Man sentenced to 99 years in prison in death of ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in Montgomery

A man who pleaded guilty to shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in front of one of her children has been sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Charlie Gardner, who pleaded guilty to killing Benjamin Young in 2018, was sentenced to the maximum sentence allowed by Judge Brooke Reid, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey. 

As Action 8 News has reported, on February 26, 2018, Young was shot in the 3100 block of Crawford Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bailey says Gardner showed up unannounced at his former girlfriend’s home as Young was preparing to take her children to school. Bailey says Young and one of the children, then 4 years old, were sitting in his car when Gardner approached the driver’s side door and began opening fire.

Young was struck by five bullets. The child, who was the only eyewitness to the murder, was physically unharmed.