Months after a 3-year-old boy died while in the care of the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the contract worker charged in the case faced a preliminary court hearing. Kela Stanford is accused of leaving 3-year-old Ketorrius “KJ” Starkes in her car for five hours while she was working for Covenant Services, a thirdparty contractor for DHR. Stanford appeared in court Wednesday, October 1st for a preliminary hearing, after having failed to appear at the initial preliminary hearing held in August.
“This is a mother’s worst nightmare. No family should have to go through what this family is going through for their 3-year-old,” said attorney Courtney French, who is representing KJ’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit against DHR.
According to Birmingham police, Stanford picked up KJ from daycare around 9AM on July 22nd to drive him to the DHR office in Bessemer for a scheduled and supervised visit with his father. After the visit concluded, she drove back to the East Lake neighborhood near his daycare but did not drop him off there.
Detectives testified at the hearing that Stanford made three stops that day, two of which were in the same block of the toddler’s daycare. She also drove home more than once while KJ was still in the backseat, according to detectives.
“Instead of returning KJ back to the daycare where he was supposed to be, she went to a Church’s Chicken location across the street then to a pizza location. She was two blocks away from his daycare, and instead of returning KJ to his daycare, she drove home,” French said.
Detectives say Stanford admitted she was negligent while KJ was in her care. They say during the five hours he was left inside her vehicle, she was inside her home watching movies with family members and opening packages from Amazon.
Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr says his office is committed to pursuing justice for KJ’s family.
“That was your job. You had one job, and your job was to take care of that child. You failed miserably. Because of that, that child is no longer here, and we are all here,” said Carr.
He added that the testimony was painful for the family to hear.
“Difficult to hear, difficult to imagine. Obviously, it is unimaginable. A child basically fried in the back of a car, in my opinion. To know that and hear that is difficult to deal with,” said Carr.
The judge ruled there was probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. Stanford remains free on bond. Her attorney declined to comment following the hearing.