A Tennessee man will spend the next several decades behind bars for brutally killing a mother and her young child.

In June, Gabriel Fitzgerald Boykins, 50, was convicted by a Hamilton County jury on two counts of murder in the second degree.

On Thursday, the court sentenced the defendant to a total of 45 years in state prison. He received a 20-year sentence for the death of 40-year-old Tamara Church, while a 25-year sentence was given for the death of her 8-year-old daughter, Aquarious Church. These sentences are to be served consecutively.

Emotion ran high during the sentencing hearing, according to a courtroom report by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“Is there a greater act of cruelty than a child witnessing harm to her mother, or a mother observing harm to her child?” commented Hamilton County Criminal Court Division III Judge Amanda Dunn during the proceedings. “One had to witness the other’s death.”

The since-condemned man maintained his innocence during an allocution but reportedly showed no emotion as he learned his fate.

During the trial, however, the state offered a more compelling narrative.

On May 19, 2020, the victims were reported missing by their family, one day following the discovery of the mother’s 2004 Honda Odyssey, which had been set on fire in the Ferger Place area of Chattanooga.

The ensuing investigation would be long and difficult, the result particularly painful and distressing for their family and the community.

By late July 2020, after a 51-day search, their bodies were located on Greenwood Road in a wooded area near a major cemetery, using cellphone data to pinpoint the mother’s last known whereabouts. The time elapsed significantly deteriorated vital evidence concerning the crime due to the condition of their remains.

But law enforcement learned enough.

Investigators indicated the mother suffered a neck bone fracture, likely from ongoing strangulation, and appeared to have been struck in the face, leading to blunt force injuries. The daughter’s death was portrayed as particularly brutal by the judge, noting her skull seemed to have been stomped or crushed.

“The back of her skull was in pieces,” Dunn intoned on Thursday.

While a motive was never offered, prosecutors alleged Boykins and Tamara Church previously had a relationship. The judge recounted arguments and incidents of alleged abuse between the pair.

In July 2020, police found evidence that a large pool of blood had been washed away in the duplex where Boykins lived, according to Chattanoogan.com. Earlier that month, the defendant was found by police with another of Tamara Church’s young daughters – still alive – in his care. Later, surveillance footage showed a man with Boykins’ build walking away from the burning Honda – and heading in the direction of the man’s duplex.

The state’s first effort to convict the since-condemned man was unsuccessful. In November 2024, a hung jury said they could only agree Boykins was guilty of tampering with evidence.

During the sentencing hearing, the court addressed the limits of formal justice – telling the Church family no sentence would ever result in the two slain individuals coming back.

“I know you loved your family very, very much,” the judge said.

Volunteer State court records show 44 cases against Boykins dating back to 1995.