Christopher Newsom (23) and Channon Christian (21) A Horrific and Senseless Crime

A Horrific and Senseless Crime

 

The night of January 6th 2007, Christopher Newsom (23) and Channon Christian (21) arrived to a friend’s apartment in Knoxville, Tennesse, to watch a movie. But they didn’t make it past the park lot.

The young couple was carjacked by five criminals and taken to a rental house. What happened next defies imagination.

Christopher was gagged with a sock, tied up and blindfolded, beaten and raped with an object. Then he was forced to walk barefoot to a nearby railroad track and executed with a shot on the back of the head after the first two shots, to his neck and back, failed to kill him. Then they burned his body.

Channon was tortured for several hours, raped and sodomized. Her attackers poured bleach down her throat and scrubbed her body with it in an attempt to remove DNA. She was also beaten with several objects. She was still alive when they wrapped her up in plastic bags and put her in a garbage can, where she suffocated to death.

At the time, the case was not widely reported and brought a lot of controversy because it was considered by most a hate crime, with two white victims and five african-american attackers. Investigators say there’s no evidence to support this. The trial process also suffered a setback because the first judge had to resign after confessing to a drug addiction and purchasing them from convicts in between court sessions.

The five people convicted for this horrible crime are:
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– Eric Boyd: He wasn’t charged with the murders, only in connection with the carjacking and as an accessory after the fact. Was sentenced to a max of 18 years.

– George Thomas (32 now):Two life sentences plus 25 years.

– Lemaricus Davidson (34 now): Sentenced to death.

– Letalvis Cobbins (34 now): Davidson’s brother was entenced to life without parole.

– Vanessa Coleman (27 now): She was first sentenced to 53 years but in the retrial it was reduced to 35. She’s up for parole in 2019.

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/10-years-later-remembering-christian-newsom/381967577

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