By Editor,Natasha Anderson

Copyright dailymail

A three-year-old died after being left in an Alabama social service worker’s car in 108-degree heat while she opened Amazon packages and watched movies with her family, a court has heard.

Ke’Torrius ‘KJ’ Starkes Jr. was left in the backseat of a hot car for five hours by a Department of Human Resources (DHR) contract worker on July 22.

He was found unresponsive and still in his fastened car seat as the vehicle sat parked in the driveway outside Kela Stanford’s Birmingham home, with the windows rolled up. KJ was declared dead about 30 minutes after being found.

Stanford has been charged with leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle, a Class B felony that if convicted could see her sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors testified during her preliminary hearing Wednesday that KJ ‘fried in the back of a car’ after Stanford, 55, ‘failed miserably’ to keep him safe, WBRC reports.

Investigators say Stanford made at least three stops and returned home more than once, before leaving him unattended while she watched movies and sorted packages.

She told detectives she had a lot on her mind, forgot KJ was in her car and allegedly admitted negligence, investigators told her hearing.

The Jefferson County district attorney has vowed to pursue justice over KJ’s death, while Stanford’s lawyer argued the incident was an ‘accident’ and ‘unspeakable tragedy’.

Stanford was working as a transport driver for Covenant Services Inc., a contractor of DHR, when she picked KJ up from his daycare around 9am to take him to a county office for a supervised visit with his father, Ke’Torrius Starkes Sr.

The visit ended around 11.30am and Stanford was meant to return the toddler to the childcare facility, but failed to so – instead running errands in the neighborhood where KJ’s daycare was located.

She stopped at a Church’s Chicken, Little Caesars and a tobacco shop to pick up cigars for her husband before returning to her house, AL.com reports.

KJ was then left alone in the vehicle from 12.30pm until roughly 5.30pm, when Stanford received a call questioning why he had not been dropped off at daycare.

The care worker rushed outside and found KJ sitting lifeless in the backseat. He was declared dead by the local fire department at 6.03pm.

Attorney Courtney French, representing KJ’s mother Ethanlynn Stewart, described the tragedy as a ‘mother’s worst nightmare’.

‘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,’ French told Wednesday’s hearing.

‘She was two blocks away from his daycare, and instead of returning KJ to his daycare, she drove home.’

The temperature inside the car likely exceeded 150 degrees during that time, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his family.

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr echoed French’s remarks, alleging Stanford’s actions were criminally negligent and reckless.

‘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,’ Carr told Stanford in court.

Stanford’s attorney Derek Simms told AL.com that although KJ’s death is a ‘terrible tragedy’, he does not believe it was criminal and believes her case should be heard in a civil courtroom.

Birmingham Det. Gabriel Lacally, the lone witness at the hearing, admitted that he does not believe Stanford intended to hurt KJ.

When asked by Simms if Lacally had ever heard of ‘forgotten baby syndrome’, the homicide detective answered: ‘I’ve seen cases with family members or parents. I’ve never seen a case with a business.’

Lacally, when probed by the prosecution, testified he did believe the worker acted with negligence and claims Stanford ‘actually said as she was leaving that her negligence cost the life of the child’.

County judge William Bell, however, denied the defense’s request to have the matter reviewed in civil court and instead ruled there is enough probable cause in the case to send it before a grand jury.

He also ordered her bail be set at $30,000. Stanford currently remains free on bond.

Stanford’s employment with Covenant Services was terminated after KJ’s death.

The county DA’s office issued a warrant for her arrest on August 1.

Stewart – who did not have custody of KJ – filed a wrongful death suit against Stanford and multiple people with the DHR and Jefferson County Department of Human Resources that same month.

The complaint, which was reviewed by People Magazine, seeks damages from eight people, as well as Covenant Services.

French said at the time of the filing, that KJ – who had been in foster care – would not have suffered this ‘brutal death’ under the watch of his biological parents.

‘Had he been with his parents, nothing like this would have ever occurred,’ she previously told the magazine.