Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his office will seek the death penalty for two adults accused of trapping four children inside a tractor-trailer cab for years and sexually abusing them.
Keisha Monique Epps, 51, and her fiancé Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, were arrested on Aug. 6 and are being held in Duval County Jail, according to authorities. The couple allegedly confined two girls and two boys — ages 5, 5, 6, and 9 — to the cramped cab while Epps worked trucking routes between Miami and Atlanta. Court documents show the children were kept inside the vehicle for the majority of their days, some for more than six years.
“This case is one of, if not the most, horrific that my team has ever had to work on,” Uthmeier said at a Sept. 1 news conference in Kissimmee, Florida. He described how the children were forced to relieve themselves in cups and paper bags while the adults used proper facilities during stops. “They might take a shower, but they would leave the kids locked in this rolling dungeon,” he said.
The children told investigators they had not been allowed to attend school for approximately five years. A detective noted they were “walking with an unnatural gait from being confined to the cab.” They were fed poorly and never received medical or dental care, even for emergencies, according to an arrest report.
Two of the children suffered untreated burns that left significant scarring. One girl recalled burning herself badly with cooked noodles, telling investigators, “There was a lot of blood,” She said neither Epps nor Stewart took her for treatment, and she now has a permanent scar.
The physical toll extended beyond burns. “As a result of the abuse” over the years, Uthmeier said, the children “suffer severe physical infirmities.” One child was found to have an untreated sexually transmitted infection, his office said.
The sexual abuse allegations center on Stewart, whom the two girls said had abused them for years. When the two boys witnessed the abuse and confronted him, he “beat them by punching them in their heads,” according to reports. The children told authorities they had reported the abuse to Epps and saw her witness it herself. Rather than intervene, she called one child “derogatory names” and continued leaving them alone with Stewart, reports show.
Stewart later told investigators he had committed three sexual batteries against one of the girls, Uthmeier’s office said. He was reportedly in charge of supervising the children when Epps was sleeping, showering, or driving. All four children shared a single bunk so small they had to lie “curled up side by side,” according to reports.
“These children were trapped in a rolling prison and abused by the adults who were supposed to protect them,” Uthmeier said. He added: “We will pursue with everything we have the death penalty. We will seek executions, if you want to come in here [in Florida] and you want to physically molest, abuse, and violate our little kids.”
Florida law permits prosecutors to seek capital punishment for adults convicted of sexual battery against a child younger than 12. Stewart faces two counts of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of battery of a child by expelling certain fluids or materials, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, and two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement. Epps is charged with two counts of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement, and four counts of failure to report child abuse.
The Duval County Office of the Public Defender is representing Stewart, while Epps is represented by Florida’s Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel.
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