Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says his office will pursue the death penalty against two adults accused of confining four children inside the cab of a tractor-trailer, with some allegedly held there for more than six years and subjected to sexual abuse.
Keisha Monique Epps, 51, and Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, identified as Epps’ fiancé, face charges including sexual battery, molestation and neglect involving two girls and two boys — two 5-year-olds, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, Uthmeier said.
According to court documents, Epps and Stewart lived in the truck’s cab alongside the children. Epps worked as a truck driver and regularly traveled a route between Miami and Atlanta.
“These children were trapped in a rolling prison and abused by the adults who were supposed to protect them,” Uthmeier said.
“We will pursue with everything we have the death penalty. We will seek executions, if you want to come in here [in Florida] and you want to physically molest, abuse, and violate our little kids.”
Florida law permits prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against adults convicted of sexually battering a child under the age of 12.
Uthmeier said Stewart sexually abused the two girls for years. Reports say that when the two boys witnessed the abuse and confronted Stewart, he “beat them by punching them in their heads.”
According to reports, the children told authorities they had informed Epps about the sexual abuse and had seen her witness it herself. They said she called one of the children “derogatory names” and continued leaving them alone with Stewart.
According to Uthmeier’s office, Stewart admitted to investigators that he had committed three sexual batteries against one of the girls.
Uthmeier’s office also said one of the children had an untreated sexually transmitted infection.
But the alleged horrors extended well beyond sexual abuse.
Investigators wrote in their reports that the couple kept the children confined inside the truck cab without “time to take showers, use the restroom” or “exercise outside.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks at a news conference in Kissimmee, Fla., on Sept. 1, 2026. (Florida Office of the Attorney General)
“This case is one of, if not the most, horrific that my team has ever had to work on,” Uthmeier said at a news conference in Kissimmee, Florida, on Sept. 1.
During the years they were allegedly imprisoned, the children were forced to “use the bathroom” in cups and paper bags, he said. At stops, “the adults would go to the restroom,” Uthmeier said. “They might take a shower, but they would leave the kids locked in this rolling dungeon.”
“As a result of the abuse” they endured over the years, he said, the children “suffer severe physical infirmities.”
Court records show the children spent “the majority of their days” confined inside the vehicle.
According to an arrest report, the children said they had not been “allowed to attend school for approximately five years.” A detective involved in the case reported that the children were “walking with an unnatural gait from being confined to the cab.”
They were “fed poorly,” and they never received medical or dental care—even for emergencies, the report shows.
Two of the children suffered untreated burns that left significant scarring, according to Uthmeier’s office.
One of the girls recalled a time she “burned herself badly with cooked noodles.”
“There was a lot of blood,” the girl told investigators.
Neither Stewart nor Epps sought medical treatment for her, she told investigators. Court records show she now has a “permanent scar” from the burn.
The children said Stewart was responsible for supervising them while Epps slept, showered or drove the truck.
Reports show all four children shared a bunk inside the cab that was so small they had to lie “curled up side by side.”
According to Uthmeier’s office, Stewart faces “two counts of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of battery of a child by expelling certain fluids or materials, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, and two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement.”
Epps faces charges of “two counts of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement, and four counts of failure to report child abuse.”
Epps and Stewart were arrested on Aug. 6. Both remained held at the Duval County Jail as of Sept. 3.
The Duval County Office of the Public Defender represents Stewart, while Florida’s Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel represents Epps.
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