How Could You? Hall of Shame-Alexis Long case-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Columbus, Georgia, adoptive parent Jennifer Long, 35, has been charged with murder and her husband Timothy Long, 46, has been charged with second-degree cruelty to children in the death of 20-month-old Alexis Long. She died in Atlanta on January 30, 2012.

“The Longs had been married for 14 years and had recently adopted Alexis, according to information on her Facebook page.

“We have a daughter named Alexis Nichole that we adopted and I thank the Lord everyday for her,” Jennifer Long wrote on Facebook.

Timothy and Jennifer Long had a number of photos of Alexis posted on their Facebook pages at the time of their arrests.

“Thanks be unto God for blessing us to adopt Alexis!” Tim posted on his Facebook page Nov. 3. “I give God all the glory and praise for this wonderful blessing, and I thank all who prayed for us and supported us. God is indeed good.”

The child had injuries to the back of her head when an ambulance brought her at 3:30 p.m. Sunday to The Medical Center emergency room, police said. The staff there had the baby transferred to Atlanta’s Egleston Children’s Hospital, where she died at 8:52 a.m. Tuesday, according to Muscogee County Coroner Bill Thrower.

“When the attending doctors spoke to the parents of the child, their version of what had happened to the child was not consistent with the injury,” detectives said Thursday. Lt. Lynn Joiner said of the hospital staff: “The way it was explained to them, they couldn’t understand it. So they called the police department in case it’s a neglect or a cruelty case.”

Results of an autopsy led authorities to rule the death a homicide.

A man who answered the phone at the Longs’ home Thursday declined to speak before hanging up.

Timothy Long works for the city of Columbus as an electrical inspector and graduated from Jordan High and Columbus Technical College, according to his Facebook page. Jennifer Long graduated from Griffin High School, but listed no occupation on her Facebook page.

Their Recorder’s Court hearing will be 9 a.m. Saturday [February 4, 2012]. ”

Columbus police: Parents charged in baby’s death
[Ledger-Enquirer 2/3/12 by Alan Riquelmy and Tim Chitwood]

“An autopsy showed the baby died from head trauma, and the death was ruled a homicide. ”

Update: Parents arrested in death of baby injured Jan. 29
[Ledger-Enquirer 2/2/12 by Tim Chitwood]

“Police seized a baby changing table with splinters of wood damage during an investigation in the death of 20-month old Alexis Long, a police detective testified in Columbus Recorder’s Court today.”

“During a 9 a.m. hearing, the mother pleaded innocent to the charge but her husband waived his hearing after being released on $5,000 bond Thursday from the Muscogee County Jail. Judge Cynthia Maisano ordered the mother held without bond on the murder charge and bound the case over to Muscogee Superior Court.

The child sustained an injury to the back of the head with slight bleeding and also had multiple injuries to the leg, arms and back. Police found fresh broken wood and splinters on the back of the changing table. “We recovered the whole table,” Knight told the court.

Police also seized a laptop computer from the home.

Represented by attorney Tim Flournoy of Columbus, Long didn’t testify at the hearing. When the attorney asked Knight if information was consistent from the couple on what happened to Alexis, the officer said it wasn’t.

Flournoy declined to comment on the case as he left Recorder’s Court.”
Suspect in toddler’s death pleads not guilty in Recorder’s Court
[Ledger-Enquirer 2/4/12 by Ben Wright]

“Jennifer Long’s face was calm as she entered recorder’s court Saturday morning. She had the support of her attorney and what appeared to be family members. Long entered a plea of not guilty to murder.

Mother accused of killing daughter pleads not guilty in court
[WVTM 2/6/12 by Curtis McCloud]

Comments on multiple articles indicate that this child’s biological mother died in childbirth and the father and other family members were unable to take care of the child. She appears to have been in state care before being adopted, but we cannot confirm that at this time.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

The child did not only have a head injury, one of the most common ways that young children die, but multiple injuries on her body. It appears that she was adopted from a foster care situation.

Update: “Bond has been set for a Columbus woman accused of killing her 18-month-old daughter, Alexis Long.

Earlier this month, Jennifer Long, 35, was charged with murder. The Muscogee County Jail says Long’s bond has been set at $125,000. She is currently behind bars.

A police report says there were multiple bruises on baby Alexis Long. She appeared to be suffering from head trauma and tissue swelling to the back of the head. When her condition did not improve at the Medical Center she was rushed to Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta where she died.

Alexis was recently adopted by Jennifer Long and her husband Timothy. Timothy Long was charged with cruelty to children.

Detective Patrick Knight, of the Columbus Police Department, said Long told police his wife threw Baby Alexis on the changing table.”

Bond set for Columbus mom charged with killing toddler

[WTVM 2/24/12 by Fadell Pitts]

“The bond for a mother charged with murder in the death of her 20-month old daughter has been lowered.

