Tracey Nix, Florida grandmother sentenced to 5 years after second grandchild dying under her care, the first to drowning and the second, for 7 month old baby girl for which she was punished, to hot car death. Case leaves a family fractured as the woman’s daughter and the children’s mother, and her husband, Drew and Kaila Nix-Schock testify against her mother.
Maybe the first time it was pure bad luck…. but the second time?
A Florida grandmother was on Thursday sentenced to 5 years jail, two and half years after her infant granddaughter dying a hot car death in Hardee County. The sentencing follows the grandparent now losing two children — less than one year apart — while babysitting her infant grandchildren as a result of hyperthermia caused by hot car death.
Tracey Nix prior to Thursday’s sentencing had been convicted in January of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, causing great bodily harm. At the time, the jury did not find the grandparent guilty of aggravated manslaughter, in which case she faced a potential 30 years jail.
Florida grandmother said she wasn’t making excuses
The conviction follows Nix leaving 7-month-old girl, Uriel Schock in her SUV car after returning to her Hardee County home from lunch with friends on Nov. 1, 2022.
Nix, a former school principal, had gone inside at around 2 p.m, practiced playing the piano ‘for a long time’ before remembering her granddaughter was still in the car, according to an arrest affidavit, Fox 13 Tampa reported.
It wasn’t until temperatures reaching the 90’s that afternoon before the 7 month old girl was removed from the vehicle just on 5 p.m. But by then it was too late, with the baby girl determined to have died as the result of sustained time in a vehicle, where she suffered from raised internal body heat temperature leading to her hyperthermia death.
During Nix’s trial, friends who met Nix for lunch that day testified on her behalf saying they’d known her for decades and she was a loving grandmother. Nix declined to testify in her own defense.
‘I literally forgot for a long period of time,’ Nix said. ‘I’m broken about what happened. I don’t want to leave anyone with the thought that I’m making excuses, because I’m not.’
Parents of grandchildren whose lives were lost left conflicted
Nevertheless there did appear to be a recurring pattern. One that left Nix’s daughter, and her husband conflicted following the death of their two young children, with the parents previously saying they wanted justice served.
Uriel’s death was not the first grandchild to die while under the care of the grandmother but in fact, the second. In December 2021, 16-month-old Ezra Schock died after he opened doors, went under a fence and wandered into a pond outside Nix’s Wauchula home, only to drown, according to deputies.
Charges in that case were eventually dropped, and the trial judge ruled it could not be mentioned to the jury in the case.
Baby Uriel’s father, Drew Schock, became emotional during Thursday’s sentencing hearing as he talked about the extra steps he and Kaila Nix-Schock had taken to protect Uriel after the death of Ezra.
‘There are some things you don’t think about, and as parents we have to live with that for the rest of our lives,’ Schock said.
Tracey Nix sentenced to the maximum term of 5 years
‘She’s done this twice and the fact that we’re debating whether she deserves jail time is just insane to me,’ Schock said moments later.
Kaila Nix-Schock also showed strong emotion in the courtroom on Thursday, turning directly to her mother while talking about the trauma she continues to endure after the deaths of two of her children.
‘I still love you. I hate this,’ Nix-Schock said through tears. ‘I hate that I have to choose, but you know I had to. But it doesn’t change my heart.’
Tracey Nix also testified in her own defense during the hearing, speaking tearfully to Kaila at one point.
‘I love you, and I’ve always loved you with all my heart,’ Nix said. ‘I tell you that because I can’t imagine how I would have acted and reacted had you been taken from me.’
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Nix to five years in prison, while the defense argued for a lesser sentence.
The judge, however, said Nix showed no remorse for what happened, imposing the maximum five-year sentence.
‘Uriel is not an isolated incident. I do not believe she is showing remorse; I believe she is showing sorrow,’ Judge Rafool said.
‘I have made a final determination here. I am not putting people on probation to be walking around this community to rehash an issue or for something to come up. I have sentenced her to five years in prison. I want this community to move on,’ said Rafool.
Nix will serve her five-year sentence with credit for time already served.
‘Five years is really a drop in the bucket. We will spend the rest of our lives – our son will grow up without his brother and sister. Five years to me, is it justice? No, not really. But it’s what we could have gotten,’ said Drew Schock.
Drew and Kaila Schock expressed Nix’s sentencing will finally allow them to begin their grieving process.
Said Tracey Nix’s daughter, Kalia Schock: ‘I loved and adored my children. I also love and adore my family. I think this hearing really demonstrated the tortured nature of the entire event. The love for my family is real, but the love for my children supersedes everything.’
