♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, murder in mexico. what happened to the 25-year-old american allegedly beaten to death on a paradise vacation? >> we just couldn't believe it. you know, we just got sick on the stomach. >> now conflicting accounts about her final moments and disturbing video shared on social media. >> quick, can you at least erase that? >> raising questions about her friends and the case. >> baby girl, you will not die in vain. we'll get to the bottom of it. >> mexican authorities extradi. who killed her and why? john leguizamo. he's the bad guy in a new

christmas release. >> boss, what did he really is the real -- >> there's no such thing as santa. >> flipping the script in "violent night." now the award-winning actor is also speaking truth to power, standing up for the latinx community, calling out what he tells me is a failure of representation in tinseltown. >> i'm anti-hollywood until i get parity. hollywood is not really my friend. all rise. the big league slugger who hit a home run with his record-breaking deal. as someone living with type 2 diabetes, i want to keep it real and talk about some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? that's the point. get real about your risks and do something about it. talk to your health care provider about ways to lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, or death.

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happy holidays from wells fargo. good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, a troubling murder mystery after a young woman traveled to mexico with friends and did not return. so what really happened to shanquella robinson at that resort? who's responsible for her death? will her family's calls for justice be answered? here's abc's janai norman. >> i love this painting. the loving person that she was. that's all i got is memories and this photo. >> reporter: those memories. >> there's certain pictures make me cry. >> reporter: these portraits.

what shanquella robinson's parents hold close to their heart. >> she's on my mind, first thing i wake up in the morning, is her, shanquella. >> a beautiful person on the outside, a beautiful person on the inside. she had a beautiful spirit. >> reporter: shanquella's life and legacy shaped by her final moments, a brutal beating shared on social media, a vicious death while on vacation with friends. >> the growing mystery surrounding the death of an american tourist -- >> reporter: just one day into that vacation, she turned up dead. >> the fbi has now opened an investigation. >> i'm raising awareness for shanquella robinson. >> reporter: a horrifying story gripping the country. cries for justice spreading online. >> shanquella needs justice. >> reporter: now mexican authorities charging an unnamed u.s. citizen with murder. one of shanquella's acquaintances. but still the family left

wondering what happened, who did it, and why? >> the further mystery of this case is that the people that she was with when she died, they let leave mexico. >> i thank god for the 25 years that she were here with me, you know. but i hate to see my child leave here like that, you know, that was a terrible way for her to die. >> what were her hopes and dreams? what were her plans for herself? >> well, she always said she wanted to have a successful business. you know, that's all she pretty much talked about. she could do anything. anything. anything that she said a man could do. >> reporter: that drive fulfilling her other passion, travel. miami. vegas. jamaica. and in october, she was heading to san jose del cabo, mexico, a seaside escape with six others. >> she was very excited about it. she called me. i say, "well, okay, enjoy yourself, i'll call you by the

time i think you're getting there." that friday evening, she seemed very excited about the trip, you know. and she said she was getting ready to eat some tack cos, they had a chef there. and i said, "okay, love you, i will talk to you tomorrow, enjoy yourself." and i never spoke with my child again. >> reporter: not even 24 hours after her daughter landed in paradise, she got a worrying call from one of the friends who told her shanquella wasn't feeling well. >> and i said, "what's wrong with her?" he said alcohol poisoning. i didn't know what alcohol poisoning was. he said the doctor's on the way. i said, "how you know alcohol poisoning if the doctor haven't arrived yet?" >> reporter: according to the police report, the doctor recommended shanquella be taken to the hospital but the friends allegedly refused. >> i said, "why you can't take her to the hospital? take her to the hospital." he say, "they say you have to have cash money."

i say "she has insurance." he said, "she need about $5,000 to be seen in the emergency room." >> reporter: soon after, another series of calls. the mom was told an ambulance had arrived, but it was too late. >> they said that she was unresponsive and the ambulance was trying to resuscitate her. he said he was sorry shanquella had passed. >> he said it just like that? >> just like that. he wasn't emotional, upset, nothing about it. and i said, well -- it wasn't nothing i could do. my heart was crumbling. i couldn't get to my child, she's 2,000 miles away. >> reporter: local mexican authorities later releasing the police report stating the cause of death as cardiac arrest. days later the friends returned to the states after their vacation. but as the family grieved, she received a disturbing call. >> i got a call from somebody, i didn't even know who it was.