Jennifer Long, 35, was arrested last month and was originally given a $125,000 bond. Friday, the Muscogee County jail says that Judge John Allen has lowered Long’s bond to $100,000.

Police say that long threw her young adopted daughter Alexis onto a changing table. That when police say the child became unresponsive and later died.

Jennifer long is currently still being held in the Muscogee County Jail.”

Bond reduced for mother charged in toddler’s murder

[WTVM 3/9/12]

“A woman charged with murder in the death of her infant child made bond last month, Muscogee County Jail officials said.

Jennifer Long, 35, was released from jail July 26 on a property bond, officials said. She’d been held since early February on accusations she killed her 20-month-old adoptive child.

Woman charged with murder makes bond

[Ledger-Enquirer 8/8/12 by Alan Riquelmy]

Update 2:“An Atlanta child abuse pediatrician told a Muscogee County Superior Court jury on Tuesday the injuries that killed an 18-month-old toddler in January 2012 almost certainly were not caused by an accident.

Jennifer Long faces murder and child cruelty charges in the death of Alexis Long, a toddler she and her husband, Timothy Long, had adopted months earlier. Long is accused of battering the child against a wooden changing table, splintering it, prosecutor George Lipscomb has asserted.

Timothy Long, who has been separated from his wife since the child died, also testified Tuesday during the first day of the trial.

Dr. Stephen Messner, a pediatrician at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, testified about the injuries Alexis Long long suffered on Jan. 29, 2012. Messner examined Alexis Long after she was transported from Midtown Medical Center to Atlanta, where she was in an intensive care unit and unresponsive.

He graphically described multiple bruises, cuts and scratches from the child’s head to her lower legs. About 70 photos of those injuries were shown to the jury as Messner described the injuries. Jennifer Long sat motionless looking toward the television monitor as the images flashed on the screen. The mostly female jury watched intently. Judge Ron Mullins stood directly behind Jennifer Long as he watched the photos being shown to the jury.

The child died from a fatal brain injury, Messner said.

“This wouldn’t be short fall, 4 to 5 feet,” he said. “See some swelling on scalp. Sometimes a fracture where impacted. They don’t get this overwhelming a brain injury. We don’t see children dying from shortfalls — less than 1 in a million a year. Toddlers fall. That is what they do. But they don’t suffer fatal injuries from those falls.”

Force to the child’s head caused the injury and retinal hemorrhages, Messner told the jury.

“It isn’t like one little collection of trauma,” the doctor said. “It was significant force on the back of the eye.”

It was an injury similar to those seen from a high-speed crash or a fall from a high distance, Messner said.

The prosecution also showed the jury social media photos of Alexis and posts from Jennifer Long’s Facebook page. The doctor pointed out bruises and marks to the child in those photos. In some of the posts, Jennifer Long is talking about Alexis temper and her tantrums.

On the day the child suffered the fatal injuries the Longs went from Columbus to Griffin, Ga., where he was preaching.

Timothy Long, in a very unemotional testimony, told of what happened that Sunday afternoon when they got home from Griffin after 3 p.m. The child was fine while they were in Griffin, Timothy Long testified.

“Alexis was fine, she ran around and played,” Timothy Long testified. “On the way home, she was a little fussy, but she fell asleep. Jennifer got her out of car seat put her on ground, and she had a tantrum. She began screaming and hollering.”

Timothy Long opened the door and let his wife and child in the house. He then returned to his car to put his glasses back in it.

“Jennifer was going to take Alexis to her room and get her changed,” Timothy Long testified. “While I was at the car, I heard a loud noise. Sounded like it was in the direction of Alexis’ room. Went into the house and asked Jennifer if she heard a noise. She said no, but there was something wrong with Alexis.”

Timothy Long then went into the room and found Alexis on the floor.

“It looked like she had vomit in her mouth,” he said. “I sat her up. She was droopy and not responsive to calling her name.”

The baby also was breathing heavily as Timothy Long called 911. Emergency responders arrived quickly and “scooped up” the baby, Timothy Long said.

When they got to Midtown Medical Center, the doctor asked the couple what happened. Timothy Long said he told him what he had just told the jury.

“The doctor pretty much rolled his eyes and said she had blunt-force trauma,” Timothy Long said. “Detectives came and separated us.”

Timothy Long is facing one count of second-degree child cruelty. He told the jury that he had agreed to a plea deal that would keep him out of prison in exchange for testimony against his estranged wife.

Lipscomb asked Timothy Long, who was working as an electrical inspector for the city of Columbus at the time of Alexis’ death, if he had made a deal with prosecutors to lessen his sentence.

Timothy Long said yes and that his attorney had told him it would be in his best interest.

“I will not have jail time,” Timothy Long said.

Defense attorney Tim Flournoy told the jury during opening statements that his client was an unemotional person.

