The lawyer for a former DHR contract worker charged in the death of an Alabama foster child said the toddler’s death was tragic, but not criminal.

“It was a terrible tragedy, an unspeakable tragedy, but it was an accident,” said attorney Derek Simms, who represents 55-year-old Kela Stanford.

Kettorius “KJ” Starkes Jr., 3, died July 22 while in the care of Stanford, who at the time worked as a transport driver for Covenant Services Inc., which contracts with DHR.

The child had been left in Stanford’s car in extreme heat in the driveway of her east Birmingham home for roughly five hours.

Instead of immediately returning KJ to his daycare following a DHR supervised visit with his biological father, a detective testified, Stanford made stops at Church’s Chicken, Little Caesars and a tobac

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