An Alabama woman has been charged after prosecutors say she left a three-year-old boy in her car for five hours, where he died. 

On February 6, Kela Stanford was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury in connection to Ke’Torrius ‘KJ’ Starkes Jr.’s death in July 2025. The indictment was unsealed on Wednesday.

‘This indictment is a step toward accountability for a tragedy that was preventable,’ said family attorney Courtney French. ‘By leaving KJ unattended in extreme heat for several hours, the defendant showed a level of negligence that the law simply cannot overlook.’ 

Stanford, 55, had been working as a transport driver for Covenant Services Inc., which contracts with the state’s Department of Human Resources (DHR). The agency provides social services and administers family assistance programs.

On July 22, 2025, Stanford was tasked with driving Ke’Torrius from his daycare in Birmingham to a DHR building in Bessemer for a supervised visit with his father, according to French and testimony from a detective.

The visit with his father ended at around 11:30am. Instead of bringing the boy back to the daycare as she was supposed to, Stanford drove back to the east side of Birmingham and made stops at Church’s, Little Caesars and a tobacco shop, according to AL.com.

She returned home from those errands at 12:30pm, then spent the rest of the afternoon watching a movie, spending time with her husband and opening Amazon packages.

It wasn’t until 5:30pm that Stanford said she was reminded that Ke’Torrius was still in her car. The boy’s foster mother called her to say he hadn’t been returned to the daycare.

Kela Stanford has been indicted in connection to the hot car death of Ke’Torrius ‘KJ’ Starkes Jr., a three-year-old boy who was under her care

Ke’Torrius died on July 22, 2025, after spending hours inside Stanford’s car while it was in the nineties outside. Stanford and her lawyer say she had no criminal intent and that this was a tragic accident

Stanford went out to her vehicle and found Ke’Torrius unresponsive. Responding officers confirmed that the boy had died.

Stanford’s lawyer, Derek Simms, has previously said his client did not have criminal intent and leaving the boy in the car was a tragic accident.

Birmingham Detective Gabriel Lacally testified that the temperature outside had reached 96 degrees that day.

A lawsuit later filed by the family against Stanford claimed the temperature inside the car rose to more than 140 degrees.

Stanford told police that she tried to bring Ke’Torrius’s body temperature up by putting him in cold water in her bathtub. She also said she tried to perform CPR on him.

Stanford was immediately fired from Covenant Services after what happened. 

Ke’Torrius’s death led to widespread condemnation from the community and politicians.

Ke’Torrius’s death drew harsh statements of condemnation by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and other politicians

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, said the boy’s death was the result of ‘reprehensible and gross negligence’.

State Representative Patrick Sellers said this case ‘has revealed the glaring cracks in the system’.

Stanford was initially arrested on August 1, 2025, and was released the same day after posting a $30,000 bond, according to court records.

After she was formally charged with leaving a child in a car unattended, a class B felony, Stanford was re-arrested on Monday morning. 

She was released less than an hour later. Court records show she has no bond conditions as of now.