Federal prosecutors have announced that they will not be bringing charges in connection with the death of American tourist Shanquella Robinson, whose body was found last fall in a living room at an address in San José del Cabo, Mexico. Robinson had been vacationing with six friends when she was found unconscious. A widely circulated video that appeared to show her being punched in the head and kicked by another woman during that trip prompted suspicions about her death and triggered an FBI investigation.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said that its prosecutors and officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had met recently with the family of Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, N.C., to deliver the news. An autopsy and an investigation by American authorities found that “the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The decision has drawn condemnation from Ms. Robinson’s family and their lawyer, Sue Ann Robinson, who said in a news conference on Wednesday that while “we’re disappointed — we’re not deterred.” However, it was not immediately clear how the decision by federal prosecutors in the United States not to bring charges would affect the investigation by Mexican authorities into what happened.
The state attorney general’s office of Baja California Sur, in Mexico, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Wednesday. The FBI and the US Attorney’s Office did not elaborate on their findings or answer questions emailed on Wednesday afternoon.
