A baby-faced 14-year-old girl accused of beating her grandmother to death after her phone was confiscated was filmed frantically praying in a Florida courtroom just moments before she faced a judge for the first time.
Sofia Koval, who is facing second-degree murder charges in the brutal slaying of Yevheniia Koval, 79, clutched her hands together and gazed up toward the sky in a Broward County Courtroom last Wednesday, video captured by Local10 shows.
The fatal beatdown unfolded the night of May 23 when the schoolgirl was left home alone with her grandmother at her condo in Lauderdale Lakes, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said.
The elderly victim’s bruised and battered body was discovered when her son Vladimir Koval, the teen’s father, returned home just after midnight, according to authorities.
Yevheniia was pronounced dead after first responders rushed her to a nearby hospital.
The victim’s granddaughter was later taken into custody after a medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, investigators said.
Vladimir told authorities his daughter had only just moved to the US from the Ukraine and had allegedly been acting out, according to a heavily redacted affidavit obtained by Law & Crime.
He had taken Koval’s cellphone away to discipline her just hours before the alleged assault, the filling added.
Koval allegedly told her dad that her grandmother had scratched her and she was acting in self-defense.
Shocked neighbors said the teen had been struggling lately because her mom was still in the Ukraine.
“It’s something out of character,” one neighbor said. “She’s been going through a lot because she wants her mom … She can’t get over here.”
Prosecutors have yet to decide if they’ll charge the girl as an adult.
The judge ordered Koval held in secure detention ahead of her next court hearing on June 12.
