Inset: Christina S. Gordan (Alachua Sheriff's Office). Background: The area in Florida where Gordan got into the fatal crash last year (Google Maps).
A 30-year-old mother in Florida will spend several years behind bars for her role in the deaths of her two young children, neither of whom were secured in car seats or wearing seat belts when they suffered fatal injuries in a car crash last year.
Alachua County Circuit Judge Denise R. Ferrerro on Thursday sentenced Christina Shantell Gordan to four years in a state correctional facility on each of two counts of aggravated manslaughter of a child, with the sentences to run concurrently, followed by 15 years of probation, court records show.
Gordan entered an open plea of no contest to both charges and was credited with 15 days of time already served.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Gordan was driving west on SW Williston Road shortly after 6 a.m. on July 10, 2025, when another vehicle turning onto I-75 "failed to yield" and crashed into her vehicle.
Emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and found Gordan's 6-month-old infant "in the driver's floorboard in between [Gordan's] legs," the affidavit states. Her 22-month-old child was found "in the front passenger floorboard of the vehicle."
Medics transported both children to UF Health Shands Hospital under a trauma alert, and they were later pronounced dead.
Investigators said it was clear from the evidence at the scene that neither child had been properly restrained by Gordan.
"An inspection of the vehicle on scene revealed no child car seats were located in the passenger compartment of the vehicle," police wrote in the affidavit. "One infant car seat (with no base) was located in the trunk of the vehicle. Both the front driver and front passenger seat belts were locked by the seat belt pre-tensioner in the retracted position. Thus, the [defendant] nor the [victims] were wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash."
Gordan later told investigators that both children had been "sitting in the front passenger seat with the seat belt on." However, a detective wrote that he knew Gordan's claim about the seat belt was false due to the physical evidence at the scene as well as body-camera footage.
Based on the infant's injuries, their position inside the vehicle, and the blood spatter found on the steering-wheel airbag, investigators concluded that the younger victim had been sitting on Gordan's lap at the time of the crash. The toddler is believed to have been sitting unrestrained in the front passenger seat.
The affidavit states that Gordan was the children's mother and caregiver and that she "knowingly and willfully did not secure" them in state-required child-restraint devices, which directly resulted in their deaths.
The charges carried a potential maximum of 60 years in prison — 30 years for each count — but prosecutors agreed to cap Gordan's punishment at five years.
Gordan asked for leniency in a letter to the judge, acknowledging that she was responsible for failing to properly secure her children while emphasizing that she was not impaired by drugs or alcohol and that the other driver had failed to yield.
"I wish every day that I could go back and make different decisions," she wrote. "Unfortunately, I cannot."
Gordan also described losing her career as a certified nursing assistant and her ability to drive since the crash. She said she continues to struggle with PTSD, depression, memory problems and sleepless nights.
"I miss my children every single day," Gordan wrote. "There are moments when the reality hits me all over again that they are not coming home."
She also asked the judge to consider that she has another daughter who still needs her and said she hoped to eventually return to caring for others.
"I cannot change what happened. I cannot bring my children back. I cannot undo my mistakes," she wrote.