Judge weighing whether to try Delaware girl as adult in fatal school fight
Staff and parents gathered in prayer near a makeshift memorial honoring Joyner-Francis outside Howard High in April. (File/WHYY)
A police detective says a Delaware high school student who died after an assault in a girls’ restroom suffered cuts and bruises and had her fingernails ripped out.
The testimony came Monday at a Family Court hearing to decide whether a 16-year-old girl charged in the death of Amy Joyner-Francis should be tried as an adult.
The defendant, charged with criminally negligent homicide and conspiracy, is accused of repeatedly hitting 16-year-old Joyner-Francis in a premeditated attack April 21 at Wilmington’s Howard High School of Technology. Two other girls are charged with conspiracy.
The Associated Press is not naming them because they are juveniles.
Joyner-Francis had a pre-existing heart condition. Authorities say she suffered sudden cardiac death, with a contributing factor of physical and emotional stress due to physical assault.
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