US prosecutors will not pursue charges in the death of a North Carolina woman while she was on vacation in Mexico.
Shanquella Robinson, 25, died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California, in late October. Her travel companions initially told her mother she had died of alcohol poisoning before a disturbing video emerged of a naked Robinson being hit and kicked by another woman.
Mexican prosecutors previously issued an arrest warrant for an unnamed American citizen who they described as the “direct aggressor” seen in the footage. They said at the time that Robinson had died as a result of homicide after sustaining a spinal cord injury.
But US federal prosecutors met with Robinson’s family on Wednesday to inform them that no one will be charged in the case because “there is no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a federal crime was committed.”
“Based on the results of the autopsy and after a careful deliberation and review of the investigative materials by both US Attorneys’ Offices, federal prosecutors informed Ms Robinson’s family that the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” the North Carolina Western District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Sue-Ann Robinson, an attorney for Robinsons’ family, decried the decision not to pursue the investigation during a press conference on Wednesday. Ms Robinson pinned US prosecutors’ refusal to bring charges on Robinson’s race.
“Black and brown people always have to carve their own path to justice,” she said, per news station WSOCTV. “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 be done for five months.”
“The Mexican autopsy says there’s a spinal cord injury, but according to them, there is no spinal cord injury,” she added. “How are you closing an investigation on a case where the cause of death is undetermined?”
Last month, Robinson’s family called on President Joe Biden and the US Department of State to prioritize bringing those accountable for Robinson’s death “to justice.”
In the letter, shared with WCNC Charlotte, the attorneys representing Robinson’s family named a 26-year-old woman – who was a friend of Robinson’s – as the suspect currently being sought by Mexican authorities in connection to her death.
The 18-page letter also included findings from a recent “fact-finding trip” to Mexico, autopsy findings and other unreleased documents from authorities.
Back in October, Mexican authorities said in a statement that they investigated her death as a feminicide, a term used by local police to describe the homicide of a woman on account of her gender.
Robinson was an entrepreneur and had two businesses — Exquisite Babies and Exquisite Boutique — where she braided children’s hair and sold clothes. She was a student at Winston-Salem State University.
