Bus Monitor Guilty of Child Endangerment After 6-Year-Old Is Strangled

A bus monitor who was looking at her cellphone and wearing earbuds when a disabled 6-year-old girl was strangled by her wheelchair harness was convicted of child endangerment on Monday.

But the bus monitor, Amanda Davila, was acquitted of more serious manslaughter charges. The split verdict reached by a jury in Somerset County, N.J., came after nearly two days of deliberation.

Ms. Davila, 27, had faced up to 20 years in prison on the most serious manslaughter charge, which stemmed from the July 2023 death of Fajr Williams, 6. Fajr, who was nonverbal and could not walk, had Emanuel syndrome, a chromosomal disorder that disrupts development.

She was riding a bus to a summertime education program when she slid down in her wheelchair and was strangled by one of its straps, according to surveillance video played during the trial. Ms. Davila was seen on the footage sitting in front of Fajr with earbuds in her ears, looking down at her phone.

The charge on which Ms. Davila was convicted, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, carries a punishment of up to 10 years. Ms. Davila will be sentenced on March 7.

“The outcome was fair,” said Michael Policastro, a defense lawyer for Ms. Davila.

Najmah Nash, Fajr’s mother, said she believed that if Ms. Davila had done her job, her daughter would still be alive. But she said the verdict had still provided a measure of relief.

“She’s going to have to do some type of jail time,” said Ms. Nash. “I wouldn’t say I’m happy about that, but I believe that is what should happen.”

Ms. Nash added that “life has been a constant struggle” since the day her daughter died.

“It’s been hard to live, facing the fact that I’ll never see my daughter ever,” she said. “The feelings are just indescribable.”

Prosecutors said that during the bus ride, Ms. Davila scrolled through Instagram, listened to music, and sent and received dozens of messages instead of checking on Fajr.

Ms. Davila had received “six years of safety trainings that emphasized a no cellphone and no earbuds policy,” according to a release from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday.

Mr. Policastro said in an interview that it “wasn’t discouraged for her to be on her phone,” adding that the bus company would communicate by phone with Ms. Davila and encouraged her to give her phone number to parents.

During the trial, he placed blame, in part, on Fajr’s mother and sister, arguing that they had not properly secured her to her wheelchair with its bottom harness. He said that Fajr had been brought out to the bus that morning by a 14-year-old sibling, instead of by an adult. And he said that Ms. Davila had not been trained to touch any straps and was told that was the parents’ responsibility.

But the Somerset County prosecutor’s office said in a news release on Tuesday that testimony revealed that Fajr had been properly strapped into her wheelchair before she boarded the bus. The surveillance video showed that Ms. Davila did not properly anchor Fajr’s wheelchair to the floor of the bus and failed to use the shoulder and lap belt, prosecutors said.

Mr. Policastro conceded that, according to protocol, Ms. Davila should have been sitting either next to or behind Fajr, instead of in front of her.

“I’m not totally exonerating my client,” he said.

During the trial, Ms. Davila admitted that she had erred by sitting in front of Fajr.

“You guys are trying to put me in jail for 10-20 years on a mistake,” Ms. Davila said on the stand, according to footage from ABC7. “I’m partially to blame, but there’s other people to blame too, not just me,” she added.

Ms. Nash said she knew her daughter was properly strapped into her wheelchair because if she had not been, she would have slipped down while traveling from her apartment to the bus stop because of her poor trunk control.

“I know that my oldest daughter did strap her in,” Ms. Nash said.

She added that she and her two other daughters were still in therapy to cope with Fajr’s death.

Ms. Nash said she had been working to get the New Jersey Legislature to pass laws that would make it safer to transport children with disabilities. One bill under discussion would require school buses transporting students with disabilities to have certain safety features and another would create a special education transportation task force.

“My voice is being heard, and I am grateful for that,” she said.