A Central Florida grandmother has been sentenced to five years in prison, nearly two-and-a-half years after her infant granddaughter died in a hot car while in her care.
Tracey Nix was previously found guilty of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, causing great bodily harm after she left 7-month-old Uriel Schock in an SUV on Nov. 1, 2022, having returned home from taking the infant to lunch with friends. A jury had found her not guilty of aggravated manslaughter, which carried between 12 and 30 years in prison.
Nix, a former school principal, had gone inside at around 2 p.m, talked to her dog and practiced playing the piano “for a long time” before remembering her granddaughter was still in the car, according to an arrest affidavit, as reported by Fox 13 Tampa. Temperatures outside in Hardee County had reached around 90 degrees that day.
At around 5 p.m., Nix realized she had left her granddaughter in the car with the windows rolled up. Nix’s husband desperately began performing CPR, but the girl died of hyperthermia, according to investigators.
The deadly incident came not even a year after Nix’s other grandchild, 16-month-old Ezra Schock, drowned while in Nix’s care after the grandmother fell asleep. The Hardee County Sheriff’s Office said the little boy opened doors, went under a fence and wandered into a pond near his grandparents’ home.
Emotions ran high in court on Thursday, as Schocks’ parents both spoke about their loss and the sadness about seeing Nix being sentenced.
Kaila Nix-Schock, the girl’s mother, turned directly to her mother while talking about her ongoing trauma, having lost two of her children.
“I still love you. I hate this,” Nix-Schock said in tears, according to Fox 13 Tampa. “I hate that I have to choose, but you know I had to. But it doesn’t change my heart.”
Drew Schock, baby Uriel’s father, spoke about the extra steps he and Kaila Nix-Schock had taken to protect Uriel after Ezra’s death.
“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. “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, per the outlet.
Nix, who had declined to testify in her own defense, said during sentencing that she did not realize the infant was in the car.
“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.”
Nix, who worked as a principal and educator in Hardee County for nearly 40 years, was formerly described as “highly regarded,” and sought mental health treatment following her arrest.
The judge in the case handed down the maximum sentence and said that she had shown no remorse.
“Uriel is not an isolated incident. I do not believe she is showing remorse; I believe she is showing sorrow,” Judge Brandon Rafool said.
Nun Ney Nix, Tracey Nix’s husband, said that his wife had mourned in silence and that she rarely went outside.
Last year there were 40 recorded hot car deaths in the U.S., according to data compiled by Kids and Car Safety, a group that compiles data on child hot car deaths and advocates for better car safety standards.
