Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Friday 2 March 2018

Court overturns conviction in

fatal school bathroom attack

By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Delaware's Supreme Court on
Thursday overturned the conviction of a 17-year-old
girl in a school bathroom attack that left a 16-year-old
classmate dead.
The girl was adjudicated delinquent for criminally neg-
ligent homicide by a Family Court judge last year and
sentenced to six months in a juvenile facility for the April
2016 death of Amy Joyner-Francis.
An autopsy found that Joyner-Francis, who had a rare,
undetected, heart condition, died of sudden cardiac
death, aggravated by physical and emotional stress
from the fight at Howard High School of Technology
in Wilmington. Cellphone video of the attack, which
gained national attention, shows Joyner-Francis strug-
gling to fight back and escape as she is repeatedly hit
and kicked in the head while her assailant holds on to
In this image from video, Yoselyn Ortega, a trusted nanny to a well-to-do family, listens to court her hair.
proceedings during the first day of her trial, in New York, Thursday, March 1, 2018. In October In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with
2012 Ortega took two young children in her care into a bathroom at their Manhattan apartment,
slaughtered them with a knife and then slit her own throat. defense attorney John Deckers that no reasonable
(WYNY-TV/Pool Photo via AP) fact-finder could have found that the girl acted with
criminal negligence. Even if she did, the court said, it
Woman testifies about kids slain by nanny would be unjust to blame her for Joyner-Francis' death
given how unforeseeable it was that the fight would
By COLLEEN LONG the Oct. 25, 2012, killing, Krim said she saw Lucia first, lead to a young teen dying of cardiac arrest.
Associated Press waiting until she was alone and knew instantly that she The Associated Press has not published the name of the
NEW YORK (AP) — The Man- in the apartment, selected was dead, because her girl because she is a juvenile. The Supreme Court in its
hattan apartment was eeri- two knives from the kitchen eyes were fixed. ruling referred to the defendant using the pseudonym
ly quiet, unusual for a home and then killed 2-year-old "And I look next to her and I "Tracy," while referring to Joyner-Francis as "Alcee."
with three little kids. All the Leo and 6-year-old Lucia, see Leo, and he has blood The justices said a person can't be held responsible for
lights were off, except for who went by Lulu. on him ... blood all over Lu- criminally negligent homicide unless her failure to per-
the glow of a bathroom Krim was at a swimming lu's little dress ..." Krim said. ceive the risk of death was a "gross deviation from what
light. That's where Marina class with their then 3-year- Before she took the a reasonable person would have understood." No rea-
Krim found her two chil- old daughter, Nessie. She stand, Krim turned on the sonable fact-finder could conclude that the attack,
dren — covered in blood, ran outside with Nessie and courtroom floor and an- which inflicted only minor injuries on Joyner-Francis,
slaughtered by the family's called for help after finding grily faced Ortega, who posed a risk of death so great that her assailant was
trusted nanny. her kids, and then started showed no emotion. Krim grossly deviant for not recognizing it, the court conclud-
"It's like a horror movie," she screaming. said she wanted to get a ed.
said Thursday, testifying in "It was a scream you can't good look at the woman. While the Family Court judge said the girl should have
the murder trial of the care- imagine is even inside of The jurors sat quietly as Krim realized that her attack might have deadly conse-
taker, Yoselyn Ortega. "I go you," she said. "I don't even struggled to explain the quences because of the close confines of the bath-
down, I walk down the hall know where it came from. I deaths through tears. room, with its tile floor and hard fixtures, the Supreme
and I see the light on under just thought: I'm never go- As she left the silent court- Court said Joyner Francis' death had nothing to do with
the back of the door, and ing to be able to talk to room, Krim yelled to Orte- those risks, and they were too far removed from the
I'm like, 'Oh God it's so quiet them ever again. They are ga: "You're gross. You're way that she died to blame her assailant for her death.
in here, oh God. Why is it so dead. I just saw my kids disgusting." Deckers did not immediately return email and phone
... quiet?'" dead.'" The only time Ortega ap- messages. A spokesman for the attorney general’s of-
"And I open the door ... The central mystery of the peared to show any emo- fice said prosecutors are disappointed but respect the
And I open the door, oh trial isn't whether Ortega tion was when she shook court’s decision.
God!" she wept. killed the children, but why her head during Krim's tes- While overturning the Family Court ruling, the justices
Krim was the first witness at she did it — and whether timony on using Ortega as did not excuse the girl’s behavior.q
Ortega's trial. Prosecutors she was too mentally ill to a housekeeper as well as a
said the nanny planned be held responsible. caregiver. q