and they said that it was over there fighting that girl. that's the way they left it like that. >> someone called you, said that, hung up? >> hung up, said they was fighting, not alcohol poisoning. >> reporter: she confronted the friends about that call when they visited her at home in charlotte, north carolina. >> they was crying and said they never had a fight, they even sit here and say they was picking out what they was wear together funeral. we was talking about what colors we was going to wear what we was going to do. they say here and pick out what they was wearing to the funeral. >> reporter: as shanquella's family was making plans for her funeral, they received bombshell news contradicting everything they'd been told by the so-called friends and the police report. >> when they called me, autopsy came back, it all made sense. >> reporter: according to the death certificate from mexico, the 25-year-old died from a severe spinal cord injury and

atlas luxation, a dislocated neck. no mention of alcohol or cardiac arrest. the estimated time of death 3 partly cloudy chronological, just 15 minutes after the injuries. what went through your mind when you heard that? >> couldn't believe it. you know. oh, we just got sick on the stomach. >> reporter: again she confronted one of the friends who lived nearby. >> they say shanquella didn't die from no alcohol poisoning, she had been beaten, her neck. he broke out in a sweat, he came out of his shirt he was sweating so bad, like it was eating him up. >> reporter: soon another punch in the gut. graphic cell phone footage leaked online appearing to show shanquella naked, physically assaulted by another woman, while others appeared to watch on, even encourage it. >> look, can you at least fight back? >> all six had opportunity to stop this situation, neither one of them did nothing about it. who gave them the right to take

a life? didn't give her no kind of care. no help. i mean, to see her suffering, man. the last breath she took out of her body. >> it's hard. but i want the world to see it. i want everything to come out. because i want justice for my child. >> i pray for her family and i pray for justice. >> reporter: that video sparking demands for answers. >> i'm raising awareness for shanquella robinson. >> reporter: thousands of people across social media posting justice for quella and say her name, and hundreds attending her funeral in solidarity. >> i thought she'd be burying me, not me burying her, man. she came to the funeral. i stood over, man. i told her, "baby girl, you will not die in vain, daddy will get to the bottom of it." >> reporter: that bottom often a deep pit.

prosecutors in mexico filing charges for femicide, a reality of gender-based violence. >> the reality is it's a homicide case. it doesn't change what you investigate, it doesn't change what evidence you need to convict somedy>>horitiedn arres weeks ago for one of the friends. the prosecutor in mexico speaking to local news. >> reporter: but officials aren't releasing names and no known arrests have been made. investigators now seeking to extradite the person of interest to face charges in mexico, which could take a long time. >> the mexican warrant is worthless here. no sworn officer or agent has the authority to arrest anybody on a warrant from another country. so it has to be vetted through probable cause and information that the mexican authorities provide to convert it to a u.s.

warrant strictly for the purpose of arresting a person. >> reporter: abc news has reached out to the so-called friends who were reportedly in mexico with shanquella. they haven't responded to our requests for comment. the fbi charlotte field office is also investigating the case. >> what for you does justice look like? >> for them to go back to mexico and do 20, 30, 40 years, whatever they give them, and they need to pay for what they did to her. >> reporter: next month shanquella would have been celebrating her 26th birthday. the holidays now especially tough for her family. how do you want your daughter to be remembered? >> as the person that she was. she was loving. loved people. loved traveling. i hurt, but i also know that god don't make no mistakes. i heart going to hurt, it's going to hurt for a while, but god going to give me strength to get through it.

>> our thanks to janai. up next, my candid conversation with actor john leguizamo. why the star is standing up for the latinx community and calling out hollywood. to help protect . i prep without pills. bring on apretude. long-acting protection from hiv. apretude is a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. bring on not worrying about daily doses. i prep without pills. apretude is the first and only long-acting prep with one shot every other month just 6 times a year. apretude was proven superior to a daily prep pill in reducing the risk of hiv, in head-to-head studies and was among the most diverse prep studies ever conducted. ♪ you must be hiv negative to receive apretude and get tested before each injection. if you think you were exposed to hiv or have flu-like symptoms, tell your doctor right away. apretude does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections.

