Child Dies Of Self-Inflicted Gunshot, Adults Charged: Sheriff

WHITE, GA — A man and a woman were charged with involuntary manslaughter Friday after the woman’s 5-year-old granddaughter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office as reported by WBHF Community Radio, James Lillie, 50, and Kimberly Roberts, 47, were charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and firearms charges in connection with the death of Ashley Danielle Roberts.

While responding Friday night to a shooting call on Chitwood Cove in White, deputies were flagged down by the driver of a Ford Truck on Highway 20. Inside the truck was the shooting victim, a gunshot wound to her head. A nurse that was on the highway started CPR on the victim before transporting her to the hospital. The child later died.

Bartow County Sheriff’s deputies were told that the three had been camping on a dirt path off Chitwood Cove. After the two adults went to their tents to sleep, they heard a gunshot and a child whimper. When the found the child with a gunshot wound to her head, they rushed her to their truck.

Lillie and Roberts were charged with receipt, possession or transfer of a firearm by a convicted felon or felony first offender; involuntary manslaughter; and reckless conduct. Roberts also was charged with violating probation for an incident from 2019.

WBHF Community Radio reports that Lillie and Roberts had been arrested before in 2018 by the Euharlee Police Department. At that time, they were charged with aggravated assault, possession of marijuana, a firearms charge and probation violation.