SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The case against a North Carolina woman accused of causing the death of her infant son took another step Tuesday toward going to trial.

Taina Sanford, of Elizabeth City, was charged with murder, child abuse and child cruelty after she walked into an area hospital with her unresponsive 5-month-old in May. He was declared dead not long after. According to the police narrative, Sanford had left the child in her car while she went to work at an Amazon facility in Suffolk.

She was present in the Suffolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations courtroom for the preliminary hearing, though she didn’t speak.

The court heard testimony from the Suffolk Police detective who investigated the incident. She told the court that Sanford changed her explanation of the events that led up to the death of her baby over the course of several interviews.

Sanford had originally told police that she had gone to an auto repair shop that morning. Then, on the way to a friend’s house, she looked back and realized her child had a white substance around his mouth and was unresponsive.

Investigators were able to obtain video from the Amazon facility where Sanford worked. The video wasn’t played during the hearing, but the detective told the court that it showed her arriving in the parking lot shortly after 7 a.m. Sanford went inside and returned to the car at 9:59 a.m., and she remained at the car until 10:29 a.m.

Then, at 2:31 p.m., she returned to the vehicle once more. A short time later, the detective said, the vehicle is seen racing out of the parking lot with its hazard lights on.

Police confronted her with the information from the video in an June 21 interview. That was when she was arrested.

The detective noted in her testimony that NOAA reported a high of 81 degrees that day. Sanford’s attorney then pointed out that the average had been 66.

An autopsy of the child determined that he’d died by hyperthermia — a condition in which the human body is subjected to too much heat.

While being questioned by the defense lawyer, the detective told the court that Sanford had said she lied because she didn’t want to disappoint her mother or the family of the child’s father.

Her lawyer echoed Sanford’s previous claims that she went to work that day because she needed the job to support herself and the baby.

After hearing evidence, the judge announced he’d found probable cause and certified the charges to a grand jury.

An arraignment date was set for Jan. 18.