12-14-2011, 05:52 PM
oh God, i remember this horrible case. fucking judge should be hung on the courthouse steps! if these monsters got a new trial and went free due to his wrongdoing, i hope lynching is brought back. these crimes were beyond horrific. the details would gag a maggot.
Knoxville News Sentinel
KNOXVILLE — Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols said today he will appeal new trials ordered for the killers of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The couple was carjacked, robbed, tortured, raped and murdered in January 2007.
Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood on Dec. 1 ordered new trials for the four defendants.
Nichols said in a news release this afternoon that after conferring with the Tennessee Attorney General's Office and discussing the matter with the families of the victims, he has determined he will file appeals.
He said his office is working with Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper and his staff on preparing these appeals.
The deadline for filing these appeals is shortly after the first of the year, according to the release.
Because these are open cases, Nichols declined to comment further.
He did say in the release that there are related motions with some of the same issues as in the Christian/Newsom murder case pending in the Knox County Criminal Courts.
Rulings by former Judge Richard Baumgartner have been upheld in some of these and several are still pending.
Nichols expects that his office will appeal many if not most of the cases, should they be dismissed.
Blackwood, in granting new trials, agreed with lawyers that presiding judge Baumgartner's conduct led to fundamental structural flaws in the prosecutions.His voice at times rising to a shout, Blackwood said Baumgartner was obviously intoxicated in 2009 and 2010 while Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman were being prosecuted.
Baumgartner used defendants under his influence to procure pills to satisfy his habit, Blackwood said, citing a TBI investigation. He engaged in sex with one defendant, Deena Castleman, who helped him satisfy his drug habit, driving her around in his car, taking her to Chattanooga during jury selection for one of the torture-slaying defendants, and lying on her behalf after she tested positive for drugs.
Baumgartner went so far as to visit Castleman in her hospital room in 2009, posing as her lawyer when questioned by a nurse, according to the investigation. Whenever he visited the hospital, he always shut the door, the investigation showed.
Despite efforts by friends and colleagues including his secretary Jennifer Judy and a longtime friend and fellow officeholder, District Attorney General Randy Nichols, the judge denied he had a problem, Blackwood said.
Blackwood said he hated to publicly humiliate a colleague, but the evidence of Baumgartner's wrongdoings was a matter of public interest.
Lawyers for the four defendants argued Baumgartner was responsible for fundamental flaws for which their clients deserved new trials.
Baumgartner pleaded guilty in March to official misconduct and resigned. He admitted using drugs secured for him by Chris Gibson, a defendant with a case in his courtroom. According to Blackwood, the TBI file showed Gibson and Castleman were acquainted.
Blackwood said a sealed TBI file shows Baumgartner was deeply addicted to hydrocodone while handling the cases in 2009 and 2010.
"What's significant about this is the clear implication, the clear implication that he was doctor shopping," he said.
Prosecutors also noted during at least one of the prosecutions that Baumgartner seemed impaired, driving erratically and appearing out of touch with proceedings, according to Blackwood.
Davidson is serving a death sentence, Cobbins and Thomas are serving life sentences and Coleman is serving 53 years in the January 2007 attacks against Channon Christian, 21, and Chris Newsom 23.
Christian and Newsom were carjacked, sexually tortured and then killed after being brought to a rental house on Chipman Street near Cherry Street in North Knoxville. Newsom's killers set his body on fire on nearby railroad tracks. Christian's killers left her body in a trash barrel at the house.
![[Image: channon-christian-and-christopher-newsom.jpg]](http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID30576/images/channon-christian-and-christopher-newsom.jpg)
![[Image: victims-knoxville-channon-christian-chri...newsom.jpg]](http://www.floppingaces.net/wp-content/gallery/curts-pictures/victims-knoxville-channon-christian-christopher-newsom.jpg)
![[Image: montage-knoxville3.jpg]](http://www.floppingaces.net/wp-content/gallery/curts-pictures/montage-knoxville3.jpg)
![[Image: j76v7t.jpg]](http://i37.tinypic.com/j76v7t.jpg)
![[Image: KNS-A1_t607.jpg]](http://media.knoxnews.com/media/img/photos/2011/12/02/KNS-A1_t607.jpg)
the dirty judge
![[Image: 620111202203135003_t300.JPG]](http://media.knoxnews.com/media/img/photos/2011/12/02/620111202203135003_t300.JPG)
Knoxville News Sentinel
KNOXVILLE — Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols said today he will appeal new trials ordered for the killers of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The couple was carjacked, robbed, tortured, raped and murdered in January 2007.
Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood on Dec. 1 ordered new trials for the four defendants.
Nichols said in a news release this afternoon that after conferring with the Tennessee Attorney General's Office and discussing the matter with the families of the victims, he has determined he will file appeals.
He said his office is working with Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper and his staff on preparing these appeals.
The deadline for filing these appeals is shortly after the first of the year, according to the release.
Because these are open cases, Nichols declined to comment further.
He did say in the release that there are related motions with some of the same issues as in the Christian/Newsom murder case pending in the Knox County Criminal Courts.
Rulings by former Judge Richard Baumgartner have been upheld in some of these and several are still pending.
Nichols expects that his office will appeal many if not most of the cases, should they be dismissed.
Blackwood, in granting new trials, agreed with lawyers that presiding judge Baumgartner's conduct led to fundamental structural flaws in the prosecutions.His voice at times rising to a shout, Blackwood said Baumgartner was obviously intoxicated in 2009 and 2010 while Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman were being prosecuted.
Baumgartner used defendants under his influence to procure pills to satisfy his habit, Blackwood said, citing a TBI investigation. He engaged in sex with one defendant, Deena Castleman, who helped him satisfy his drug habit, driving her around in his car, taking her to Chattanooga during jury selection for one of the torture-slaying defendants, and lying on her behalf after she tested positive for drugs.
Baumgartner went so far as to visit Castleman in her hospital room in 2009, posing as her lawyer when questioned by a nurse, according to the investigation. Whenever he visited the hospital, he always shut the door, the investigation showed.
Despite efforts by friends and colleagues including his secretary Jennifer Judy and a longtime friend and fellow officeholder, District Attorney General Randy Nichols, the judge denied he had a problem, Blackwood said.
Blackwood said he hated to publicly humiliate a colleague, but the evidence of Baumgartner's wrongdoings was a matter of public interest.
Lawyers for the four defendants argued Baumgartner was responsible for fundamental flaws for which their clients deserved new trials.
Baumgartner pleaded guilty in March to official misconduct and resigned. He admitted using drugs secured for him by Chris Gibson, a defendant with a case in his courtroom. According to Blackwood, the TBI file showed Gibson and Castleman were acquainted.
Blackwood said a sealed TBI file shows Baumgartner was deeply addicted to hydrocodone while handling the cases in 2009 and 2010.
"What's significant about this is the clear implication, the clear implication that he was doctor shopping," he said.
Prosecutors also noted during at least one of the prosecutions that Baumgartner seemed impaired, driving erratically and appearing out of touch with proceedings, according to Blackwood.
Davidson is serving a death sentence, Cobbins and Thomas are serving life sentences and Coleman is serving 53 years in the January 2007 attacks against Channon Christian, 21, and Chris Newsom 23.
Christian and Newsom were carjacked, sexually tortured and then killed after being brought to a rental house on Chipman Street near Cherry Street in North Knoxville. Newsom's killers set his body on fire on nearby railroad tracks. Christian's killers left her body in a trash barrel at the house.
the dirty judge