SHEBOYGAN — It’s been almost a year and a half since 4-year-old Cordelia Kuether’s life was taken from her.
The Sheboygan girl was struck by a car when she bent down to pet a dog while on a walk with her mom and sister.
"She would've just finished her first year of school,” her mother, Ezra Cruz said in an exclusive interview with me.
The man responsible for the crash is Nathan Heitzmann, 25. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the killing on Tuesday, followed by 10 years of extended supervision.
Now Cruz is picking up the pieces with her family, for her only remaining child, Lillith.
"[Cordelia] always spoke for her, she fed her. She was a great big mama's helper," she recalled.
Ezra had to move away from Sheboygan following Cordelia's death because it was too difficult to drive past the intersection that held the memories of her worst day.
She was one of several family members who gave victim impact statements in court.
In her speech, she recounted her debilitating PTSD. Her sudden episodes prohibited her from keeping her job at Sartori Cheese, which required her to be in the freezers part of the time.
“Anything cold…if I held it in my hands, it just brought me back to that day.”
“I remember tucking her into bed the night before,” Cordelia’s father Devon Kuether said. “And then I got the call.”
Her grandmothers gave tearful accounts of their experiences losing their granddaughter too.
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On that fateful day in May of 2023, Heitzmann reportedly had THC in his system. He claimed he had smoked marijuana the week prior and was not under the influence at the time of the crash.
Watch: Family speaks out after man sentenced for causing death of 4-year-old girl
But he was also speeding, driving without a valid driver’s license, and did not stop at the stop sign.
These factors caused him to run into another car, which was the vehicle that spun out of control and hit Cordelia and her family.
It was later reported a cross went missing at her memorial, one that sat in a private yard at the site of her death.
Heitzmann said he does not remember taking it. The judge sentencing him said she could not ignore that incident and weighed it into her final judgment.
“That was a cruel thing to do,” the judge said. “He did something to throw salt on the wound of this grieving family.”
In addition to his homicide sentence, Heitzmann was also ordered to an additional two years in prison and three years extended supervision for felony bail jumping. These run not concurrently, but consecutively to his first portion of time served in the homicide conviction.
Heitzmann decided to issue a statement in court as well.
"I know me saying sorry doesn't change anything, but I am truly sorry for your loss,” he said, glancing up at the family.
"I can appreciate what he said to us,” Cruz offered.
“He didn't have to say anything, so the fact that he chose to apologize - it means a lot," Cordelia’s grandmother, Risha Capetillo added.
She tells me she’s relieved to be done with court because each time a new hearing was scheduled the anger rose up all over again.
Now, they can file all those emotions away and focus on healing and remembering all the best parts of Cordelia who was spunky, lively, and often too smart for her own good.
"'How about a deal, grandma? How about I make this deal?' She was always two steps ahead, so you had to be three steps ahead,” Capetillo smiled.
"She'd always say, 'Bye mom, go make money,’” Cruz recalled, laughing. “I was like, 'You don't miss me? No.’ Because then she knew it was grandma time."
The whole family’s goal going forward is to support Lillith, who is now the same age as Cordelia when she passed. They’re doing that by making sure she’s surrounded by love and only the best memories of her sister.
"We don't want her to be in her shadow. But acknowledging that sister was brave, and sister was adventurous, sister was smart,” Ceptillo said. “She was ready to conquer the world. We said when she passed, she had four years with 40 years of experience."
