A 15-year-old boy from Texas faces a reckless manslaughter charge in the June death of a 17-year-old Michigan girl who was killed by a falling rock during a church trip to Estes Park, Larimer County prosecutors announced.
His name has not been released because he is a juvenile. The charge, a class four felony, was filed Tuesday in Larimer County Juvenile Court.
Audra Brownell of Sparta, Mich., was killed when she was hit by a rock at Knoll-Willows on June 17.
She and other members of the Rockford Reformed Church in Rockford, Mich., were on a backpacking trip. She died instantly from “multiple blunt force trauma,” according to the Larimer County Coroner’s Office, which initially ruled the death an accident.
Knoll-Willows is a green space and cliff off the northeast corner of the Estes Park Town Hall parking lot.
Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson told 9News he did not think the act was intentional and hoped to work out a plea bargain for the boy.
If convicted, the boy’s maximum sentence would be two years in a juvenile facility, according to prosecutors.
His first court appearance is Nov. 5.
