Judith Maria Sobol via the Berrien County Sheriff's Office.
A 42-year-old home healthcare nurse in Michigan will spend several decades behind bars for killing a 3-year-old girl in her care while high on meth.
Berrien County Court Judge Angela Pasula ordered Judith Maria Sobol on Monday to serve a sentence of 30 to 75 years in a state penitentiary for the 2022 death of young Ophelia Mazure, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
Ophelia's mother, Shelby Mazure, testified at Sobol's trial that her daughter had been born with severe medical problems requiring constant monitoring and a ventilator. Sobol had been assigned to watch and care for Ophelia the night she died.
The girl was "a very special child who loved music, loved cartoons, loved going to school, and was growing and thriving," Mazure said at trial, according to local NBC affiliate WNDU.
A jury found Sobol guilty in February of one count of second-degree murder and one count of possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine following a three-day trial.
Officers with the Coloma Township Police Department responded at around 2:30 a.m. on June 20, 2022, to a 911 call about a child not breathing. Upon arriving at the scene — a home located in the 6200 block of East Brecht Road — first responders found Ophelia and both of her parents inside the child's room. Ophelia's father was performing CPR on the little girl; he told police they were not sure how long she had been unconscious.
Police said the victim's parents told them that they walked into their daughter's room and found both their daughter and Sobol lying on the ground. They noted that the child's tracheal breathing tube was nowhere to be found while several of the connecting components were scattered about the room.
The parents told police that they hired Sobol, a registered nurse, to watch their daughter. Both parents were trained in caring for Ophelia, but they hired Sobol to look after her at night while they slept.
But when police arrived on the scene they said Sobol was lying on the ground in the fetal position next to the child, mumbling to herself.
Ophelia was was transported to Spectrum Lakeland Hospital in Watervliet for treatment. However, she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at approximately 4 a.m.
"Through an investigation, the officers found out that was the registered nurse that was supposed to care for the child throughout the night. After the investigation was completed, we determined that she was high on methamphetamines and should not have been in care of that child," Coloma Township Police Chief Wes Smigielski said following Sobol's arrest.
Sobol allegedly confessed that she "shot up" meth before coming to work that evening and admitted she was responsible for Ophelia's death because she was "not in the right state of mind to be at work and should have never come to work at all." She allegedly told investigators that she had also shot up meth before coming to work on each of the four days before the child's tragic death.
South Bend CBS affiliate WSBT reported that the toddler's trachea tube wasn't located until after she arrived at the hospital, where it was found tangled up in her hair.
Sobol, who allegedly had a container of meth and two pipes on her when she was processed, reportedly told police that the trachea tube likely became disconnected when she was cleaning it. She said she likely then "passed out or fell asleep without the trachea tube being properly replaced."
Judge Pasula credited Sobol with 323 days of time served. Sobol will become eligible for parole when she is 71.
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