What’s happened in Shanquella Robinson’s case? Here’s what to know so far.
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Shanquella Robinson Death Investigation
The 25-year-old Charlotte woman died while on vacation in Cabo, Mexico.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office in North Carolina announced April 12 it will not pursue criminal charges in the death of Shanquella Robinson. The FBI says it’s completed its investigation and had insufficient evidence to make an arrest.
In the five months since her death, the fight for justice for Robinson has moved from Charlotte to Washington D.C. where prominent civil rights activists have called on President Joe Biden to intervene in her case. Her story has gone viral, largely due to the lack of arrests in the case.
Robinson, a 25-year-old from Charlotte, died on Oct. 29 in Cabo, Mexico under suspicious circumstances while on a vacation with six people. An autopsy in Mexico, later contradicted by the FBI ordered autopsy, showed no spinal cord injuries, according to attorneys for the family.
It is unclear how the FBI and DOJ decisions will impact extradition of a suspect identified by police in Mexico. Here is what we know so far.
DOJ won’t press charges
U.S. officials on Wednesday made clear there’s no criminal charges stemming from the FBI investigation.
“Based on the results of the autopsy and after a careful deliberation and review of the investigative materials by both U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, federal prosecutors informed Ms. Robinson’s family today that the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” said U.S. Attorneys Sandra J. Hairston and Dena J. King in a joint statement.
The Department of Justice met with Robinson’s family and attorneys that morning and told them it has completed its investigation and will not prosecute any of the six people on the trip.
Attorney Sue-Ann Robinson at a press conference later said the family is “disappointed but not deterred” by the decision.
“On behalf of the family, again, (we are) very deeply disappointed but we’re not deterred because it’s something that we’ve seen before,” Robinson said. “We know that we have to carve our own path to justice.”
FBI investigation
The FBI began its investigation a month after Robinson’s death.
As part of the investigation, according to attorney Robinson, the FBI reviewed video footage of Robinson being beaten, interviewed her six traveling companions, and conducted an autopsy.
A viral video circulating after her death sparked international outrage. The video shows a naked, barely verbal Robinson being hit repeatedly over the head and refusing to fight back.
The FBI would not comment on why the video of Robinson being beaten before her death was not considered enough evidence of a crime being committed but said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer: “All available evidence was reviewed.”
“There’s no reason why a Black woman should go on vacation with her friends, be returned to her family in a box, and nothing will be done for five months,” attorney Robinson said after the FBI announced its decision. “Because justice delayed can be justice denied.”
Shanquella Robinson autopsy in Charlotte
Attorney Robinson said the FBI’s autopsy listed her manner of death “undetermined” and said this is partially why the agency decided not to press charges.
She said the autopsy found Robinson did not have a spinal cord injury but that she did have swelling on her brain. She said the FBI waited until after the body was embalmed and that this discrepancy from the Mexican autopsy and death certificate is a direct result of that delay.
The Observer requested a copy of Robinson’s autopsy and has not yet received a response. The autopsy was performed by the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office on Nov. 17
Diplomatic action, extradition
Robinson’s family has retained two of the most renowned civil rights lawyers in the country to help in the case, Benjamin Crump and Robinson. Crump and Robinson, spoke at a press conference in Washington, D.C. on March 3 where they called on Biden and the U.S. Department of State to take action.
“It is not right that the suspects and the people involved are sleeping comfortably in their own beds at night,” Crump said while standing next to Robinson’s mother and sister. “The only question is State Department, President Biden, what are you going to do to bring justice for this broken hearted family, especially this mother of Shanquella Robinson?”
Crump and Robinson called on officials to either extradite the person named on an arrest warrant issued by Mexican officials, or to take over jurisdiction and prosecute that person in the U.S.
Sue-Ann Robinson returned from a fact finding trip to Cabo ahead of the press conference. She said Mexican authorities told her that all of their investigative materials have been sent over to the United States through Interpol. Mexico has asked the U.S. to extradite the suspect, according to the lawyers.
It is unclear whether or not the U.S. will extradite any suspect to Mexico in this case.
