4 Children Confined in Semi-Truck Sleeper Cab for Six Years and Abused, Authorities Seeking Death Penalty
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced charges against Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, of Jacksonville, and Keysha Monique Epps, 51, of Atlanta in an Orange County case in which his office says four children spent more than six years living in the sleeper cab of a semi-truck.
The Florida Attorney General’s Office said Epps, a commercial truck driver, and Stewart were the children’s primary caregivers from January 2020 through April 2026. Epps drove frequent routes between Atlanta and Miami, including stops in Orlando, while the children lived in the cab.
Two girls later disclosed years of sexual abuse by Stewart, according to the state’s account. Two boys said they witnessed the abuse and were beaten after confronting Stewart and telling Epps. The state alleges Epps knew about the abuse, failed to stop it, and failed to report it. Uthmeier’s office also said Stewart admitted during a post-Miranda interview to three sexual batteries against one of the girls, including one in Orlando.
The state’s enumerated charge list totals 22 felony counts, 10 against Stewart and 12 against Epps. At a news conference, Uthmeier said Florida would pursue the death penalty, putting a state law written with an existing U.S. Supreme Court barrier directly in view.
One Bunk
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Uthmeier said the children shared a single bunk in the sleeper cab and were denied adequate food, hygiene, schooling, and medical care. Two suffered untreated burns that left significant scarring, and one was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection after leaving Stewart and Epps’ custody.
Stewart faces two counts each of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, battery of a child by expelling certain fluids or materials, child neglect without great bodily harm, and child neglect causing permanent disfigurement.
Epps faces two counts each of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, child neglect without great bodily harm, and child neglect causing permanent disfigurement, plus four counts of failure to report child abuse.
The charges are accusations. Stewart and Epps are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Written to Clash
Under Florida’s sexual-battery statute, an adult who commits sexual battery on a child under 12 can be charged with a capital felony. The same statute says sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority against a child under 12 can be a capital or life felony. A prosecutor who intends to seek death in a capital case under that section must file notice within 45 days after arraignment.
Florida’s separate death-sentencing procedure applies only to qualifying capital sexual batteries committed on or after Oct. 1, 2023. The state’s allegation begins in January 2020, nearly four years before that cutoff, and its public charge summary does not assign dates to the individual sexual-battery counts.
Section 921.1425 says the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision Kennedy v. Louisiana was “wrongly decided” and directs Florida courts to use the state’s death-sentencing procedure despite existing case law holding such a sentence unconstitutional.
Kennedy held that the Eighth Amendment bars the death penalty for the rape of a child when the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death. The state says the children later disclosed the alleged abuse after leaving Stewart and Epps’ custody.
Florida’s statute anticipates the conflict reaching the Florida Supreme Court or U.S. Supreme Court. If the courts reconsider Kennedy and determine that death remains unconstitutional, the statute directs the trial court to impose life imprisonment instead.
