KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As the minutes and then hours ticked by, Robin Howington told lie after lie about what happened to her 5-year-old daughter the night of Sept. 14, 2019.
In an early version of her story, she told Knoxville Police Department investigators when questioned that the child's father had barged into her Fountain City home and fired a gunshot, perhaps in an attempt to scare Howington. Destiny Oliver was lying on the couch watching Netflix when a bullet hit her.
At first sympathetic to her, KPD's Tim Riddle and Brandon Wardlaw changed their stance as they began to see that what she was claiming simply failed to add up. She lied about the gun, the sequence of events before the shooting and especially about what she did, court testimony showed Tuesday.
Then, she switched to telling police her 2-year-old son had retrieved the pistol from a closet and fired the weapon, perhaps in defense of his mother.
And then when police began poking holes in that tale, she finally switched during another sit-down interview days later to insist that the victim's father had come over to her house, she'd gotten the gun, she'd turned on him, they'd tussled and in their struggle for the weapon it went off, fatally striking her daughter in the chest.
Court testimony showed Tuesday that version at least seemed consistent with some of what they'd learned about her relationship with the child's father, including a prior confrontation she'd had with him when she pulled the gun on him outside her Balsam Drive house.
What's really the truth? Perhaps only Howington, 41, knows for sure. The father hasn't been charged.
Tuesday marked the second day of Howington's trial on charges that include felony murder, evidence tampering and aggravated child neglect. She is free on bond.
It's ultimately up to Knox County jurors to decide what they believe. They'll also have the option of picking a lesser form of homicide if they can't agree she's guilty of felony murder.
Again and again, she misled the investigators and told falsehoods in an interview after Destiny died from the single gunshot wound to her chest. Destiny also suffered a hand wound from the gunshot, and the bullet appeared to damage a TV remote, court testimony showed Tuesday.
Security camera video from a neighbor helped police build a framework about what happened that night. Once they started comparing it, along with its time codes, to Howington's story, they were able to refute fact after fact.
For one, it showed her getting rid of the gun immediately after Destiny was shot. She tried to hide it under a bush by the house, something she at first denied.
Investigators also went back to her house after questioning her to check her claim that her son had used a stool to reach up into a bedroom close to get the pistol. It didn't add up.
"You keep telling me it's (the 2-year-old boy)," Wardlaw said. "It can't be (the 2-year-old)."
Riddle told her he'd learned that she'd pulled the gun on Destiny's father during an argument two days prior to the homicide, during which he'd taken the gun away from her.
About two things Howington was insistent, the first being: "I did not kill my baby."
She also said multiple times that her daughter never would have been shot if the girl's father hadn't come over to her house that night.
Franklin Ammons and Ashley McDermott are prosecuting the case.
Defense attorney Mike Whalen will cross-examine Investigator Riddle on Wednesday morning in Knox County Criminal Court. Judge Scott Green is presiding over the trial.
