The attorney for the family of Shanquella Robinson says that the FBI has refused to provide them with her U.S. autopsy report, despite citing the results in its decision not to charge anyone in her death.
Robinson died on Oct. 29 near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico while on vacation after reportedly being beaten by one of her six travel companions in a viral video.
Sue-Ann Robinson, the family’s attorney, says the FBI claims the organization can’t release the documents because the case is still pending. The family requested the autopsy report and investigation documents because the FBI announced in April it had declined to prosecute the case.
“The FBI says we cannot release the documents to you because the case is still open, because we are waiting for documents to be translated to English that we received from the Mexican authorities,” she said.
“Which again, red flags everywhere because you’ve made a decision — the case, you’ve announced the decision publicly to the family and to the public, but you’re saying the case is still not closed and admitting that some of the documents from the investigative file that arguably would affect your decision to charge have not been fully translated.”
Video showed a woman, identified later as Daejhanae Jackson, repeatedly beating and kicking a nude and defenseless Robinson as the male who recorded the video said to the 25-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, businesswoman, “Quella, can you at least fight back?”
Robinson tried to protect her head as she was knocked to the floor and repeatedly kicked in the head. The beating occurred in a bedroom of a villa the group rented in San José del Cabo.
The group later called the front desk for help after Robinson remained unconscious, and a doctor arrived to find her unresponsive. The doctor told the group that she needed to go to the hospital, but those with her requested she be treated at the villa. Robinson had a seizure an hour later, prompting one member of the group to finally call 911, but it was too late. The group left Robinson’s body in Mexico and returned to the States.
Mexican authorities issued an arrest warrant for Jackson in November, according to local prosecutor Daniel de la Rosa Anaya.
“This case is fully clarified. We even have a court order. There is an arrest warrant issued for the crime of femicide to the detriment of the victim and against an alleged perpetrator, a friend of hers who is the direct aggressor,” said de la Rosa Anaya.
“Actually, it wasn’t a quarrel, but instead a direct aggression. We are carrying out all the pertinent procedures such as the Interpol alert and the request for extradition to the United States of America. It’s about two Americans, the victim and the culprit….”
de la Rosa Anaya told the press that he was waiting on the extradition of the suspect to Mexico as federal authorities launched their own investigation. On April 12, U.S. Department of Justice officials announced that “the results of the autopsy” and “available evidence does not support a federal prosecution.”
The attorney said that the Robinson family is disappointed with the FBI’s final decision not to prosecute Jackson and by the lack of transparency regarding the case.
The family’s attorney said the FBI determined their findings weren’t consistent with those in the Mexican autopsy. American authorities, saying they couldn’t find evidence of a spinal cord injury and a dislocated neck, conducted the second autopsy after Shanquella had already been embalmed. The medical report from Mexico showed she had the broken bones.
“Because it was the death of a young, Black, beautiful, brilliant, educated woman who was on vacation,” said Sue-Ann Robinson, “justice was delayed.”
Shanquella’s mother Salamondra Robinson told ABC News that she was initially told by one member of the group that her daughter had died from alcohol poisoning. She later learned the truth after receiving a phone call from someone telling her that her daughter had been physically attacked.
“They said ‘they were over there fighting that girl,” she said. “And that’s the way they left it just like that … said her mother. “They were over there fighting her, I don’t know why they keep telling her alcohol poisoning.”
The grieving mother also said the group came to visit her prior to her daughter’s funeral and lied to her face about fighting her child, and even discussed what they’d wear for Shanquella’s funeral.
“They were crying,” she recalled. “They said they never had a fight. They even [sat] here and said they were picking out what they were wearing to the funeral.”
The FBI said in a statement in April that they would prosecute if new evidence should “become available.”
The family’s attorneys sent a letter to President Joe Biden in March, requesting diplomatic intervention in the case following the decision by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the Western District of North Carolina not to prosecute.
