Horrific Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom

[Sterling]

sharpton and jackson didn't speak out for THESE victims.

Let's hope that both of these white-hating, mother fuckers keep their mouths shut when it comes to the filthy black murdering bastards, too - except to condemn these nigger thugs.

I would love to see either a local or federal prosecutor grow a set and charge these killers with a hate crime.

[FAHQTOO]

If that poor father hasn't snapped yet holding all that rage inside, this new trial would surely have to send him over the edge.

I think this is the most horrific story I have read on here.
How can a parent ever get that out of their mind, for even a minute...how?

[sharit]

If that poor father hasn't snapped yet holding all that rage inside, this new trial would surely have to send him over the edge.

I think this is the most horrific story I have read on here.
How can a parent ever get that out of their mind, for even a minute...how?

You are so right! I said if they walk they wont walk for long. Praying they do not retry these animals.

[koko]

my stomach is still twisting from reading those details. now all i want for christmas is for the DA to appeal successfully

[Cheyne]

I too, wish I hadn't read this thread. I never heard of these crimes, and wasn't surprised to see that it was Black on White once I got to the end of the article.

The national media does not like to report on Black on White crimes as it doesn't fit into their agenda. And charging a Black with a hate crime perpetrated on a White? Fugggedaboutit, it aint gonna happen.

[cladking]

Only in a sick society can any of this scum still be sucking air.

A new trial? They should have to be exhumed to get new trial.

[Red_velvet71]

In day six of the Letalvis Cobbins trial, Cobbins took to the stand and explained his version of the events, beginning from the carjacking of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom and leading up to their deaths.

Chilling video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix1ZNe4Zrxw

[imsuchawildflower]

Gruesome, disgusting, horrifying and Im not going to be able to keep
this from popping into my mind as I go about my daily schedule...
The only good thing about that, is that it will remind me to pray for
for their parents and loved ones.
My God, how could you go on, knowing some monster did this to
your child...how could you ever find a single decent thing in the
world ever again...

[koko]

thanks for the link red velvet. chilling to say the least..

[Teacher]

In March 2012, the Tennessee Attorney General's Office stepped in to ask the state Court of Criminal Appeals to hold off on the new trials for the Christian-Newsom defendants. That Appeals Court has not issued an opinion on the issue as yet, but Knox County prosecutors are gearing up for retrials scheduled to begin in June 2012. All four defendants remain behind bars as they await their next day in court. Judge Blackwood announced he will try the cases in Knox County, but select jurors from faraway counties who have not been tainted by the years of publicity. In the meantime, Lemaricus Davidson pled guilty to a robbery that took place in a Knoxville Pizza Hut on January 8, 2007 — just a day after the killings. He received a sentence of eight years for the robbery — that time will not be added to whatever punishment he is meted in his murder/rape retrial. The sentences will run concurrently.

While the families of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom must get set to relive the tragic events again and again in a series of retrials, supporters were able to remember the loss in a positive way. On March 26, 2012, the Chris Newsom Memorial Baseball Tournament was held at Halls Community Park in Knoxville. Proceeds from gate fees and t-shirt sales were put into a scholarship fund in Newsom's name to provide scholarships for graduating seniors of Halls High School, Newsom's alma mater.

[LytoMe]

What is the story of the ANIMALS charged?

Hummm where is Al Sharpton and the other white hating voices that were so verbal in Martin case. How African Americans are always the victims?

[Middle Finger]

Crime

According to news reports, Christian and Newsom had gone on a date at a local restaurant on Saturday, January 6, 2007, but did not return home. During their night out, the couple were carjacked, bound and blindfolded by three males, and "taken back to Lemaricus Devall 'Slim' Davidson's rented house on Chipman Street."[6]

Christian's parents found her abandoned Toyota 4-Runner two blocks away from the Chipman Street house the following Monday with the help of her mobile phone provider. An envelope recovered from the vehicle yielded fingerprint evidence that led police to Lemaricus Davidson and 2316 Chipman Street. When police went to the address on Tuesday, January 9, they found the home unoccupied and Christian's body in a trash can in the kitchen.

According to the testimony of the Knox County Acting Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan at the subsequent trial of Eric Boyd, Newsom was repeatedly sodomized with an object and then blindfolded, gagged, arms and feet bound and his head covered. Barefoot, he was either led or dragged outside the house to a set of nearby railroad tracks. He was shot in the back of the head, the neck, and the back, and his body then set on fire.

Channon's death came only after hours of sexual torture, medical examiner Mileusnic-Polchan testified. Channon suffered horrific injuries to her vagina, anus and mouth. She was not only raped but savaged with "an object," possibly a broken chair leg, the doctor testified. She was beaten in the head. Some type of chemical was poured down her throat, and her body, including her bleeding and battered genital area, likely scrubbed with the same solution - all while Channon was alive, the forensic expert said. She was then "hog-tied," with curtains and strips of bedding, her face covered tightly with a small trash bag and her body stashed inside five large trash bags before being placed inside a large trash can and covered with sheets. Channon died slowly, suffocating, the medical examiner said.

/Murders_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christophe...en.wikipedia.org


In my local paper is an article stating that 4 of the defendants are going to get a new trial due to official misconduct by the judge, Richard Baumgartner. These murders were extremely grisly, cruel, and inhumane to say the least.

Hard to even read this ... it's yet another good reason to be armed. People forget about carjackings. What if your kids are strapped in the back?

[Teacher]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A senior judge recently appointed to oversee the murder cases stemming from the torture killing of a young Knoxville couple has promised a quick ruling on whether three defendants should get new trials.

