UPDATE: Three charged in death of student in high school bathroom in Del.

Credit: WPVI

Three teenager girls have been charged in the death of a 16-year-old girl, in a Wilmington high school bathroom, in April.

The Delaware Department of Justice says they have charged three girls in connection with the death of Amy Joyner-Francis, on April 21, 2016. On Monday, a 16-year-old was charged with criminally negligent homicide, which is punishable by up to 8 years in prison. The DOJ says they are looking to have her case declared non-amenable to Family Court proceedings because of the severity of her offense, and tried as an adult in the Superior Court.

Two other girls were also charged on Monday, but with with third degree criminal conspiracy, in connection with the incident in the Howard High bathroom. That offense, which is apparently the highest level of criminal conspiracy allowed by law given the facts of this case, according to the DOJ, is punishable by up to one year in prison. Delaware law does not apparently allow for a charge of conspiracy to commit negligent homicide.

According to the Medical Examiner’s office Amy’s cause of death was sudden cardiac death due to large atrial septal defect with a contributing factor of physical and emotional stress due to physical assault. The autopsy apparently did not show any internal injuries or significant blunt force injuries. The DOJ says this means that Joyner-Francis died from a cardiac incident that she was vulnerable to because of a pre-existing heart condition, but the cardiac incident would not have occurred if she had not been assaulted.

Officials also say that all three girls were involved in planning the confrontation with Joyner-Francis, but that only one actually hit her. The two facing criminal conspiracy charges, will be tried as juveniles in Family Court, as they apparently did not have any prior juvenile arrests or convictions, and didn’t physically assault Joyner-Francis, according to the DOJ.

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