LA County DA declines to charge 7-Eleven manager who allegedly killed her employee

Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to charge a 7-Eleven manager who allegedly beat her employee to death this summer.

Jessica McLaughlin, 24, and her manager had a history of disputes that ultimately devolved into a brawl on June 24, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said McLaughlin was conscious after another employee broke up the fight, but soon had difficulty breathing and passed out. 

She was hospitalized soon after, but McLaughlin's family took her off life support, and she died on June 28.

"We collectively know that this is the right thing to do as hard as it is," her father Clancey McLaughlin said in June after taking the 24-year-old off life support. "I wouldn't wish this on anybody, I wouldn't even know how to explain how difficult this is. ... It's the worst feeling ever."

The LA County Medical Examiner classified McLaughlin's death as a homicide, but the District Attorney's Office said the determination was "strictly a public health and vital statistics term," adding that "the autopsy did not show any fatal traumatic injuries" to McLaughlin. 

Prosecutors said that the manager claimed self-defense and did not use "excessive force in defending herself." They added that the fight "involved all parties actively battering each other with the same amount of force, which was not excessive or deadly."

"Homicide is the killing of one person by another," the LA County District Attorney's Office wrote in the charging document. "A homicide can be lawful or unlawful. Although the medical examiner classified the manner of death in this case a homicide, the evidence is insufficient to prove the homicide was unlawful."

Clancey McLaughlin said his family is disappointed that the District Attorney decided not to pursue charges. 

"Our family has suffered an unimaginable loss, and this outcome has left us feeling abandoned by the system that was supposed to protect her (Jessica L. Mclaughlin). We remain committed to seeking accountability and honoring Jessica's memory in every way we can," he wrote.