The announcement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI not to press charges shouldn’t impact the chances of a suspect potentially being extradited to face charges in Mexico, said Stephen Ward, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Belmont Abbey College.
“When an extradition request is made, that’s simply asking the jurisdiction that receives the request for the police to pick this person up and turn them over to us. We do that all the time between states here in the United States and extradite with other countries,” said Ward, a retired assistant district attorney in Mecklenburg County.
The Department of State previously told the Observer it would not comment on extradition matters. The Charlotte FBI field office referred the Observer to the Department of Justice. The department has not yet responded to questions on how a lack of U.S. charges will impact extradition.
Mexico’s arrest warrant
Officials in Mexico announced in November that authorities issued an arrest warrant for one of the six travel companions.
Robinson and Crump confirmed during their press conference in March that Daejhanae Jackson, one of the six travelers, is the suspect named on the Mexican arrest warrant. Jackson is listed on an arrest warrant for femicide (similar to homicide), the lawyers wrote in a letter to the White House in March, citing information from Mexican prosecutors.
The name of the suspect on the warrant has not been released publicly by authorities.
Before an arrest can be made in the U.S., officials must determine whether the arrest warrant issued by Mexican authorities has merit, and whether to extradite a U.S. citizen for a crime committed against another U.S. citizen in a foreign country. The defendant can fight extradition and ask to be tried in the U.S.
Hotel staff with Cabo Villas identified Jackson as the woman seen in the viral video beating Robinson, according to interviews with investigators in Mexico, shown in documents obtained by her family’s lawyers.
White House responds
The White House would not comment on what actions they might take in the case, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press conference March 16.
“Our hearts go out to Miss Robinson’s family and friends. It is devastating, what occurred. And, certainly, the tragedy is just devastating,” Jean-Pierre said. ”But because there’s an FBI investigation underway, there’s very little that we can say.”
Jean-Pierre referred reporters to the FBI and Department of Justice for more information, but said that the Biden administration is closely following the case.
Viral video in Robinson’s case
The FBI said when initially opening the investigation, it had been sent a viral video of Robinson being attacked in her hotel room in Cabo.
Multiple news outlets have published the footage which shows a naked Robinson, barely verbal, being hit and punched in the face multiple times by another woman until she falls to the ground. A person behind the camera is heard saying “Quella can you at least fight back?”
How did Shanquella Robinson die?
Sallamondra Robinson, Shanquella’s mother, told news outlets that each person from the trip has a different story of what happened and how her daughter died.
The traveling companions initially told her that her daughter had alcohol poisoning. Autopsy reports list the cause of death as “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation.”
Additional reporting uncovered a police report indicating that Robinson received hours of medical treatment before she died, and this report says she suffered from cardiac arrest.
Rallies for Shanquella Robinson
Multiple rallies, a birthday memorial service, and a funeral spurred hundreds in Charlotte to call for justice.
At her funeral on Nov. 19, hundreds of community members attended and loved ones wore pink in her honor. Her casket, wrapped with photos of her, was pulled into the Macedonia Baptist Church by a horse drawn carriage. Her loved ones signed the casket before she was laid to rest.
In December, people packed the pews at Little Rock AME Zion Church where speakers recalled their memories of Robinson, and cried her name from the pulpit calling on U.S. authorities to do something about the six companions who were with her when she died.
“All I want is justice,” her father Bernard Robinson said. “I just want the Mexican authorities, the embassy, to do the right thing, make it right. Because they came over there on your soil and did what they did and came back here.”
On January 8, the community gathered at Robinson’s grave site to release balloons in honor of what would have been her 26th birthday.
In February, several dozen people in Charlotte put more than 100 letters, most tucked inside pink envelopes, into a mailbox in uptown Charlotte. These letters were sent to officials in the U.S. and Mexico calling for an arrest.
Robinson’s sister Quilla Long started a gofundme following her death. Long said in a statement published to gofundme, the family will continue to investigate what happened and they are raising funds for legal fees.
As of April 14, the page had raised more than $406,000. This included a $50,000 donation from Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving.
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 12:54 PM.
