GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Two women accused of beating a young mother to death over a man will remain in jail.
Channel 2′s Matt Johnson was in Gwinnett County, where we showed you 17-year-old Janine Gonzalez’s emotional moments in court, for Channel 2 Action News at 4 p.m.
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Police said Gonzalez and 27-year-old Antonetta Stevens killed Ashley Bocanegra in August by beating her to death -- all because she was sleeping with Stevens’ boyfriend.
Stevens was dating Gonzalez’s brother. The women are accused of using his phone to trick Bocanegra into meeting them, then punched and kicked her until she couldn’t breathe.
Bocanegra died from internal bleeding in her lungs.
Gonzalez was in tears during her court appearance Thursday as the judge laid out the case against her.
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Police said Stevens started the fight and Gonzalez joined in.
In court, police used video that the women shot themselves against them.
Gonzalez’s lawyers have argued that she was just a bystander, but prosecutors said the video proves that is not the case. Police said Gonzalez is the one who filmed Stevens as she started fighting and making threats.
“She asked Ms. Janine Gonzalez, ‘Do you want any of this?’ To which Ms. Gonzalez replied, ‘I do.’ And she came and kicked her about three times on her side,” police said. “You can clearly hear her say, ‘I’m going to murder you’ about five times, ‘Are you ready to die?’ and, ‘I could do worse.’”
Gonzalez argued that she should be tried for involuntary manslaughter, not felony murder. But police argued that one of the last texts that Bocanegra sent implicated Gonzalez. The text was directed at Gonzalez’s brother.
“It said, ‘I was fine until your sister kicked me in the chest and back area,’” police said.
Both women remain in jail with no bond.
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