A former school principal in Florida has been charged with aggravated manslaughter after her seven-month-old granddaughter died in a hot car outside her house — less than a year after the girl’s older brother drowned while also at his grandmother’s home.
Temperatures in the south-central Florida city of Wauchula, Hardee County, had reached 32 degrees Celsius that day.
FACTS:: PLZ SHARE/TAG/REPOST 💙8/13/20- Ezra Franklin Schock is born 💙 💔12/22/21- my mother slept while my 17mnth old...
Posted by Kaila Nix on Wednesday, February 1, 2023
According to the Hardee County Sheriff’s Office complaint affidavit, the grandmother told a detective that she had “just forgotten” about the infant after she drove home from lunch with friends on November 22.
Uriel’s mother, Kaila Nix, had gone to get her hair done that day and had asked her mother to babysit.
Her husband immediately began CPR to no avail.
Incredibly, Uriel’s death is the second tragedy to befall the family.
Uriel’s 16-month-old brother, Ezra, also died while he was at Tracey’s home, drowning in a nearby pond just before Christmas 2021.
She killed my beautiful daughter Uriel. I allowed 3 1/2 hours for her to see Uri- best I could do after Ezra. I tried to...
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Drew Schock, Uriel’s father, said that the deaths of his children were devastating.
“To think of the last moments of her life as a mother is gut-wrenching,” Kaila said.
Drew added, “And that it actually just f**king happened twice. In our lifetime.”
Kaila said her son’s story has gotten lost in her daughter’s. During the investigation into her son’s death, Kaila’s doctor told her she needed to make a choice.
“And I knew in that moment that as much as I loved him, that she was a real life and she was coming and it would be wrong of me to lose her over him and hurt her and take her.”
Kaila and Drew said that after Ezra’s death, they “didn’t trust [Tracey] at all” and would never let their four-year-old firstborn go to the home.
“We were anxious, but I loved my mother and I am a daughter that wanted her mum in her life in some capacity, and in that moment, I thought that I could believe in second chances,” Kaila said.
“When I was told that Ezra’s death was an accident, some sliver child part of me, thought, ‘OK good, I get to keep this mum. This grandmother. This person.’”
A detective wrote that a complaint affidavit for child neglect would be filed and forwarded to the State Attorney’s Office for further review.
Kaila said it wasn’t until charges were filed against her mother in the death of her daughter Uriel that she learned they had attempted to file charges in her son Ezra’s death.
But she told CNN she would never forget what a police officer told her.
“I was told unless I believed that my mum held my son’s head under the water and intentionally killed him, that there is nothing else that they can do about my son’s death,” she said.
The State Attorney’s Office said in a statement to the broadcaster, “In cases involving the accidental drowning of a toddler, Florida appellate courts have stated that a one-time lapse of judgment would not establish culpable negligence of the caretaker.”
If found guilty over Uriel’s death, Tracey faces 12 to 30 years in prison.
Her lawyer, William Fletcher, said Tracey was “totally devastated” by the deaths.
“Because somebody dies doesn’t necessarily mean that somebody has to pay,” he said.
“This obviously was an accident and the question was — is it culpable negligence? Tracey loves her daughter and her son-in-law and all of her children and her grandchildren.”
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