Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says his office will seek the death penalty for the two adults who allegedly confined four children to the cab of a tractor-trailer, some for more than six years, and sexually abused them.
Keisha Monique Epps, 51, and Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, have been charged with sexual battery, molestation and neglect of two girls and two boys — two 5-year-olds, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, Uthmeier said.
Epps and Stewart, who has been identified as her fiancé, had been living in the cab with the children. Epps worked as a truck driver, frequenting a route between Miami and Atlanta, according to court documents.
FLORIDA COUPLE ALLEGEDLY HELD FOUR CHILDREN IN TRACTOR-TRAILER CAB FOR NEARLY SEVEN YEARS
“These children were trapped in a rolling prison and abused by the adults who were supposed to protect them,” Uthmeier said.
“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 allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults convicted of sexual battery against a child younger than 12.
The two girls were sexually abused by Stewart for years, Uthmeier said. When the two boys witnessed sexual abuse and confronted Stewart, he “beat them by punching them in their heads,” reports show.
The children told authorities that they had told Epps about the sexual abuse and saw her witness it. She called one of the children “derogatory names” and continued to leave them alone with Stewart, reports show.
Stewart told investigators he had committed three sexual batteries against one of the girls, according to Uthmeier’s office.
One of the children was found to have an untreated sexually transmitted infection, Uthmeier’s office said.
But the horrors allegedly went far beyond sexual abuse.
The couple confined the children in the truck cab without “time to take showers, use the restroom” or “exercise outside,” investigators wrote in their reports.
“This case is one of, if not the most, horrific that my team has ever had to work on,” Uthmeier said at a news conference in Kissimmee, Florida, on Sept. 1.
Over the years of their imprisonment, the children were forced to “use the bathroom” in cups and paper bags, he said. When making stops, “the adults would go to the restroom,” Uthmeier said. “They might take a shower, but they would leave the kids locked in this rolling dungeon.”
“As a result of the abuse” over the years, he said, the children “suffer severe physical infirmities.”
The children were kept inside the vehicle “for the majority of their days,” court records show.
The children said they hadn’t been “allowed to attend school for approximately five years,” according to an arrest report. A detective on the case reported the children were “walking with an unnatural gait from being confined to the cab.”
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They were “fed poorly,” and they never received medical or dental care—even for emergencies, the report shows.
Two of the children suffered untreated burns that left significant scarring, according to Uthmeier’s office.
One of the girls recalled a time she “burned herself badly with cooked noodles.”
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“There was a lot of blood,” the girl told investigators.
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Neither Stewart nor Epps took her to get medical treatment, she told investigators. Now, she has a “permanent scar” from the burn, court records show.
Stewart was in charge of supervising the children when Epps was sleeping, showering and driving the truck, the children said.
All four shared a bunk in the cab so small that they had to lie “curled up side by side,” reports show.
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Stewart 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 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,” according to Uthmeier’s office.
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.”
These charges will be prosecuted in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, Uthmeier said.
Epps and Stewart were arrested on Aug. 6. On Sept. 3, both were held in the Duval County Jail.
The Duval County Office of the Public Defender is representing Stewart, and Epps is represented by Florida’s Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel.
Neither office responded to a request for comment before publication.
