Opening arguments to begin Tuesday in trial of school bus aide accused in death of disabled child
Amanda Davila, 27, was charged with Fajr Williams's death after she died on board a bus taking her to Claremont Elementary School in July 2023.
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Opening arguments are set to start on Tuesday in the criminal trial of Amanda Davila – a school bus aide with Montauk Transportation accused in the death of a 6-year-old girl she was watching in July 2023.
Davila, 27, sat alongside her defense attorney as the jurors were brought into the courtroom and questioned by Judge Peter Tober, the defense and the prosecution.
Davila is charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.
Judge Tober explained to potential jurors that 6-year-old Fajr Williams was disabled. She was sitting on the bus in a wheelchair, in a four-point harness heading to the Claremont School in Franklin Township. Investigators say the child slid down and was strangled by that harness.
The prosecution is blaming Davila for Williams’ death.
But defense attorney Michael Policastro says his client’s only error was not sitting closer to the girl.
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“Now the responsibility to bring her up to the bus and strap her in her wheelchair is the parents' and the mom’s. This young girl died because her seatbelt in the waist or crotch area was not fastened correctly,” Policastro says.
Policastro says that on the morning of the incident, Williams was buckled in by her 14-year-old sister. Davila, he says, did her job and strapped in the wheelchair.
“If my client gets charged criminally then the mother should get charged criminally,” Policastro says.
Policastro says that when given the chance during this trial, Davila will take the stand and tell her story.
Prosecutors will argue that Davila was sitting away from the little girl, and that she was on her phone and wearing earbuds. The state plans to show jurors video from inside that bus of Williams struggling to get free and breathe. They’ll also show text messages Davila was sending from the bus.
Davila and her attorney turned down a plea agreement ahead of the trial which would’ve put her in prison for 10 to 15 years. The defense believes she is not the only one to blame for this tragic loss of life.
Davila lives in New Brunswick and has been free on bail. She is a mother to a disabled child.