The Knoxville News Sentinel (http://bit.ly/WbdzcF ) reported that, at a Thursday hearing in Knox County Criminal Court, Judge Walter Kurtz said the motions for new trials "don't need to fester any longer" and that he would decide on them by mid-January. The victims were 21-year-old Channon Christian and 23-year-old Christopher Newsom.

Lemaricus Davidson; his brother, Letalvis Cobbins; Cobbins' pal, George Thomas; and Cobbins' girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, were earlier granted new trials because the trial judge admitted abusing pain pills.

Coleman was retried and reconvicted last month. She was convicted of facilitating the murder of Christian, but found guilty on less serious ancillary charges than at her initial trial. The result is that her maximum sentence would now be 43 years — 10 fewer years than she had initially drawn.

The state did not disagree with former special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood's decision that Coleman deserved a retrial.

Prosecutors, however, opposed new trials for Davidson, Cobbins and Thomas.

The Tennessee Supreme Court removed Blackwood from overseeing those cases after a courtroom clash involving him and state prosecutors.

___

Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com

[Duchess]

Whatta waste of money.

[ramseycat]

I don't see how the judge taking pills warrants new trials.

[Teacher]

Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

The latest chapter in the story that began with the horrific torture, rape and murder of young Knoxville couple Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom began this week as testimony in the retrial of alleged killer George Thomas got underway.

In 2009, Thomas was convicted on 38 counts including murder, aggravated rape and an assortment of robbery and kidnapping charges related to the carjacking that left Channon Christian dead in a garbage container and Newsom shot and burned near the railroad tracks. That original jury opted to spare Thomas the death penalty but keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

That conviction and those of his alleged co-consipirators Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, and Vanessa Coleman were jeopardized by the revelation that trial Judge Richard Baumgartner had been addicted to prescription painkillers and may have been inebriated at times during the original trials. Thomas has plead not guilty to the charges against him.

On Monday, opening statements began with a fiery diatribe against Thomas by prosecutor TaKisha Fitzgerald, who rehashed the heinous list of acts suffered by Christian and Newsom at the hands of the perpetrators. She even quoted from an interview the defendant gave to authorities shortly after he was captured. When a detective suggested he should have done something to help stop the torture of Channon Christian, Thomas replied “[expletive] that girl. She didn’t mean anything to me.”

While the prosecution takes the position that Thomas’ choice not to help the victims is proof he was a co-conspirator, the defense has taken the opposite tack. Lead defense counsel Stephen Johnson told the jury that Thomas was too scared of Lemaricus Davidson to try to stop what was going on in the house. Instead, Thomas sat on the couch smoking marijuana, not taking an active role in the crimes taking place around him.

According to Johnson, “Thomas wanted no part of this at all. He didn’t rape, kidnap or murder anyone.” Backing up the defense case is the lack of DNA evidence linking Thomas to the multiple rapes of both victims.

And Johnson used a snippet of the same police interview to bolster the defense case. In another part of the statement, Thomas informed detectives that he told Letalvis Cobbins to tell ringleader Davidson to “chill” when Thomas learned Davidson planned to steal a car back in January 2007. It was that carjacking that resulted in the painful deaths of Christian and Newsom.

The first set of witnesses called to the stand have established the timeline of the gruesome case: the carjacking, the discovery of the car and subsequent discovery of the bodies, and the ultimate capture of the suspects. For prosecutors, this is the 6^th time they’ve had to lay out these same facts in a courtroom.

With the facts established, both sides will use the coming weeks of testimony to persuade jurors of Thomas’ complicity in the crimes. Was he a participant or a bystander too scared to intervene?

Due to the massive media coverage the story has received, the 16-person jury panel was bussed in from Davidson County. It includes a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ mix of men and women, including five black women.

In attendance at trial are both victims’ families, who have attended every hearing and every day of trial since the murders occurred. Wednesday’s testimony marked the families’ 300^th day in court thus far.

Both families expressed confidence this jury will reach the same conclusions found back in 2009. “They have the same evidence they had before, and he got life without parole, why should they not get the same this trial?” said Christopher Newsom’s father Hugh.

Channon Christian’s father Gary downplayed Thomas’ defense with reporters: “You can’t sit in that house for three days with the torture going on and not be responsible. You can’t even do that and be human being.”

[Duchess]

This is such an awful story. Sad Sad Sad. I don't know how family members sit there & listen to all the horrifying details.

[Teacher]

This is such an awful story. Sad Sad Sad. I don't know how family members sit there & listen to all the horrifying details.

I agree, Duchess. The parents are definitely made of stronger stuff than I. Every time a new article is released I get sick all over again.

I first heard about this when I was still teaching. Out of the blue our school was put on "lock down", the sound of sirens everywhere, many helicopters overhead, shouting, etc. - had no idea what was going on until it was over. Two of the "gang" had been located a little over a block from school. They were hiding with a friend. None of them are from my county, but Vanessa was from a nearby town. Fortunately, they were both apprehended and taken back to Knoxville. In fact, one of our local attorneys was hired to defend Vanessa.

Hope that NONE of them ever walk free again.

[Cynical Ninja]

Those fucking niggers that did those things to that poor young couple should be buried alive, every last one of the them.

[username]

I don't see how the judge taking pills warrants new trials.

That's a stupid statement, Ramsey. It doesn't sound like he was just popping an advil here and there. The guy was addicted and totally corrupt. Of course that would be grounds for a new trial.