The Brittany Diggs kidnapping refers to the March 14, 2017, abduction of a 25-year-old Birmingham, Alabama, nursing student who was forced into the trunk of her own car at gunpoint and escaped by using the faint glow of her insulin pump to find the emergency release latch. Her abductor, Manuel Ali Towns, was convicted the following year and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Abduction in Avondale
Diggs was arriving home from work at her apartment in Birmingham’s Avondale neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. when a man in a striped hoodie approached her at gunpoint and demanded money.1AL.com. Alabama Kidnapping Victim Who Escaped From Trunk When she told him she had none, he forced her into her black Nissan Altima and made her drive around the city while he tried to withdraw cash from ATMs using her debit card and PIN.2NBC News. Arrest Made in Kidnapping of Alabama Nursing Student Brittany Diggs He threatened to kill and rape her if the card didn’t work.3WGXA. Man Convicted of Kidnapping Woman Who Escaped From Trunk of Moving Car
After several stops, he forced Diggs into the trunk and kept driving. Around 11:40 p.m., he pulled into the Gas Land station on Bessemer Road to try the store’s ATM.
The Escape From the Trunk
Locked in the dark, Diggs remembered a Facebook video explaining that cars have interior trunk release latches.4Fox 6 Now. Kidnapped Woman Reveals How She Used Insulin Pump to Escape Trunk She had one small source of light: the display on her insulin pump. “I just got the bright idea to use my insulin pump light, which is not a bright light, but it was bright enough to see,” she told NBC News. “So I had to put it right on top of it to look and see for the latch.”5NBC News. Kidnap Victim Brittany Diggs: Insulin Pump Aided Trunk Escape
She found the latch and waited. When her abductor returned to the car and began reversing out of the parking space, Diggs popped the trunk, jumped from the moving vehicle, and ran into the Gas Land store.1AL.com. Alabama Kidnapping Victim Who Escaped From Trunk The store’s owner, Yosef Alsabah, had already been eyeing the suspect with suspicion and thought he saw a pistol in the man’s pocket. When Diggs came through the door, Alsabah locked it behind her and called police.6WCVB. Kidnapped Woman’s Harrowing Escape From Trunk Caught on Camera Surveillance cameras captured the escape on video, which later became key evidence at trial.4Fox 6 Now. Kidnapped Woman Reveals How She Used Insulin Pump to Escape Trunk A relative took Diggs to a hospital, where she was treated for minor cuts.
How Police Identified Manuel Ali Towns
Birmingham police recovered the Nissan Altima on Third Avenue West, still running. On the night of March 21, 2017, the department’s Crime Reduction Team arrested 28-year-old Manuel Ali Towns.7AL.com. Suspect Jailed, Questioned in Kidnapping Investigators tied him to the crime through fingerprints on the trunk and driver’s door of the abandoned car and a striped hoodie recovered from his possession.8FindLaw. Towns v. State, CR-17-1153
The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office charged Towns with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, and two counts of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card.9CBS 42. Birmingham Police Arrest, Charge Suspect in Avondale Robbery Kidnapping Case
The Trial
The trial took place in Jefferson County Circuit Court before Judge Teresa Pulliam and lasted about a week. Diggs testified on May 22, 2018, identifying Towns in the courtroom and describing the abduction in detail.3WGXA. Man Convicted of Kidnapping Woman Who Escaped From Trunk of Moving Car The defense challenged her identification, pointing to inconsistencies between her earlier statements to police, her 911 call, and her testimony about the perpetrator’s appearance, and called an expert witness on the general unreliability of eyewitness identifications.8FindLaw. Towns v. State, CR-17-1153
Prosecutors played surveillance footage from two convenience stores showing Towns using Diggs’s debit card at ATMs, along with video of the trunk escape. Financial records showed ATM withdrawals totaling about $185 from her account. Evidence technicians testified about the fingerprints on the car, and Yosef Alsabah described watching the escape from his store window.10WVTM 13. Manuel Towns Convicted in Avondale Kidnapping
On May 23, 2018, after roughly two hours of deliberation, the jury found Towns guilty on all four counts.10WVTM 13. Manuel Towns Convicted in Avondale Kidnapping
Life Without Parole
On July 16, 2018, Judge Pulliam sentenced Towns to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the kidnapping and robbery counts, plus 15 years on each of the two fraudulent-use counts. The life sentence was mandatory under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act. Towns had seven prior felony convictions, including five for first-degree robbery committed as a juvenile in 2004 and 2005. He had been released from prison on a marijuana conviction just two months before the kidnapping.11AL.com. Life Without Parole for Man Who Abducted Woman
What Happened on Appeal
On May 24, 2019, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the kidnapping and robbery convictions and the life-without-parole sentences. It found the 15-year sentences on the credit card fraud counts illegal, however, because the statute had been amended to cap punishment for those offenses at 10 years, and returned the case to the trial court for resentencing on those two counts only.8FindLaw. Towns v. State, CR-17-1153
Towns also argued that his juvenile-era robbery convictions should not have been used to enhance his adult sentence, citing Supreme Court precedents on harsh sentences for juvenile offenders. The appeals court rejected that, holding that Alabama’s recidivism statute punishes the most recent offense, and Towns was 28 when he kidnapped Diggs. After resentencing on the fraud counts, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the case in full on August 9, 2019.8FindLaw. Towns v. State, CR-17-1153
Manuel Ali Towns remains incarcerated, serving life without the possibility of parole.