A Florida family is living a nightmare now that a 65-year-old grandmother is being held responsible for the deaths of two of her grandchildren – who died 11 months apart. While she wasn’t charged with the death of her grandson in December 2021, she’s now being charged with the death of her granddaughter in November 2022.
In December 2021, she was watching her 16-month-old grandson – Ezra Schock – when she accidentally fell asleep. She eventually woke up, but couldn’t find the toddler. It wasn’t until she called her husband to help search for the toddler that they discovered Ezra face down – dead – in a pond in their backyard.
How? Florida grandmom charged after 2 grandkids die in her care less than year apart https://t.co/Q2l7xSwpFU #Tracey Nix #Kalia Nix #Drew Schock pic.twitter.com/N0boG36m6k
— Scallywagandvagabond (@ScallywagNYC) March 30, 2023
11 months later, the grandmother took her 7-month-old granddaughter – Uriel Schock – to lunch with some of her friends. Upon arriving home, she accidentally left Uriel in her SUV with the windows closed. It wasn’t until hours later that she realized Uriel was in the car, but it was too late – she died due to the heat.
The victims’ mother, Kaila Nix, and father, Drew Schock, are opening up about the nightmare they’ve experienced over the past year and a half – first losing their 16-month-old son, Ezra, and now losing their 7-month-old daughter, Uriel, both of whom were under the care of their grandmother (Kaila’s mother).
Kaila recalls the moment she found out something was wrong with her son. She was six months pregnant with Uriel when she got the phone call. She immediately got in her car and ended up getting in a head-on collision before running to her mother’s house without shoes – describing the desperation she was in.
Tracey Nix drove home from lunch with her friends that day and "just forgot" her granddaughter Uriel in the back seat of an SUV parked in her yard, with the windows rolled up.
— PhilSTAR L!fe (@philstarlife) April 1, 2023
READ: https://t.co/52Rna3zlmI pic.twitter.com/fIMsM0Sd3W
After their son’s death, Kaila and Drew were reluctant to trust the grandmother. “We were anxious, but I loved my mother and I am a daughter that wanted her mom in her life in some capacity, and at that moment, I thought that I could believe in second chances,” Kaila told ABC Action News a few days ago.
When she allowed her mother to supervise her 7-month-old daughter, Kaila made sure she knew where they were going to be and who they were going to be with. Not expecting another tragedy to occur, she was shocked when a police officer showed up at her home and shared the tragic news of her daughter.
“And I said, ‘I’m sorry, what? I know Ezra’s dead. Why are you here, like … what is this?’ ‘No, Kaila, your baby is dead,’” she explained. Kaila initially thought the police officer was talking about her son, Ezra because she never would’ve imagined the tragedy happening twice. Unfortunately, that’s what happened.
The grandmother is Being Charged With Aggravated Manslaughter
After the death of Ezra (the son), the grandmother wasn’t charged because they couldn’t establish culpable negligence – “one-time lapse of judgment would not establish culpable negligence of the caretaker,” a state attorney explained. No charges were filed and the grandmother was let off scot-free.
While culpable negligence couldn’t be established in the death of Ezra, it could be established in the death of Uriel. As a result, the grandmother is being charged with aggravated manslaughter and is facing anywhere from 12-30 years in prison if found guilty of culpable negligence.
“If I’m objective — she needs to go to prison. As her daughter, it kills me to say it. As their mother, I demand it. I will fight for them,” said Kaila. While she doesn’t want to see her mother go to prison if found guilty, she wants justice for her two children who were taken far too soon – a difficult predicament.
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“I want justice for my son. I want justice because he didn’t get that. And now I got to sit here and expose this. That way, I don’t let what happened to my son happen with my daughter. And just get off scot-free because I couldn’t live with that as a parent,” said Drew, the father of the two deceased children.