A Tennessee mother is suspected of fatally shooting her five-year-old biracial daughter in the chest, then attempting to frame her African American baby’s father, MTO News has learned.
Robin Howington, 37, has been indicted by a grand jury of first-degree murder, child neglect, false reporting, tampering with evidence and attempted tampering with evidence from the September 14, 2019 death of her beautiful daughter, Destiny Oliver.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Destiny laying on the floor dead, with a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Police questioned Robin, who officers say tried to pass the blame on four other individuals. One local report states that Robin first told authorities that Destiny’s “Black daddy did it.”
Upon investigation, police quickly became convinced that it wasn’t Destiny’s father, but her mother Robin that was responsible after surveillance footage from a neighbor actually showed Robin hiding a firearm among the shrubbery.
The mother allegedly admitted to the police to hiding the weapon.
If convicted on all counts, she faces the death penalty.
According to People:
WATE-TV reports she allegedly said that the father fled in a white Chrysler 300, the indictment states.
As police searched the surrounding area after the shooting, a gun was discovered stashed in a bush outside Howington’s home.
Police allege that she told them her boyfriend — who is not Destiny’s father — hid the gun there. However, investigators obtained video footage shot by a neighbor that allegedly shows Howington hiding the weapon, reports WVLT-TV, the indictment states.
Detectives showed the footage to Howington, who allegedly admitted stashing the gun in the bush after wiping it down, according to the indictment. She allegedly said she wanted to protect her 2-year-old son, who’d found the firearm in a closet and shot his sister.
The indictment alleges she “did unlawfully kill [Destiny Oliver] during the perpetration of aggravated child neglect.”