JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — A Florida truck driver and her fiancé were arrested on August 6 after investigators say they kept four children confined inside the cab of a tractor-trailer for nearly seven years while driving a route between Miami and Atlanta, denying the children schooling, medical care, dental care, and basic physical activity while allegedly subjecting them to abuse that left one child with a permanent scar and another with an untreated sexually transmitted infection.
Keisha Epps, 51, and Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, both face four counts of child neglect — one count per child — each a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Stewart is also expected to face capital sexual battery charges to be filed by the Statewide Prosecutor in the 9th Judicial District. Under Florida law, sexual battery of a child under 12 can carry the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Epps is being held in the Duval County Jail on a $400,012 bond. Stewart is held without bond.
According to arrest records and court documents filed by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the children have been living in the cab since approximately December 2019. They told interviewers at a child advocacy center they had not been allowed to attend school for approximately five years. They were given little time to shower, use the restroom, or exercise outside. All four children shared a bunk so small they had to lie curled up side by side because they could not fit any other way.
A detective on the case reported the children were walking with an unnatural gait from years of confinement. They were fed poorly and never received medical or dental care, even in emergencies. One child described burning herself badly with hot noodles. “There was a lot of blood,” she told investigators. Neither adult took her for treatment. The child has a permanent scar.
The children told investigators they witnessed and reported sexual abuse to Epps, who called one of them derogatory names and continued leaving them alone with Stewart. When children confronted Stewart about the abuse, he allegedly punched them in their heads.
All information identifying the children — their ages, sexes, and relationships to the adults — was redacted from court documents.
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