No charges in death of Calif. 10-year-old Joanna Ramos, after fight
(CBS/AP) LONG BEACH, Calif. - Prosecutors have decided not to bring charges against the 11-year-old girl who fought with a 10-year-old girl, who died following their after-school confrontation earlier this year.
In a statement Wednesday, police in Long Beach, Calif. said the Feb. 24 death of Joanna Ramos was a "fight between two children that ended with unintended and tragic results," but no crime was committed.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office previously labeled the case a homicide and said Joanna died of blunt force trauma to the head.
She was pronounced dead about six hours after she tussled with the 11-year-old girl in an alley near Willard Elementary School when classes ended.
"There's nothing they can do that's going to bring my daughter back, nothing. There's nothing I can do," Cecilia Villanueva said Wednesday, choking back tears.
Villanueva said she also felt for the other girl.
"Her life is not the same anymore. I'm not angry because it could have happened to the girl instead of to Joanna," she said.
Her family previously told The Associated Press that Joanna underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot on her brain and was resuscitated several times before she died.
The name of Joanna's 11-year-old combatant has not been made public.
Joanna's older sister, Vanessa Urbina, said Wednesday she was disappointed about the decision. The family knows little more about what prompted the fight than they did when it happened nearly two months ago, she said.
"There's nothing we can do, but I want charges on her," said Urbina, 17. "She killed my sister. She didn't mean to kill her, but she meant to hurt her."
The fight near the school didn't appear to be especially violent, no weapons were used, and neither girl was knocked to the ground, police have said.
Joanna had a bloody nose when she returned to her after-school program, according to witnesses, and had to be picked up early by a relative because she didn't feel well.
By the time Joanna got home, she was complaining of a headache and vomiting.
Before she passed out on the family's couch, she told her mother an 11-year-old girl had punched her in the head but refused to say more, Villanueva previously told the AP.
The death shook the school community at Willard Elementary, located in a working-class neighborhood just a few miles from a more affluent area of homes that front a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.