A Grand Jury Charged Three Daycare Employees in Winter Jones's Death. The Tampering Count Points at the Daycare's Own Records.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Three employees of the Kid University daycare in Cordova have been indicted by a Shelby County grand jury in the death of Winter Jones, the 6-year-old autistic, nonverbal girl who was left in the facility's van on August 13, 2026, and found unresponsive that afternoon, Action News 5 and FOX13 Memphis reported September 11, 2026.

The three are Tametria Norry, 49, who drove the van; Sabrina Powe, the facility's assistant director; and Amilya Hardin, a daycare assistant, according to Action News 5 and FOX13 Memphis. Each faces the same three counts: aggravated child neglect, criminally negligent homicide, and destruction of and tampering with governmental records.

All three are charged, not convicted. They are presumed innocent, and an indictment is an accusation that the state must now prove in court.

Norry was booked into the Shelby County Jail on the night of September 11, 2026, on a $100,000 bond, per FOX13 and Action News 5. Hardin had not been booked as of 10 p.m. on September 11, 2026, per Action News 5, which did not report Powe's booking status.

The indictments came one day after the family's attorneys held a September 10, 2026, news conference to update the public on the investigation.

Family attorney Taurus Bailey, who represents the family with Walter Bailey, said after the indictments: "This business obviously had not had it together. They failed." He said that because Winter was nonverbal and autistic, "there should have been extra care, extra precautions," per FOX13.

The tampering count is the accountability thread. State-licensed daycares are required to keep transportation records: vehicle inspections, passenger logs, and documented walk-throughs verifying that every child has left the vehicle. The Tennessee Department of Human Services found Kid University noncompliant with those transportation requirements after Winter's death, including missing vehicle inspections, incomplete logs, and absent walk-throughs, per Action News 5. A charge of destroying or tampering with governmental records alleges the paperwork itself was falsified or destroyed, though the indictment's specific factual allegations had not been published as of September 12, 2026.

Kid University is permanently closed. The facility surrendered its state license effective August 14, 2026, according to the Tennessee Department of Human Services, as The 901 Report detailed in Kid University Is Closed for Good. The Questions It Leaves Are Not.

Why It Matters for Memphis

A state-licensed facility, state licensing agencies inside a criminal case, and a records-tampering theory aimed at legally required documentation make this a story about whether the paperwork that is supposed to protect children was real. The prosecution will now put Kid University's records, and the state's oversight of them, into open court.

The Oversight Question

Kid University's transportation records were required by state licensing rules. Who at the Department of Human Services last inspected them before August 13, 2026, and what did that inspection find?

Update, October 11, 2026: All three defendants pleaded not guilty at their first court appearance and each was released on a $50,000 bond, Action News 5 reported September 16, 2026. The next court date is October 30, 2026. The 901 Report covered the pleas in All Three Former Kid University Workers Pleaded Not Guilty in Winter Jones's Death. Each Is Out on a $50,000 Bond.

On September 18, 2026, Action News 5 reported on Tennessee Department of Human Services fatality-investigation records that bear directly on the tampering count. According to the station's account of those records, Norry told state licensing consultants she did not check the van for remaining children because of the heat, and Hardin and Powe both signed a log confirming a physical walk-through had occurred, though both acknowledged neither checked the van. The station reported that the state cited Kid University with five major transportation violations. These are statements in a state licensing file as reported by Action News 5, not findings of a court. All three defendants have pleaded not guilty and are presumed innocent.

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