HOUSTON, Texas — The family of Jasmine Melendez, the 15-year-old girl who died back in October 2020, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit after they say they have not received answers about her death.
Melendez, remembered as a star player on the Midland High softball team, died just before her 16th birthday.
Civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump joined the Melendez family, attorney Robert Hilliard and LULAC representatives for a press conference in Houston Wednesday, commemorating two years since Jasmine's death and calling for justice.
"If this was your child, wouldn't you want answers? Wouldn't you want the truth? Wouldn't you want justice for Jasmine, this 15-year-old angel who inexplicably ended up on life support after being at a young man's house during school hours?" said Crump.
The lawsuit was filed in July 2022 against Brandon and Braidon Morales, the father and son the Melendez family alleges are responsible for Jasmine's death.
It also alleges there wasn't a proper investigation conducted into her death by MPD and the medical examiner's office.
An autopsy report, released in December 2020 by the office of the Dallas County Medical Examiner, listed Melendez's death as an accident and ruled her cause of death as a cerebral air embolism.
This means an air bubble found its way into an artery and traveled to her brain.
The medical examiner also found no evidence of assault or non-consensual sex, though there were signs of attempted resuscitation.
Even as far back as October 2020, Midland Police stated there were no signs of foul play or criminal conduct.
However, the Melendez family has said since the release of the report that it does not tell the whole story and maintains Jasmine was assaulted and suffered heavy bleeding.
The family also says that the Midland Police Department did not give them access to the police report surrounding her death for nearly two years.
"She had trauma to her head, she had broken fingernails. She had things no parent would ever want to hear about their daughter done to her. I was given a story from the police department several times that it was an accident but we were never given the police report," said Francesca Melendez, Jasmine's mother.
NewsWest 9 also filed for the police report in October 2020 but was denied by the Texas Attorney General's Office because it involved a minor.
Below is a full copy of the lawsuit filed by the Melendez family and their lawyers.
WARNING: Some of the details alleged in the lawsuit could be disturbing to some readers.