A Fayette County jury has found 42-year-old Christopher Gardner guilty of first-degree murder in the 2022 death of his 7-month-old son, Max Long, and of two counts of aggravated child endangerment or abuse tied to the severe injury of the boy's twin sibling. The verdict came Wednesday following two days of testimony and physical evidence presented at the Fayette County Criminal Justice Complex, closing out a case that began when the infant was rushed to a Memphis hospital in June 2022.
Gardner and Max's mother, 32-year-old Ashley Long, were identified by the Oakland Police Department as responsible for the child's death and for suspected abuse and neglect of three other young children who lived with the couple on the 100 block of Laurel Street, according to Action News 5. Max was taken to the Memphis hospital on June 23, 2022, and was pronounced dead there the same day. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agents joined the Oakland Police Department's probe that same day, after 25th Judicial District Attorney General Mark Davidson formally requested state assistance, according to a release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Max was born on November 5, 2021, making him seven months old at the time of his death, and both parents were taken into custody and jailed the day he died, as reported by Law & Crime. A Fayette County Grand Jury did not return indictments until five months later, on November 28, 2022, formally charging Gardner and Long with six counts each, including felony murder, two counts of aggravated child abuse, neglect or endangerment, and three additional counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment.
A Long Road From Arrest to Verdict
After the indictments, a Fayette County judge set bond for both defendants at $1 million each, per localmemphis.com. The same report notes that Oakland sits roughly 30 miles east of Memphis, an incorporated town in Fayette County that relies on local emergency crews and transport to Memphis facilities for pediatric trauma care — the same journey Max made in his final hours. It took nearly four years from arrest to trial for the case against Gardner to reach a jury this week.
Gardner's sentencing has been scheduled for October 1, 2026. Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-13-202, a conviction for first-degree felony murder committed during aggravated child abuse carries a mandatory minimum penalty of life imprisonment, which under state law requires a minimum of 51 calendar years served before parole eligibility, according to the Tennessee Courts system. The dossier reviewed for this report does not indicate the current status or outcome of the charges against Ashley Long, and that remains an open question in the case.
Statewide Scrutiny Over Child Death Reporting
The 25th Judicial District Attorney General's Office, led by Mark Davidson, prosecutes cases across five West Tennessee counties — Fayette, Hardeman, Lauderdale, McNairy and Tipton — placing this conviction within a broader regional prosecutorial network, according to the Hatchie Press. The case also lands amid growing statewide concern about how Tennessee tracks child deaths. A December 2025 Tennessee State Comptroller audit found that the Department of Children's Services failed to consistently and fully report child deaths and near-fatalities it investigated in 2023 and 2024, creating reporting delays, per Axios.
Separately, data from the Department of Children's Services showed the agency investigated nearly 2,000 child deaths statewide between 2015 and early 2026, with a ten-year peak recorded during 2025, according to FOX 17 News. Under Tennessee law, every adult citizen is designated as a mandatory reporter, required to immediately report any suspected child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or the Department of Children's Services, per the state's Office of Family Safety.
For now, Gardner's conviction closes the courtroom chapter of a case that began with a 911 call and a hospital transport nearly four years ago. His sentencing on October 1 will determine how the mandatory minimum plays out for a father a jury found guilty of murdering his infant son and endangering the boy's twin.
