Joyner verdict shows 'consequences' of actions

Delaware Family Court Judge Robert Coonin on Thursday found Trinity Carr, 17, guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree criminal conspiracy for the death of her classmate Amy Inita Joyner-Francis at a high school in Wilmington last year.

Coonin found Zion Snow, also 17, delinquent of third-degree criminal conspiracy. Chakiera Wright, another classmate, was found not delinquent of criminal conspiracy.

A delinquent finding in Family Court is a guilty verdict. Because they were tried as juveniles, sentences may not include jail time. Prosecutors initially sought to try Carr as an adult but Coonin denied the request.

The judge will consider the severity of the crime and the teens’ past history when he determines punishments next month.

Prosecutors had argued Carr, Wright and Snow planned an "attack" on Joyner-Francis, a term Coonin also used to describe the confrontation.

It was “not a fight between two teenagers squaring off to settle a mutual grievance,” Coonin said. “(Carr) struck the first blow without warning, carried on a relatively brief but violent attack … and she had to be pulled off her victim.”

There was not sufficient evidence to show Wright had participated in the plan, Coonin said.

“In the restroom video, unlike Trinity Carr who is the principal attacker, and Zion Snow who is seen kicking Amy Joyner-Francis while she is down, Chakeira Wright is shown pulling Trinity Carr off,” he said.

Joyner-Francis was 16 when she died April 21, 2016, following the violent encounter with Carr at Howard High School of Technology. Dozens of girls watched the confrontation as it unfolded in the school's second-floor bathroom, and at least two recorded parts of it on their cell phones.

The prosecution played the video clips, which showed Carr punching and kicking a prone Joyner-Francis after she had fallen to the floor. After onlookers pulled Carr away, Joyner-Francis could be seen clinging to what appeared to be Carr's shirt.

Joyner-Francis died a short time later after her breathing became labored and she lost consciousness while lying on the floor in the handicap bathroom stall, according to testimony by students and faculty.

Following the judge’s ruling, prosecutor Sean Lugg thanked the teachers at Howard: “they’re maintaining the integrity of that very fine school.”

The verdict, he said, shows that "consequences of one's actions must be something that’s considered, and kids as much as adults should be thinking about that.”

Dr. Adrienne Sekula-Perlman, the state medical examiner, testified that Joyner-Francis suffered sudden cardiac death brought on by a rare combination of heart and lung defects. Contributing factors included the emotional and physical stress of the violent encounter, which triggered a fight-or-flight response, she said.

The autopsy of Joyner-Francis' body revealed she had a hole in the atrium of her heart and stiffened, narrow arteries in her lungs. She also suffered soft tissue injuries from the fight, said Sekula-Perlman, who called the case a homicide and said the teen "would probably still be alive" if not for the stress of the confrontation.

A witness for the defense, Dr. Richard Ringel, a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said the severity of Joyner-Francis' rare condition made it impossible to conclude whether Joyner-Francis likely would be alive today.

“It might have been the next day or sometime down the road,” he said.

Coonin indicated how long she might have lived had the fight not occurred wasn't relevant to the charges. The evidence, he said, shows "beyond a reasonable doubt that the death of Amy Joyner-Francis was caused by the action of Trinity Carr."

"While it may be true that Amy Joyner-Francis, due to her condition, could have died from a multitude of stressors ... she had a right to live one more day, one more week, one more month or year until her time, without a contributing cause by another," Coonin said.

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Carr's reaction in the months following the confrontation was one of “a great deal of confusion as to how this could have ever possibly happened," said John Deckers, her attorney.

Deckers and the other defense attorneys during trial argued the confrontation, while tragic, was between mutual combatants and no one, even doctors, could have predicted its deadly result. Lugg reiterated on Tuesday that the confrontation was an "attack," and "not a fight."

During proceedings, the attorneys litigated questions such as what a “reasonable” person should expect as a result of a fight, what type of clothing is worn by kids preparing to fight, and whether Joyner-Francis was a victim of a planned attack by the defendants, as prosecutors alleged.

Coonin, in his ruling, said the question of what a reasonable person expects depends on one's age – an opinion that likely will set a new legal precedent in Delaware, said Romie Griesmer, supervising attorney and lecturer at Widener University Delaware Law School.

"This is the first time a Delaware court addressed the issue of whether a youth’s age should be considered in the negligence standard, in terms of the state of mind of the defendant,” Griesmer said. “And the judge did find that it certainly was appropriate.”

Still, Coonin said high school students should know that a fight could result in serious injury. Carr's failure to perceive the risk assumed in the attack constituted a "gross deviation" from the standard of conduct of her peers, he said.

"The attack ... posed a risk of potential catastrophic physical harm including death by virtue of the tile floor, walls and fixtures," Coonin said. "Had a death resulted from internal bleeding after striking her head on the floor, would that result in any way change the risk that the assault itself created?"

Furthermore, evidence presented during trial – including threatening messages posted by Snow on social media saying “we gonna get her” – demonstrated Carr and Snow were planning to attack Joyner-Francis, Coonin said.

Wright, the other defendant, was present in the school cafeteria with Carr and Snow the morning prior to the attack and in the bathroom while it took place, but evidence does not show beyond a reasonable doubt that she was involved in the conspiracy, Coonin said.

Carr and Snow will be sentenced on May 23.

Sherry Dorsey Walker, former Wilmington councilwoman who is acting as a spokesperson for Joyner-Francis’ family, said “the message has been sent that there are consequences to your actions.”

“When we watch movies or television and we see such gratuitous violence, maybe it’s something that’s embedded in our children so we probably need to look at the media and we need to look at what we’re doing as adults, to set better examples for our children,” she said.

A proper sentence in May could be a “deterrent” to a future deadly high school attack, Dorsey Walker said.

“We can’t let it be open season in our schools, so thankfully there was a guilty verdict,” she said.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.