Couple Now Faces Murder Charges In Connection With Child's Death

CARTERSVILLE, GA — A Bartow couple initially charged with manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a 5-year-old girl were charged Wednesday with murder, according to WBHF Community Radio.

James Lillie, 50, and Kimberly Roberts, 47, were arrested on May 16 when Roberts’ granddaughter, Ashley Danielle Roberts, was believed to have accidentally shot and killed herself with a pistol she’d been handling at a campsite off Chitwood Cover Road in White.

Although the facts of the investigation haven’t changed, Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap said, he upgraded the charges to murder because both Lillie and Roberts were convicted felons with a firearm that caused a child’s death.

When Lillie and Roberts were initially arrested, they 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.