“A number of witnesses will tell you my client appeared calm,” he said. “They are going to tell you she was calm. We are going to call people who know her and have known her all her life. We are going to show she is one of the people who does not show emotion.”

That was the scene Lt. Debra Bohannon, a Columbus Police detective, described as she told the jury of Jennifer Long going into a room to see her baby at Midtown Medical Center before the child was transported to a Atlanta.

“She walked in the room, looked in the direction of the baby and got next to the table,” Bohannon said. “She appeared to be looking over the baby. At some point she petted her, then put her hand back down. That was the end. She did not talk to the baby.”

The Longs then went to Atlanta, and she was interviewed a fourth time by police after 8 p.m. the next day when police asked them to return to Columbus.

Flournoy said Long had been up 36 hours and had been in Atlanta before she was subjected to a four-hour police interview.

“She steadfastly denies she did anything to harm the child,” Flournoy said. “But she was not telling them what they wanted to hear. Finally, she tells Detective Stewart Carter that she did not realize she had thrown the baby on the changing table. You have to decide if that statement was freely and voluntarily given or was part of this prolonged process.”

Flournoy then pointed out the police let Long leave without arresting her.

“One conclusion you can draw is they let her go home because she did not intentionally harm the child,” Flournoy said.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning.”

Toddler death: Estranged husband, detective describe mother’s behavior [Ledger-Enquirer 12/8/15 by Chuck Williams]

“Jurors in the murder trial of Jennifer Long spent much of Wednesday reviewing video recordings of detectives’ questioning her after her 18-month-old adopted daughter was found to be brain dead from a head injury.

The recordings showed Long for hours denied slamming the crying child down on a changing table, breaking the wooden surface.

As detectives asked how the girl, Alexis, was injured, Long repeatedly said neither she nor her husband knew.

“I don’t know. Honest, I don’t know. We’re both baffled,” she said.

She said she was about to change the child’s diaper when the baby abruptly slumped over and vomited.

Police Sgt. Matt Blackstock wasn’t buying it. The girl’s head trauma was too severe for nothing to have happened, he said: “It’s like being in a head-on car wreck, Jennifer,” he told her.

“I told you what happened,” she said. “I can’t say nothing else.”

Blackstock also asked about the girl’s being bruised “from head to toe.”

“She falls a lot from walking, bumping into things,” Long said.

Another detective, John Bailey, found that unbelievable: “Kids fall, but they don’t end up with that kind of bruising,” he told Long.

Questioned separately in another room, Long’s husband Timothy Long told officers he heard the child crying while he was outside the house, then the crying stopped after he heard a loud noise from inside.

When he went back in, he was headed for the bathroom when he met his wife in the hall.

“Did you hear a noise?” he asked her.

“There’s something wrong with Alexis,” she told him.

The girl was injured on Jan. 29, 2012, and rushed from Columbus to a trauma center in Atlanta, hhere she died the next day after her life-support was disconnected.

After nearly four hours of police questioning, Jennifer Long told detectives she hadn’t realized she’d thrown Alexis onto the table with such force.

Defense attorney Tim Flournoy said his client was exhausted from lack of sleep, and finally just told police what they wanted to hear.

Later video recordings showed the husband talking to his wife in the interview room.

“I still love you,” he told her. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”

The couple since has separated.

Jennifer Long’s trial resumes this morning before Judge Ron Mullins on the Columbus Government Center’s ninth floor.”

Jury in baby death trial review mother’s videotaped police interview [Ledger-Enquirer 12/8/15 by Tim Chitwood]

Update 3:“The mother accused of fatally injuring her adopted toddler by slamming the child down on a changing table testified Thursday that the girl fell from the table onto a hardwood floor.

The shattered changing table police seized as evidence had been broken for weeks before her 18-month-old daughter Alexis fell off it, said Jennifer Long, who’s on trial for murder.

Mother charged in murder trial says toddler fell from changing table [Ledger-Enquirer 12/10/15 by Tim Chitwood]

Update 4:“Judge Ron Mullins sentenced Jennifer Long to life without parole Monday afternoon.

Long received life without parole for malice murder, into which the felony murder charge merges. She also was sentenced to 20 years for first-degree cruelty to children, but that’s to be concurrent with the murder sentence.

Original story: Jurors found Jennifer Long guilty Dec. 11 of slamming her 18-month-old adopted daughter against a changing table, causing a fatal brain injury.

The jury deliberated about two hours and 20 minutes before finding Long guilty of murder and first-degree child cruelty. Judge Ron Mullins set her sentencing for 2 p.m. Dec. 21.

During closing arguments Friday morning, defense attorney Tim Flournoy urged jurors to consider convicting his client on the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter, claiming Long did not intend to kill the girl even if her actions resulted in the fatal injury.

