3 Girls Charged In The Beating Death Of Amy Joyner-Francis
On Monday, the Delaware Department of Justice announced three teens have been charged in the beating death of 16-year-old Amy Joyner-Francis, who was brutally assaulted on April 21 in the restroom of Howard High School.
An autopsy determined Amy had a pre-exisiting heart defect and the assault caused her to go into cardiac arrest.
Via Delaware Online:
Investigators determined that the fight was a planned confrontation in the girl’s bathroom, but only one girl – 16-year-old Trinity Carr – actually hit Amy that day, according to a statement by the DOJ. The fight was filmed, according to court documents, and shows Carr hitting Amy repeatedly in the head and torso area with “what what appears to be a closed fist.”
The video then shows Carr leave and Amy attempt to stand up from the floor, according to court documents. Amy then appears disoriented, court papers say, and collapses back to the floor. When paramedics found her, she was unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest shortly after.
Carr will be charged with criminally negligent homicide, punishable by up to eight years in prison. Due to the severity of her offense, the DOJ will push to try her as an adult in Superior Court, officials said.
Two other girls, Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright, will be charged with third-degree criminal conspiracy in connection with the assault, punishable by up to one year in prison, according to the DOJ.
Communication, both written and oral, between the three girls showed that they planned the assault in the 20 hours prior to the attack, according to court documents. The three girls followed Amy into the bathroom and then began the assault, court papers say.
Because neither girl hit Amy nor had prior arrests of convictions, they will be tried as juveniles in Family Court, according to the DOJ.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office also played a large role in the charging, according to the DOJ, as an autopsy determined Amy died of “sudden cardiac death due to large atrial septal defect with a contributing factor of physical and emotional stress due to physical assault.” An autopsy showed she did not die of blunt force trauma injuries.
“In layman’s terms, the Medical Examiner determined that Amy died from a cardiac incident that she was vulnerable to because of a pre-existing heart condition, but the cardiac incident would not have occurred if she had not been assaulted,” the statement reads.
Amy Joyner-Francis’ family has not commented on the charges.
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**UPDATED**
The Department of Justice has released a statement explaining the determining factors in how they decided to charge the three teens responsible for Amy’s death.
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