A Jackson woman has been bound over to a Clarke County grand jury on a reckless manslaughter charge after a preliminary hearing this week, in a case that centers on dueling accounts of exactly how a shotgun went off during an argument that turned fatal.
Natasha Washington is charged with reckless manslaughter in the shooting death of Marcus Robinson at a residence on Walker Springs Road on March 28. District Judge J.R. Morgan ruled there was enough evidence at the preliminary hearing to send the case forward for possible indictment.
Jackson Police Department detective Ron Baggette testified that when officers arrived at the scene, they found Robinson’s body on the ground, covered with a sheet a neighbor had placed over him. Robinson had suffered a shotgun wound to the neck, and a 12-gauge pump shotgun was found leaning against a four-wheeler nearby.
According to Baggette’s testimony, Washington told investigators she had sent Robinson threatening text messages earlier in the day and had taken his clothes out of the house and scattered them across the yard. When Robinson arrived at the residence, the two argued further, and Washington said he pointed the shotgun at her; she said she turned and ducked, grabbed the gun, and it discharged, striking Robinson.
Washington’s attorney, William Robert McMillan, raised the possibility that Robinson’s death was a suicide rather than the result of the altercation Washington described. But Baggette testified that the autopsy indicated Robinson was shot from an estimated distance of four to 10 feet — a detail prosecutors are likely to lean on if the case proceeds to trial, since it complicates a self-inflicted-wound theory.
The case now moves to a Clarke County grand jury, which will decide whether to hand down a formal indictment. No trial date has been set.