Long claimed the child only fell from the changing table, which is about three feet high. A doctor testified a fall from so low a height was unlikely to cause such severe trauma, which was consistent with someone falling five stories or being involved in a head-on car collision.

Flournoy told jurors that doesn’t mean Long’s scenario is impossible: “It may be unusual; it may be strange, but strange things happen,” he said.

In his closing, Assistant District Attorney George Lipscomb gave a dramatic demonstration of how much force must have been used to cause such “catastrophic” injury, taking a foam doll and slamming it down on the changing table in the courtroom.

As he did so, he pointed out aspects of the law he said fit his contention that what Long did was outright murder, not involuntary manslaughter resulting from carelessness.

He said the element of premeditation is not required for jurors to find Long guilty of malice or deliberate murder, citing the law as he said, “Intent may be inferred from the consequences of the act,” and smashed the doll on the table.

The act alone may be evidence of “an abandoned and malignant heart,” he said, slamming the doll against the table again.

The act also may be evidence of malice “no matter how short in time” the malice existed, so even spur-of-the-moment passion justifies a murder conviction, he said, again smacking the doll on the table.

He continued, saying Long’s testimony that the baby fell off the table was not believable, and noting that doctors said older injuries indicated the girl had been beaten before. Then he hit the table with his fist, smashing the entire top in.

The wooden table already had been in bad shape, its broken surface showing where Lipscomb told jurors Long slammed toddler Alexis Long’s head against it.

Flournoy objected to Lipscomb’s destroying a trial exhibit, saying its condition was no longer as initially presented, so the jury should not be allowed to view the broken table during deliberations.

Lipscomb agreed, saying jurors would be able to examine photographs of the table as it originally was shown to them.

Because pre-existing injuries indicated she’d been beaten before, the child’s fatal trauma on Jan. 29, 2012, was not an isolated incident, but the ultimate consequence of a pattern of abuse, Lipscomb said.

Long and her husband said the family that Sunday morning in 2012 had left Columbus for Griffin, Ga., where Long grew up, and where her part-time pastor spouse was to preach. Alexis that day was in good spirits, happy to see relatives and meet new people.

But the child got fussy on the way home, and started crying when they got back to Columbus about 3 or 3:30 p.m. As Long took the child inside to change her diaper, the husband went back to the car to put a pair of glasses in it.

He said that while he was outside, he heard a loud “bang,” like furniture being moved, and when he went back in, his wife told him, “Something’s wrong with Alexis.” He called 911, and an ambulance rushed the child to the Midtown Medical Center, where physicians had her flown by helicopter to a pediatric trauma center in Atlanta.

Brain dead, the toddler died the following Monday when her life support was removed.

Long over those two days repeatedly said she had no idea how the child was injured. Finally, after detectives here questioned her almost four hours, she told them she hadn’t realized she set the baby on the changing table with such force.

But while testifying Thursday, she said the baby fell off the changing table while she wasn’t looking.

Her attorney in his closing said his client’s husband was the more likely culprit, as evidenced by Timothy Long’s cutting ties with his wife of 14 years as soon as he was released from jail on charges of second-degree child cruelty, a misdemeanor alleging he failed to report child abuse.

After his release, he stopped communicating with his wife and her family, changing his telephone number and the locks on his house. “There’s something about Pastor Long that ain’t right,” Flournoy said.

Recalling a doctor’s testifying to finding injuries indicating “an ongoing pattern of abuse” that may have included beating the girl with a ruler and with a plastic coat hanger, Flournoy said, “Somebody was abusing that child.” It must have been Timothy Long, he said.

Lipscomb countered that no one, including Jennifer Long and relatives who spoke in her defense, testified to seeing Timothy Long mistreat the baby.

Flournoy told the jury that when detectives interviewed his client for almost four hours the night of Jan. 30, 2012, she had not slept since 8 a.m. the previous day. She was questioned until midnight, so she went about 36 hours with no rest.

He maintained police simply wore Jennifer Long down until she said what they wanted to hear. They at times got right up in her face and yelled.

That was abusive, Flournoy said: “They don’t beat you with rubber hoses anymore, but they browbeat you.” Jurors should consider whether such intimidation resulted in a statement Jennifer Long gave “freely and voluntarily,” he said.

He also referred to character witnesses who said Jennifer Long never had a short temper, and had avoided confrontations all her life, even with her siblings when she was a child.

“She was mild and meek,” he said. “She doesn’t have a mean gene in her DNA, and she would not intentionally harm this child.”

Lipscomb countered that Jennifer Long’s character witnesses were all friends or relatives who don’t live here, so they could not have known how the mother treated the child day to day.

They could testify only to her reputation, not to her actual character, he said.

“She’s taken everything away from this child,” Lipscomb concluded. “It’s time this child had justice.””

Update: Jennifer Long sentenced to life without parole for slamming baby against table

[Ledger-Enquirer 12/11/15 by Tim Chitwood]