Shanquella Robinson's family still demands answers five months after mysterious death in Mexico
Shanquella Robinson’s family is still seeking answers five months after Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found dead in a Mexican beach resort.
At a news conference with the victim’s family last week, attorneys Ben Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson (no relation to Shanquella Robinson) said that no arrests have been made and that they will continue to fight for justice.
“She was a strong brilliant Black woman — the best that we had to offer the world,” Crump said.
Shanquella Robinson traveled with six friends to a luxury resort in San Jose del Cabo on Oct. 28; she died the next day. The people Robinson traveled with originally told her family that she had died of alcohol poisoning.
However, when Robinson’s family received her body, bruises, cuts and knots were present on her face. The necropsy report by the Baja California attorney general’s medical examiner, made public by Crump, labeled Robinson’s death as “violent.”
Cellphone video of Robinson being beaten by a woman circulated on social media and brought awareness to the case, prompting calls for justice.
Mexican authorities in November charged the woman in the video, identified as Daejhanae Jackson, who was one of the people traveling with Robinson, the family’s legal team said in a letter sent to the White House and the State Department.
Salamondra Robinson, the victim’s mother, and the family’s legal team sent the letter March 13 to request an intervention in the case to expedite the process. The attorneys have also asked that a suspect be extradited to Mexico to face any criminal charges there.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered her condolences to the family at a recent news briefing but said that because of the pending FBI investigation, there is “very little about what we can say.”
While the family’s legal team traveled to Mexico in search of more details, attorney Sue-Ann Robinson said the investigation is slow compared to other cases, including that of four Americans who were kidnapped at gunpoint this month. Mexican authorities arrested five people linked to that case, in which two Americans died.
“We know it can be done swiftly, because we just saw the Mexican kidnapping case, which is different, substantively, from Shanquella’s case,” Sue-Ann Robinson said. “But it shows that U.S. law enforcement can quickly get on the same page with Mexican law enforcement in order to resolve a criminal matter.”
“This absolutely is a case where justice delayed could lead to justice denied,” she added.
Salamondra Robinson said she didn’t believe the news when she first learned of her daughter’s death. “It’s still like a nightmare,” she said Tuesday.
She said her daughter was a kind, smart and good-hearted person.
“I don’t know how anyone could have done her like that,” she said.
Robinson’s family wants either that the Americans suspected of being responsible for Shanquella’s death are extradited to Mexico or that the State Department request concurrent jurisdiction over the case. Her family also plans to hold a demonstration 200 days after her death if federal officials fail to act. In December, Robinson’s family held a rally at Little Rock AME Zion Baptist Church in Charlotte.
The FBI said the investigation is ongoing and declined to provide further details.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
