Fresno mother found guilty of child abuse, endangerment in deadly train crash

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno mother has been found guilty of child abuse and endangerment following a deadly train crash in 2018.

On Monday, twelve jurors found Joy Collins responsible for a tragic train incident that left her 8-year-old daughter dead.

"Juror in seat nine, your verdict as to count one?" Judge Heather Mardel Jones asked. "Guilty," the juror said.

The crime occurred in 2018 when Collins and her two young kids were walking in central Fresno.

As they rushed to catch a bus, prosecutors say Collins urged her children to pass underneath an idle freight train at the rail crossing on North Diana Street and Belmont Avenue.

Collins' 9-year-old son made it through, but as her daughter was underneath, the train started to move.

The cargo train was about a mile long, according to testimony, and dragged little Joyanna Harris for nearly a hundred yards.

Paramedic Jason Wilson arrived at the scene moments later.

"The police officer was covering someone with his jacket, and I asked him to lift it up," Wilson testified last week. "I noticed it was a little girl who had some severe injuries. She was nonresponsive."

Last week, the jury saw photos of the young victim and the graphic scene.

The evidence was so disturbing that Collins, who was not in custody, stepped out of the courtroom.

On Monday, as the clerk read the two guilty verdicts, the mother seemed to hold back tears.

The jury is now considering if there were aggravating factors at the time Collins' children crawled underneath the train. That decision could impact her sentence.

Collins is in custody and faces a maximum of 11 years and four months in prison.

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