Chelsea Schobert won her freedom in April when she stood before a Summit County judge and pledged that she would start a new life by caring for her infant daughter.
“She means the world to me. It’s all I care about,” Schobert told the judge.
Only seven months after Schobert’s courtroom vow, however, she is back in prison, and Summit County Children Services has taken temporary custody of the baby and placed her in a foster home, agency officials confirmed.
While Schobert’s life seemed to be headed in the wrong direction before her parents were killed — her former boyfriend, Shawn Eric Ford Jr., 21, was sentenced to death in June for the 2013 slayings of her parents, prominent attorney Jeffrey Schobert and his wife Margaret in New Franklin — case records show many obstacles remain.
The child was born in the summer of 2014, when Schobert, now 20, was serving a 2½-year prison sentence for cocaine trafficking. She and the baby’s father, Chauncey Lee Williams, 34, were arrested together on multiple drug charges in February 2014, and Williams is in the midst of a 4½-year prison sentence.
Following up on a warning this past spring when Schobert appeared in court, Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce decided to send Schobert back to prison in mid-October for violating the terms of her judicial release based on a series of run-ins with Akron and Cuyahoga Falls police.
According to probation records obtained by the Beacon Journal, Schobert “has stuggled since her release from prison.”
The records say she “continues to engage in high risk behaviors and refuses to distance herself from negative peers.” She has “continued to lie,” the report says, and to be “deceitful” about her activities.
After Croce had ordered her not to violate any laws, saying there would be “no excuses,” Schobert was arrested Aug. 6 on misdemeanor charges of permitting an unlicensed driver, obstructing official business and making false alarms.
She is back at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, where it is expected that she will spend the next 14 months to complete her original sentence on her drug conviction, her attorney said.
Jessica Schobert, the couple’s older daughter, spoke last at Ford’s capital sentencing hearing in June. Her words were so moving, as she told Ford that her parents “loved you as their own,” veteran police officers were weeping in the gallery.
Afterward, she said that she and Chelsea were “making progress” in their relationship, and left it at that.
Jessica, 26, has been working full-time since August as a paralegal in Columbus, fulfilling her vow to pursue a career in law as her father did. In a response to a Beacon Journal email request for comment this week, she gave no indication of a split with her sister.
Chelsea, she said, “is an adult and must make her own choices as far as seeking counseling” or other help in dealing with her problems.
“I am hoping for the best possible outcome for her, but that is not up to me,” she said. “All I can do if she reaches out is encourage her to use the resources available for her and give her advice on making the right decisions, which I have tried to do. The rest is up to her.”
She declined to comment on Chelsea’s daughter, saying she wished “to protect the baby’s privacy and the privacy of all involved.”
The adult probation department’s “Violation Memo” on Chelsea Schobert consists of four pages of records from the police run-ins.
On July 27, Schobert’s SUV was stopped by Akron police for reckless operation. Three male juveniles were inside, according to the police report, and one jumped into the backseat before officers could determine who was driving.
Schobert showed up at the scene and told officers that she allowed the youths to use her car, while admitting she knew that none of the three had a driver’s license.
An officer told her not to leave until he issued a citation, the report stated, but she did anyway. She was cited later for permitting an unlicensed driver and obstructing police business.
On Aug. 3 at 11 p.m., Schobert’s vehicle was involved in a high-speed chase with Falls police. After the pursuit was called off, the vehicle crashed and two unidentified occupants fled.
Schobert called some two hours later, at 12:45 a.m., to report that her car had been stolen at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue and South Maple Street. She told police that she and a 17-year-old got out of the car after arguing, and that someone then jumped into the car and drove off.
After Akron police investigated her claims, a warrant was issued for her arrest and she was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor of lying to police (making false alarms).
Schobert’s probation report also stated that detectives investigated what became known as the Circle K gas station “Mob and Rob” on West Market Street late at night on July 24. Security videos appeared to identify Schobert’s vehicle “driving through the parking lot” during the chaos, the report stated.
In the CSB case plan for her daughter, she was required to pursue an education, obtain employment and move from the neighborhood where she had been living. She struggled to meet all of those requirements, the report stated, and failed to take advantage of help from her case worker and guardian ad litem.
Except to confirm that Schobert’s daughter is in foster care, CSB spokesman Christopher Vasco said he could not comment about plans for the child once Schobert is released from prison.
The earliest date on possible judicial release once again after she completes 80 percent of her sentence, prison records show, is next year on Sept. 12.
By then, her daughter will be 2 years old.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.