Chattanooga, TN – A Criminal Court jury on Saturday announced it was unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether Gabriel Boykins, a 49-year-old man, was guilty of murdering a mother and her daughter. After over seven hours of deliberations, the jurors only found Boykins guilty on a lesser charge of tampering with evidence, leaving the community unsettled about the brutal double homicide.
Tamara Church, 40, and her daughter, Aquarious Church, 8, were last seen alive on May 17, 2020, before their bodies were discovered weeks later, discarded in a wooded area near a church along Greenwood Road. Boykins faced allegations of premeditated murder in their deaths.
Defense lawyer Sam Hudson highlighted the lack of direct evidence and motive presented in the trial, emphasizing that no witnesses linked Boykins to the victims on the day they vanished. Conversely, Prosecutor Aaron Chaplin argued that the circumstantial evidence, including a pattern of the victims’ cell phone locations and a confirmed violent death, was compelling enough to warrant a conviction.
The prosecution portrayed the murders as particularly heinous, noting that Tamara Church died from a combination of strangulation and severe head trauma, a process that painfully stretched over three minutes. Her daughter suffered extensive blunt trauma to her head and face, suggesting a violent attack.
Investigators found substantial blood evidence in Boykins’ residence on Foust Street, where Tamara frequently visited, and at an electric supply company’s storage yard. Further, cell phone records traced Ms. Church’s movements from these locations to the site where the bodies were eventually discovered.
Additional disturbing details emerged during the trial, including the discovery of the victims’ burned car and a grainy surveillance video capturing a man near the crime scene, whom two of Ms. Church’s other children initially identified as Boykins. The defendant, however, denied being the individual in the video.
Following the murders, Boykins reportedly left Chattanooga and traveled to Oklahoma, returning only to pick up one of Ms. Church’s sons, further raising suspicions about his involvement in the crime. His quick departure post-disappearance was linked to internet searches about fleeing town and methods of suicide, which the prosecution pointed out during the trial.
Despite the accumulation of circumstantial evidence and testimony, Boykins’ defense argued that no physical evidence conclusively tied him to the murders. It was contested that animals could have disrupted the crime scene, a large-bladed fence making it unlikely for a body to be dragged into the lot, and challenges were raised regarding the reliability of blood detection methods used.
The case also saw testimony from Ulysses Bradley, Tamara Church’s longtime boyfriend, who provided an alibi for himself and complicated the children’s initial suspicion that he could have been involved in the homicides. The shifting suspicions and complex family relations added layers of complexity to the already convoluted case.
The jury’s inability to reach a verdict on the murder charges means Boykins remains unconvicted of the most severe accusations against him, though he has been found guilty of tampering with evidence. This partial verdict does little to provide closure for the victims’ family, leaving vital questions about what happened to Tamara and Aquarious Church unanswered.
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