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Jan 7, 2021 · KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — It has been 14 years since 21-year-old Channon Christian and 23-year-old Chris Newsom were brutally murdered. In the years since, their families have fought for justice ...
5. Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. [1][2][3] Four males and one female ...
- Details of The Case Were Horrific
- Five People Were Charged and Convicted
- Judge's Pill Scandal Led to Retrials
- The Case Was Steeped in Racial Tension
- The Case Led to The Passage of Two New State Laws
Christian, a 21-year-old University of Tennessee student, and her boyfriend, Newsom, 23, were heading out to a friend's birthday party on the night of Jan. 06, 2007 when they were ambushed and carjacked in the parking lot of a North Knoxville apartment complex off Washington Pike. They were taken in Christian's Toyota 4-Runner to a rental house on ...
Davidson, a known drug dealer who was on parole for carjacking at the time, is believed to have concocted the initial plan to carjack someone for money. He enlisted his brother, Letalvis Cobbins who was visiting from Kentucky; Cobbins' friend, George Thomas; and Davidson's partner-in-crime, Eric Boyd, in the plan. Davidson, Cobbins and Thomas all w...
Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner presided over the initial trials in 2009. In 2011, he resigned and pleaded guilty to official misconduct for buying pain pills from a felon on probation in his court. After it was revealed Baumgartner had been snorting painkillers on the bench and holding court while high, defendants in several h...
The victims were white. The suspects were black. Conservative commentators, white supremacists and others raised questions early on about why the five suspects were not being charged with a hate crime. Mainstream news outlets, including the News Sentinel, were accused of racial bias in their coverage. ► Christian-Newsom murders:Coverage over the ye...
The Channon Christian and Chris Newsom acts were approved by the state Legislature in 2014 to help the families of future victims avoid some of the heartache suffered by the couple's loved ones. The Channon Christian Act puts new restrictions on what criminal defendants and their attorneys can do in trying to portray a victim in a negative light be...
Aug 24, 2017 · July 8, 2016 Editorial: New carjacking law takes this crime seriously. Dec. 20, 2016 State high court upholds death sentence for Lemaricus Davidson. In one of Knoxville's most horrific crimes ...
Nov 15, 2012 · Updated: 9:40 AM MST November 15, 2012. <Just-released legal documents requesting search warrants are offering new details into the investigation of the murders of Channon Christian and Chris ...
Oct 19, 2024 · Already serving a federal prison sentence for assisting convicted ringleader Lemaricus Davidson in avoiding arrest, Boyd will likely spend the rest of his days in a jail cell. For the family of Newsom, it meant receiving closure that they had not been granted despite the convictions of the other four assailants.
Jan 28, 2019 · A Knox County jury sentenced Davidson to death nearly 10 years ago for his role as ringleader in the carjacking, rape, torture and killing of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom in January 2007.
