Owner Of Collapsed School That Killed 19 Kids Guilty

Story By: Juan Fenandez Mayes,  Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

This former school director has been found guilty for the manslaughter of 19 minors and seven adults after falsified documents allowed her to illegally run a school where the victims died.

The victims died in the Enrique Rebsamen School located in the Mexican capital city of Mexico City on 19th September 2017.

The minors were all reported to be around seven years old.

Newsflash

The 2017 Puebla Earthquake claimed the lives of 370 people and had an estimated magnitude of 7.1 on the moment magnitude scale and affected the Mexican states of Morelos, Puebla, and the greater Mexico City area.

The moment magnitude scale is an extension of the popular Richter scale to gain more precise readings on large earthquakes.

The school was run and owned by Monica Garcia Villegas, also known as Miss Moni, who has now been found guilty of manslaughter after it collapsed.

Newsflash

Garcia falsified documents and violated construction code to illegally operate the school which several parents realised only until after the trial began on 12th August of this year.

Garcia was on the run for two years after the victim’s families filed a lawsuit against her and was arrested by authorities at a restaurant in the Tlalpan borough of Mexico City on 11th May 2019.

She pleaded guilty in hopes of reducing her sentence which she has not yet received. The prosecution asked for 57 years and she could receive anywhere between two to five years of prison for each victim.

Newsflash

One of the lawyers representing the families of the dead children named Noe Franco announced the guilty verdict in a statement which said that they “celebrate” the court’s “prison sentence” for Garcia and assures it will “set a precedent in the Mexican justice system.”

It is unclear when she is set to have her sentence hearing.

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