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♪ john leguizamo is much more than a familiar face. the versatile actor has delivered critically acclaimed performances on stage and screen for decades. his new christmas twist "violent night" is just out. his catalog runs deep. everything from luigi in the 1993 film "super mario brothers" to a gangster turn in "carlito's

way." a bohemian artist in "moulin rouge." his one-man show "latin history for morons" earned a tony nomination. he's lent his voice to animated favorites including bruno in "encanto." with all that experience comes insight. now leguizamo is using that voice to speak out for the latinx community and speak out against what he calls a failure of representation in hollywood. i sat down with him to learn more. john, thank you so much for joining us. i want to start with "violent night." we see a santa claus we've never seen before, and you play a bad-ass bad guy. >> it's a fascinating flick. it's an anti-christmas christmas movie. it's for people who hate christmas movies. this is your movie. santa drinks, curses, punches people out. then i play this disgruntled employee of this super-wealthy, privileged family who uses for

money for evil across the world. i'm like a toxic robin hood. >> this is our santy >> itress to whom am i speaking? >> tonight, i'm mr. scrooge now. what is it you want exactly, santa? >> i want you to put down your weapons. i want you to let this family go. then i want to find my reindeer and i want to continue delivering my presents. >> did you enjoy working on this film? >> i had a blast, man. tommy ricrola, so brilliant. the cast, a chef's cast. david harbour, amazing to work with. i got to fight at my age, it was incredible, i looked like an action star. >> you did. we're both 62 years old. you were representing our generation well with your fighting skills. >> i'm not going to lie, i was hurting the next day. i couldn't get out of bed.

i had to roll off. i fell off the bed, rolled on the ground for a little bit till i was human again. >> i understand. as someone who's followed your career, i've always sensed that, in my words, that your acting has always had swagger. no matter what role you play, you bring something to the stage. i've also noticed with your activism, there's also swagger in that. you wrote this op-ed recently in the l.a. types where you spoke truth to power to hollywood about the latinx community. talk to me about that. >> yeah, i felt i needed to speak out on this -- not for me, it's for latin youth in america. we're the largest ethnic group in america, one of the oldest ethnic groups in america. and we're invisible in this country. it's bizarre to me. there's so much latin talent that's being wasted in america and dreams that are being crushed. >> certainly this is not a new phenomenon. i'm struck, i'm curious, why not? why was it important for you to take your celebrity, your status, to make this point now?

>> because i have celebrity, because i have status. so this is m co ssout, htby myatinx activists w soldiers on the streets and in social media, amplify my voice. because it's time. where's our due respect? why is the december connect that we're not getting our faces out there or the positions of power that we deserve? >> are you optimistic at all about the future? >> moving forward, but it's too incremental. the problem for me is, how many latin beautiful talent has to be wasted with this incremental growth? white people are 59% of the population, why are they 100% of the executives, 100% of the stories, the cast? that's not fair, that's not parity, that's not justice, that's not equal. >> reading about your backstory, your family first moved to new york. you were the only latin community in your neighborhood. you said that's where you learned to be funny, you embraced comedy. it seems you have for your

entire life, you've recognized your role in the world. in some ways your responsibility to speak in those spaces. blessing or burden to always have to be that guy? >> obviously i'd rather not be talking about race all the time, who wants to be talking about that? but it's not a choice for me. it's great for white people that they can turn it on and off but i can't. because it's always in my face. i'm always being reminded that i can't have this, i can't be that. and that doesn't sit well with me. >> you are having a wonderful career, more than you've -- you've aperred in over 100 movies, produced over 20 films and documentaries, starred on broadway and television, it goes on and on -- >> i'm unstoppable, baby. >> right, right? >> i'm a fighter, man. i grew up in a tough neighborhood. i was always getting beat up. it prepared me for this tough hollywood situation. hollywood never accepted me, never gave me the opportunity. so i'm anti-hollywood. until i get parity.

i'm not -- you know, hol is not really my friend. >> we're so grateful for you, your appearance on "nightline." we wish you continued grace. >> what a pleasure. thank you for having me. >> a very nice man. "violent night" is in theaters now. coming up, a bronx tale and the judge has spoken. when modee ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable,... i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc got the upper hand... rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older...

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♪ finally tonight, the record-breaking contract for a record-breaking slugger. american league all-star and mvp aaron judge will remain a new york yankee after agreeing to a nine-year deal worth, get this, $360 million. his average salary a cool $40 million, the highest for any position player in baseball history. judge flirted with a few other clubs this offseason, but ultimately picked the pinstripes. the same uniform he's worn on his way to a slugging historic 62 home runs. now the big question about that big contract. can judge bring a world series championship back to the bronx? for that, the verdict is out.

you got there, right? verdict, judge? that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. see you right back here same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america. good night. i'm karen. i'm living with hiv and i'm on cabenuva. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete,

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