A promising young woman with a freshly minted college degree and her first real career job would never make it home from what should have been an ordinary evening visit.
What unfolded inside a Trussville, Alabama residence on March 7 left a family shattered, a community grieving, and a 54-year-old man facing serious criminal charges.
Whitney Harlow Robeson, 22, was at the home of her boyfriend Brandon Towers when his father, Jeffrey Scott Towers, began showing off a collection of antique firearms.
According to the coroner’s autopsy report, the elder Towers picked up a Colt Navy single-action revolver — one he reportedly had no idea was loaded.
The gun fired.
The bullet entered Robeson’s chest and tore through her left lung, heart, and aorta.
First responders arrived at the Deer Trail home around 9:30 p.m. and rushed her to a nearby hospital. She was pronounced dead at 10:40 p.m. — less than an hour and a half after the shot rang out.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office classified the incident as an accidental homicide in the immediate aftermath.
For more than two months, the case remained open without an arrest, as Trussville police conducted what they described as an extensive investigation.
That changed on May 11. Jeffrey Scott Towers was taken into custody after detectives obtained an arrest warrant, booked into the Jefferson County Jail without incident, and later released on a $30,000 bond.
The charge: reckless manslaughter.
Court records have not revealed details of the shooting or the evidence surrounding the charges against Towers, other than to allege he shot Robeson.
What the autopsy report did confirm was the mechanism — an antique weapon, believed unloaded, that discharged without warning.
Towers’ legal team wasted no time responding publicly.
Attorneys John Amari and Dain Stewart of the Amari Law Firm issued a statement firmly rejecting criminal liability on their client’s behalf. “What happened to Ms. Robeson was a tragic event,” they said.
“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.”
An attorney representing the Robeson family, Andrew J. Moak of Turnbull, Moak & Pendergrass, issued a separate statement pushing back on the defense’s characterization.
Towers is next scheduled to appear in court on July 22.
The woman at the center of the tragedy had accomplished more in her 22 years than many do in decades.
Robeson graduated summa cum laude from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in interior design. She had turned a childhood love of home renovation television into a legitimate academic and professional pursuit.
She had just begun working as a trade consultant at Restoration Hardware in Birmingham — the role her family described as the job she had dreamed about since she was a little girl watching HGTV.
Her tenure there was brief, but those who worked alongside her took notice immediately. According to her family’s published obituary, her new colleagues and supervisor were struck by her kindness, talent, attentiveness, and integrity from the start.
Robeson was originally from Richmond, Virginia, where she had been a graduate of the Collegiate School. Her family remembered her in deeply personal terms.
“Whitney lived with inimitable grace; keen, quiet attentiveness and loyalty; boundless generosity and an uncanny way of always knowing just what she needed to do,” they wrote.
Her sorority echoed those sentiments in a public tribute following her death.
“We are incredibly grateful to have shared in her friendship, and our chapter will forever cherish the memories we made together,” the statement read.
Those who loved her have since channeled their grief into action. A new initiative called Wrapped in Whitney’s Love has been launched to carry on her spirit of generosity.
The program will deliver swaddles and essential supplies directly to new mothers and their newborns, giving young families a stronger start in life — a fitting tribute to a woman her family described as boundlessly generous.
