3 Girls Charged in High School Bathroom Murder

09 May, 2016

Amy Inita Joyner-Francis, the 16-year-old fatally assaulted in the girls bathroom at Howard High School of Technology, did not die of injuries sustained in the beating, but from a pre-existing heart condition exacerbated by the attack.

The state Attorney General’s Office is pushing to have one of three girls involved tried as an adult. Trinity Carr, 16, seen in video punching Joyner-Francis in the head and chest, is charged with criminally negligent homicide, punishable by up to eight years in prison.

The two other girls, Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright, will be charged with third-degree criminal conspiracy, punishable by up to one year in prison.

Investigators determined the April 21 fight was a planned confrontation in the girl’s bathroom, but only one girl – Carr – actually hit Amy, according to a statement by the Attorney General’s Office.

The fight was filmed, according to court documents, and shows Carr hitting Amy repeatedly in the head and torso area with “what appears to be a closed fist.”

The video shows Carr leave and Amy try to stand up; then Amy appears disoriented and collapses back onto the floor, the court documents show. When paramedics found her, she was unresponsive and shortly after went into cardiac arrest.

Communication 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 of the other two girls hit Amy nor had prior arrests, they will be tried as juveniles in Family Court.

The state Medical Examiner’s Office played a large role in deciding on the charges, the Attorney General’s Office said. The 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.

“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.

Dr. George Moutsatsos, a New Castle County based cardiologist and president of Delaware’s branch of the American College of Cardiology, said an atrial septal defect is a hole in the wall that separates the top left and right chambers of the heart. The condition causes freshly oxygenated blood to mix with deoxygenated blood.

“You are really sending out very low oxygenated blood to the body which under stress needs a lot of oxygen,” Moutsatsos said. “She was a vulnerable person. She fell into the wrong circumstances and unfortunately no one knew this.”

The charges are a reflection of the “maximum degree permissible by Delaware law,” according to the Attorney General’s Office. All charges were reviewed with Amy’s mother and older brother.

They come more than two weeks after the attack shook the city and state and gained national attention. Wilmington police completed their investigation Thursday and turned over evidence to the Attorney’s General Office to determine the charges. Their spokesman, Carl Kanefsky, said late Thursday the state intended to deliver charges promptly.

New Castle County Vo-Tech School District will “follow through with necessary actions for the students involved in the incident based on the school district’s Code of Conduct,” said Superintendent Vicki Gehrt in a statement Monday.

“Our responsibility is to follow school board policy and procedures for all students involved,” she said. The school did not offer further comment.

Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams said in a statement Monday that the Howard High incident is a tragedy.

“From the beginning, the Wilmington Police Department and the Department of Justice worked hand-and-hand to determine the appropriate charges,” he said. “This is just the first step toward providing Amy’s family and our community with closure. As this process moves forward, I ask that we keep the family and loved ones of everyone involved in our thoughts and prayers.”

Friends and family described Joyner-Francis as a compassionate, soft-spoken student who always worked to disrupt violence and reduce fighting. Many said the sophomore at Howard High was never the type of girl to be caught up in high school drama. She was enrolled in the dental assistant program.

In a bookmark-sized card handed out to those who attended Amy’s memorial service May 1 at St. Paul Union American Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Joyner-Francis’ mom described her as “extremely beautiful, so very thoughtful, awesomely intelligent, very, very talented and definitely one of a kind.”

“You are simply marvelous my dear!!!” the memorial card read. “Hugs and smooches, you will be my heart always and forever, my beautiful sweetpea.”

The family has not commented publicly on the attack and has not spoken directly with the media. Through various spokespeople representing them, the family has called for peace following Amy’s death, as well as an end to social media lies that spread viciously in the days following the assault. All other services honoring Amy were private.

Deleware Online

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