A New Jersey school bus aide charged in the 2023 death of a special needs girl who was strangled with a wheelchair harness has been charged after his defense attorney tried to pin the blame on the victim's family. On Monday, he was found not guilty on the most serious charges.
A jury acquitted Amanda Davila of aggravated manslaughter and reckless manslaughter in the death of 6-year-old Fazil Atiyah Williams on her way to Claremont Elementary School in Somerville for an extended school year program. More than a year later, he was found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child.
“I don't have a child yet. She's gone forever,” the victim's mother, Najma Nas, reportedly said after the trial. CBS 2 New York.
“I don't think it was fair. Do you think the prosecutors did a good job? Yes.”
Davila is accused of ignoring a helpless and nonverbal child in the back of a bus on July 17, 2023, when the girl was “violently struggling for her life,” authorities said at the time.
Prosecutors said that after the bus went over a bump, the worker kept his earphones in and looked at his cell phone for nearly 20 minutes while the victim was slowly strangled by tightening the harness around Williams' neck. .
But defense attorney Michael Policastro argued at trial that the girl's family failed to properly place her in a wheelchair.
“It's the parent's responsibility to buckle the top and bottom sections. The agency said the parents – which she probably delegated to their 14-year-old daughter that day – held out the top section. '' he reportedly said after receiving the split verdict.
“Because I didn't put the bottom on, the girl slipped. If the bottom harness had been strong, this wouldn't have happened.”
Nash shot back that Davila wasn't doing his job by not checking on his daughter. she, Emanuel syndrome.
“We did our job. We took the baby to the bus,” she was quoted as saying. “She was tied up, that's a fact. So it's shameful for you not to believe any explanation.”
The bus warden came to his own defense and admitted he should have done more.
“I made a mistake, and you guys are going to put me in prison for 10 to 20 years for my mistake,” she said. To ABC 7 NY.
“I'm partly responsible, but it's not just me, it's other people's responsibility, too.”
She could be sentenced to at least five years in prison when sentenced in March.
