RUSSELLVILLE | Jury selection is expected to begin Monday for the first trial in the 2022 death of infant Autumn Rose Wells at a former Red Bay daycare facility.
Franklin County District Attorney Jeff Barksdale said opening statements in the trial against former Tiny Tigers Pre-K employee Payton Gann could begin Tuesday once the jury is seated. Gann, along with two co-workers, the daycare owner, and Gann’s mother, Teia Gann, were indicted following the March 9, 2022, death of Wells.
Wells, just four months old at the time, was found unresponsive at the daycare. Daycare owner AngeleneChamblee and another employee took Wells to Red Bay Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The hospital contacted the Red Bay Police Department and Wells’ body was sent to the Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville for an autopsy. Tiny Tiger’s Pre-K was closed March 16, 2022, after the Alabama Department of Human Resources suspended its license after an investigation found a laundry list of protocol violations.
Payton Gann, of Vina, who was 23 years old at the time of Wells’ death, was arrested on March 11, 2022, by Red Bay Police Department investigator Kyle Gober on a misdemeanor charge of false reporting to law enforcement. Those charges were later upgraded by a grand jury to include manslaughter.
One of the former employees charged, Madison McCalpin, reached an agreement of youthful offender status with the Franklin County District Attorney’s office in March 2024. As such she will not face a jury trial but could still face time in jail or prison. Her case is now sealed, though, so information from the district attorney’s office is extremely limited, but it is believed McCalpin’s agreement will require her to testify against others in the case. The deal was reached with Wells’ family’s approval. Barksdale told The News in 2024 that the deal would not have been hammered out had the family not approved and had it not served to strengthen the related cases.
McCalpin had also been facing charges of manslaughter and false reporting to law enforcement. Those still awaiting trial and their charges include:
- Angelene Chamblee, daycare owner: Child Care Act Violation (six counts); Forgery 2nd Degree; Forgery 2nd Degree
- Hannah Grace Letson: Tampering with Physical Evidence; Tampering with a Witness
Another person indicted in June 2022, Teia Gann, Payton Gann’s mother, entered a guilty plea on May 21, 2025, to a Class B misdemeanor charge of tampering with a witness. According to a plea agreement provided to The Red Bay News by the Franklin County District Attorney’s office, the state will recommend a sentence of six months in the Franklin County Jail, suspended for two years on good behavior and no new arrests, payment of fine and costs, and provision of truthful testimony in trials of any co-defendants.
