A father whose son's girlfriend died from a gunshot wound in mysterious circumstances has been charged with manslaughter, two months after her death was initially ruled an accident.
The Incident
Whitney Harlow Robeson, 22, suffered a single gunshot wound on March 7 at the home of her boyfriend, Brandon Towers, in Trussville, Alabama. The recent university graduate had just begun her career as a trade consultant with Restoration Hardware in Birmingham when she was killed.
The Jefferson County Coroner's Office had classified the shooting as accidental at the time, but no details of what occurred at 9:21 p.m. that night have been released.
The Charge
Jeffrey Scott Towers, 54, was abruptly charged with manslaughter on Monday and arrested without incident around 5 p.m. He was released a few hours later on $30,000 bail and will appear in court at a later date yet to be determined.
Towers' lawyers, John Amari and Dain Stewart of Amari Law Firm, have denied any criminal responsibility for Robeson's death. 'What happened to Ms. Robeson was a tragic event,' they said in a statement. 'While we understand that the justice system must play out, we know that the facts will show that Mr. Towers has no criminal history, has been a productive and upstanding citizen for his entire life, and is not guilty of these charges.'
Whitney's Legacy
Robeson graduated summa cum laude from Auburn University's College of Human Sciences interior design program. Her family described her as a woman of 'inimitable grace; keen, quiet attentiveness and loyalty; boundless generosity and an uncanny way of always knowing just what she needed to do.' They added: 'This marvelous, independent woman was on the cusp of her successful career in interior design: the job she had always wanted since she was a little girl watching HGTV. In the precious little time she had been in that role, Whitney's new colleagues and supervisor were instantly taken by her kindness, talent, attentiveness, and integrity.'
