A contractor for Alabama’s Human Resources Department was arrested and charged on Friday in connection with the death of a 3-year-old boy who was left in a hot car while in the state’s custody, prosecutors said.
The contractor, Kela Stanford, 54, of Birmingham, was charged with being a person for hire responsible for a child under the age of 7 and leaving a child or incapacitated person unattended in a motor vehicle in a manner that creates an unreasonable risk of injury or harm, the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release on Friday.
Ms. Stanford was booked into the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham and released on bond on Friday, according to jail records.
It was not immediately clear if she had a lawyer. Efforts to reach her on Friday night were unsuccessful.
If convicted of the felony charge, she could face a sentence of two to 20 years in prison.
The prosecutor’s office did not release any other information about the case, saying it was a pending matter.
The charge against Ms. Stanford came 10 days after a child in foster care whom she was supervising, Ke’Torrius Starkes Jr., was left in a vehicle from about 12:30 p.m. to about 5:30 p.m., on July 22 in Bessemer, a southwestern suburb of Birmingham, according to G. Courtney French, a lawyer representing the boy’s family.
He said that Ke’Torrius, whose nickname was KJ, was supposed to be transported from a supervised visit with his father to a day care program by Ms. Stanford, a contractor with Covenant Services, a third-party service contracted through the state’s Human Resources Department.
That agency oversees child protection, foster care and other social services.
Instead, the Birmingham Police Department said, the boy was “accidentally left inside of a vehicle.”
Mr. French said during a news conference on Friday that Ms. Stanford picked up Ke’Torrius from the supervised visit around 11:30 a.m., then went to a restaurant and a tobacco shop before arriving back at her home about 12:30 p.m., where she left the boy in the car.
Around 5:30 p.m. that day, the day care center called her, asking where the child was, Mr. French said. Ke’Torrius was strapped in the car, which had tinted windows, he said.
Ms. Stanford then went out and brought the boy inside her home, where she threw cold water on his face, he said.
The Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced the boy dead at the scene, the police said.
Ms. Stanford told investigators that she didn’t know the child was still in her car when she finished running errands, Mr. French said. She transported the boy once a week for a visit with his family, he said.
“This was something that should have never happened,” he said. “Hopefully this is something that should never happen again.”
The boy’s parents are devastated by their child’s “brutal death,” Mr. French said.
Brittney DeBruce, the boy’s aunt, said during the news conference that he was a “child full of life” and that his foster family had reached out to his parents and her since his death.
The boy’s family has not heard from the Human Resources Department since he died, Mr. French said.
The Human Resources Department, Covenant Services and the Birmingham Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday evening.
The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said in its news release on Friday that Ke’Torrius’s death was a “tragedy that was completely avoidable and unnecessary,” but declined to comment further, citing the pending case against Ms. Stanford.
Temperatures were in the mid-to-high 90s during the afternoon of July 22 in the Birmingham area, but with humidity factored in, it felt as high as 103 degrees at 1 p.m. and 100 degrees by 5 p.m., Jessica Laws, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said in an interview last week.
The heat index inside of the car surpassed 140 degrees while the boy was “trapped” there, Mr. French said.
The boy’s death prompted an investigation and calls from state lawmakers to improve oversight of the Human Services Department.
State Representative Patrick Sellers, a Democrat, said during the news conference on Friday that he was “deeply heartbroken and outraged” and called for an investigation into the department.
Mr. Sellers is among a number of state lawmakers who have sought more information about what happened, according to statements published in local media.
The fact that the boy’s death was preventable “should haunt us,” he said.
“This tragedy has revealed glaring cracks in the system — cracks that cost a child his life,” he said.
Nineteen children have died in a hot car this year in the United States, according to Kids and Car Safety, a nonprofit organization that advocates for children’s and pets’ safety in vehicles.