A baby-faced 14-year-old girl accused of beating her grandmother to death after her phone was confiscated was filmed praying desperately in a Florida courtroom just before facing a judge for the first time.
Sophia Koval, who is charged with second-degree murder for the brutal killing of 79-year-old Yevgenia Koval, was seen in Broward County Court last Wednesday with her hands clasped and looking up to the sky. Local 10 show.
The deadly assault happened the night of May 23 when the female student was left home alone with her grandmother at her Lauderdale Lakes apartment, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said the elderly victim’s bruised body was discovered by her son, Vladimir Koval, the teenage boy’s father, when he returned home just after midnight.
Yevhenia was pronounced dead after being taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital.
The victim’s granddaughter was taken into custody after the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, investigators said.
Vladimir told authorities his daughter had recently moved to the U.S. from Ukraine and was exhibiting behavioral problems. Law and Crime.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants had confiscated Koval’s cell phone just hours before the assault in an attempt to discipline him.
Koval allegedly told his father he acted in self-defense because his grandmother had hurt him.
Shocked neighbours said the girl had been struggling recently as her mother was still in Ukraine.
“It’s not like her character,” one neighbour said. “She’s having a hard time because she wants her mother to come… She can’t come here.”
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to charge the girl as an adult.
The judge ordered Koval held in hard custody ahead of his next court hearing on June 12.
