisonment and aggravated sentencing for being a habitual offender.

Rus, who was free on bail, appeared before Judge George Quist for sentencing on Monday afternoon. He placed his “Trump 2024” hat on the podium in front of him and stood silently. When given the opportunity, he did not speak.

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His defense attorney, A'ndreanna Vanden Berg, argued for a prison sentence because Rus “knows he has missed the mark and failed when it comes to raising his children,” she said.

“He wants to do better,” she added.

No one spoke on behalf of the victim.

Rus was taken into custody after being told the sentence. Last month, Kilgore was sentenced to 131 days in prison, time served, and placed on three years' probation for her role in the abuse.

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