A 17-year-old Delaware girl convicted in a school bathroom attack that left a 16-year-old classmate dead was sentenced Monday to six months in a juvenile facility.
The girl was convicted of criminally negligent homicide by a Family Court judge in April in the 2016 death of Amy Joyner-Francis. Cellphone video of the attack shows Joyner-Francis struggling to fight back and escape as she is repeatedly hit and kicked in the head while her assailant holds on to her hair.
The convicted teen will be sent to a secure, residential treatment program for juvenile delinquents. After her release, she will face additional court supervision and programs until age 19, followed by two years probation. She also must perform 500 hours of community service.
A 17-year-old co-defendant who was convicted of conspiracy for helping plan the attack and was seen on the video kicking Joyner-Francis while she was on floor was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 300 hours of community service.
A third defendant was acquitted of a conspiracy charge.
None of the defendants testified at their April trial. The Associated Press is not publishing their names because they are juveniles.
Family Court Judge Robert Coonin in April agreed with prosecutors that the fatal encounter was an attack, not a fight.
An autopsy found that Joyner-Francis died of sudden cardiac death, aggravated by physical and emotional stress from the April 2016 fight at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington. The girl had a rare heart condition undetected by her doctors.
Defense attorneys argued that her death was unforeseeable.
This is an extraordinarily difficult case, and it has been from the beginning, Coonin said Monday, adding that everyone has lost.
The community has lost, the defendants and their families have lost, and most importantly, Amys family has lost, said Coonin, who criticized social medias effects on modern society, saying it filters out emotional cues that come from personal interaction.
He told the girl convicted of homicide that social media had interfered with developing an appropriate sense of humanity and allowed her to put ego ahead of thoughts and feelings about the well-being of others.
Coonin prohibited both defendants from using social media while serving their sentences.
Neither girl spoke in court. Both submitted written statements to the judge, but the statements were not read in court.
Prosecutors traced the conflict to an online group chat the day before the attack, when Joyner-Francis had offered advice to a friend about a problem involving a boy, telling her friend to just be careful. Joyner-Francis warned that someone might switch up, or betray another person. A police detective said the assailant thought Joyner-Francis was talking about her as the possible traitor.
A Snapchat posting by one of the defendants that same day shows Joyner-Francis talking to her alleged assailant in the bathroom, purportedly to try to defuse the situation. The posting notes that the girl later convicted of homicide was bouta fight her, followed by several emojis indicating that a person was laughing so hard she was crying.
In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Phillip Casale, Joyner-Franciss mother urged the judge to sentence her attackers to prison.
It will be a disgrace if these two girls do not serve time for the crime they committed, the letter read.
The family declined to comment after the sentencing.
John Deckers, an attorney for Joyner-Francis assailant, urged Coonin to impose a sentence affirming that actions have consequences but keeping with the Family Courts focus on rehabilitation, rather than punishment.
We are not the worst thing weve ever done in our life. Children should not be judged based on the worst things theyve ever done, Deckers said.
Noting that Delaware has no lock-down facility for juvenile girls, Coonin declined to send the girl to an out-of-state prison. He concluded, however, that she should serve time in a restricted-access residential setting.
Words alone cannot ever undo the permanent damage and the hurt that youve done, he told her.
#1: A K A Stone To: cranky (#0)
A K A Stone posted on 2017-06-06 06:57:03 Reply Private Reply
#2: Stoner To: A K A Stone (#1)
Using a slow, very painful method !!
And being sentenced Monday to six months in a juvenile facility, I would think the judge deserves some of that as well !!!
Stoner posted on 2017-06-06 07:33:51 Reply Private Reply
#3: cranky To: A K A Stone (#1)
I'm not sure I'd wait that long.
cranky posted on 2017-06-06 08:24:31 Reply Private Reply
#4: cranky To: Stoner (#2)
A 'secure, residential treatment program', actually.
cranky posted on 2017-06-06 08:27:26 Reply Private Reply
#5: Tooconservative To: cranky (#0)
Tooconservative posted on 2017-06-06 11:44:24 Reply Private Reply
#6: BorisY To: cranky (#0)
black rage
again
love
boris
ps
don'T These animals learn morals - righT - wrong anymore
BorisY posted on 2017-06-06 15:40:35 Reply Private Reply
#7: BorisY To: Tooconservative (#5)
should go on Trial
punished - eliminaTed Too
love
boris
ps
ThaT would crack the lib monopoly on poliTics - governmenT
BorisY posted on 2017-06-06 15:44:04 Reply Private Reply
#8: John_Henry_DaDum To: cranky (#0)
Six months, I wonder if the dead girls male relatives will be waiting for her the day she is released.
John_Henry_DaDum posted on 2017-06-06 21:02:02 Reply Private Reply
#9: sneakypete To: cranky (#0)
Then why didn't the idiotic SOB give those girls had time? They MURDERED the other girl,period. Is murder ok if you are a teenage girl? Not knowing about the other girl's heart condition doesn't mean diddly to me. They sure as hell knew they were stressing the girl out emotionally,and kicking her in the head wasn't going to do anything to help her. Like some TeeBee detective used to say,"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."
sneakypete posted on 2017-06-06 21:38:00 Reply Private Reply
#10: sneakypete To: cranky (#4)
Let's just hope the poor darling isn't too traumatized by doing the hard time in juvie.
sneakypete posted on 2017-06-06 21:39:20 Reply Private Reply
#11: sneakypete To: BorisY (#6)
Doesn't seem likely since the dead girl was black,and so were her attackers.
Which is probably why they got 6 months in juvie. If the attackers had been white,they would have gotten life in an adult prison.
Some people really ARE more "special" in America than other people.
sneakypete posted on 2017-06-06 21:43:58 Reply Private Reply
#12: BorisY To: sneakypete (#11)
naTives are angry - hungry - resTless
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
love
boris
ps
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
BorisY posted on 2017-06-06 22:35:51 Reply Private Reply
#13: Fred Mertz To: cranky (#0)
A rare heart condition, more BS.
Fred Mertz posted on 2017-06-06 22:51:31 Reply Private Reply
#14: cranky To: Tooconservative (#5)
That seems about right for the actual criminal offense.
But I'd tack on a couple of decades for the conspiracy to plan the attack.
cranky posted on 2017-06-07 07:22:58 Reply Private Reply
#15: A K A Stone To: cranky (#14)
A K A Stone posted on 2017-06-07 08:00:13 Reply Private Reply
#16: cranky To: sneakypete (#9)
That is baffling.
But i would have characterized the attack as an 'ambush' and locked all of them up for as long as the law allowed.
cranky posted on 2017-06-07 08:42:07 Reply Private Reply
#17: sneakypete To: Fred Mertz (#13)
No,it is possible,but still irrelevant. If the girls hadn't attacked her so viciously,she wouldn't have died regardless of her heart condition.
Her heart condition was no excuse to give her murderers leniency. The only situation where that might have been relevant would be if the dead girl had been the one to start the fight,and it had only been one girl fighting her,not two holding her down and taking turns kicking her in the body and head.
Those girls bought that ticket,and they need to take that ride.
sneakypete posted on 2017-06-07 13:51:46 Reply Private Reply
#18: Tooconservative To: cranky (#14)
You don't really think you'd get a sentence like that out of a Delaware jury and court, do you? A very liberal state, pretty soft on crime.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-06-07 14:30:37 Reply Private Reply