Sharon Chanon Velaquez charged over Phoebe Prince’s murder on 'The Today Show'

The then 15-year-old girl committed suicide after long months of bullying

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Accused 17-year-old Sharon Chanon Velazquez

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Sharon Chanon Velazquez, 18, appeared on The Today Show about her involvement with the suicide of a 15-year-old Irish immigrant, Phoebe Prince last January.

Prince is said to have committed suicide last January after months of horrific taunting and bullying from classmates, including Velazquez and five other teens.

Velazquez, along with the other teens, pleaded not guilty to non-stop bullying to the young girl. The group reportedly insulted the girl frequently, using names like “slut,” “Irish whore” and harassing her through her Facebook page.

The bullying began when the Irish girl began dating Auston Ranaud, who happened to be one of the bully’s on-and-off high school sweetheart. Renaud and another teen were charged with statutory rape and court records show that the teens threatened to harm Prince and had her cornered in a bathroom at school.

Velazquez said she was unaware that the girl suffered from so many problems and had she known she would have tried to help instead of insulting her.  On the show she said she is “not a bully” and that she "was trying to help out a friend.”

"I was trying to help out a friend, and people don't understand that, and I want them to know that. And they're going around saying things that aren't true, and saying that I stalked her and that I bullied her, and that wasn't the case at all, we argued."

Velazquez was charged in the Massachusetts bullying case and was sentenced to two months of probation after she reached an agreement with the prosecutors last April.

Velazquez agreed on the show that was she had done was “mean” but did not take too much blame, saying that her involvement was simply bickering with the victim.
 

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