Posted on 04/10/2008 5:48:31 AM PDT by Leisler
A 21-year-old University of Tennessee student was gang-raped, choked and bound in January 2007 before being stuffed inside a trash can while still alive, a federal prosecutor told jurors in opening court statements today.
"The evidence will be when she went into that trash can, she was alive," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings said this afternoon in U.S. District Court. "Probably, mercifully, Channon Christian died (later that evening)."
Jennings revealed details about the killings of Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, as a jury was seated in the trial of Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd.
Boyd is charged with helping hide out Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson, the alleged ringleader in the carjacking and killing of Christian and Newsom. Jennings also told jurors that Newsom, who had been raped by his assailants, was shot three times.
"These people tie him up, gag him, wrap him in cloth material ... shot him in the back, shot him in the neck, and they shot a kill shot to his head. Then, his body was doused with gasoline and set on fire."
Christian's body was later found in a trash can in a house on Chipman Street. Newsom's body was found nearby along railroad tracks.
Defense attorney Phil Lomonaco told jurors today the slayings were horrific but had nothing to do with Boyd, who he said only learned of the killings hours before he led police to Davidson.
"What you will hear Mr. Boyd say is he told Davidson to turn himself in. You will hear Mr. Boyd say, 'When he told me what happened, I didn't want anything to do with him. That's when I left.'"
Lomonaco contends that Boyd thought Davidson had "child support issues" from which he was running. The lawyer said his client never intended to help him evade police in the federal carjacking.
Although Boyd did not go to police once he learned about the Christian-Newsom homicides and Davidson's alleged roles in them, Lomonaco said Boyd wound up being stopped by the police a few hours later anyway. He then immediately led them to a vacant house on Reynolds Street where Davidson, wearing Newsom's tennis shoes, was hiding.
Earlier today, lawyers chose 12 women and four men to sit as Boyd's jury. The panel includes four alternates.
All are white except for one black woman. Only two black prospective jurors were in the pool of 36 called this morning. One of those was a black man who was excused.
He said he had a son who had been arrested by the Knoxville Police Department, the lead investigative agency in this case.
No reason was given why he was excused, but lawyers don't have to give a reason for whom they choose to stay or let go at this stage of the process.
As the day's proceedings began, Boyd asked to address U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan about an encounter Tuesday with the relatives of Christian.
On Tuesday Boyd looked back at the Christian family, smiled and appeared to mouth the words, "Bring it on."
Christian's father, Gary Christian, left the courtroom visibly upset but returned a short time later.
Lomonaco told Varlan today that Boyd had written a statement about the incident and wanted to address the judge.
Lomonaco said he believed it would be better if Lomonaco rather than Boyd read the statement.
Jennings immediately rose from his seat and asked for a private discussion with Varlan and Lomonaco at the court bench. Boyd remained at the defense table.
After a few minutes, Lomonaco returned to the defense table, made no further comment, and jury selection continued.
Asked later what Boyd had intended to tell Varlan, Lomonaco said, "It's a private matter between Mr. Boyd and the judge."
However, Lomonaco alleged that Gary Christian initiated Tuesday's encounter by pointing at Boyd.
Gary Christian typically stares intently at all of the suspects charged in the fatal carjacking case. At Boyd's first federal court appearance in January 2007, he made a shooting gesture with his hand at Boyd after Boyd looked directly at him and grinned.
Since then Christian has not made any overt gestures toward Boyd, and the family on Tuesday disputed the notion that he prompted Boyd's actions.
Channon Christian was held captive for hours in January 2007 inside a Chipman Street home leased to Davidson's girlfriend.
Davidson and three others are charged in Knox County Criminal Court with the actual slayings. Boyd is not charged in those slayings or the carjacking that authorities say set the stage for the rape and torture that followed inside a Chipman Street house.
However, Jennings and Tracy Stone must prove Davidson's role in the fatal carjacking in order to prove Boyd guilty of being an accessory.
The case has roiled racial waters, spurring waves of dissension between those who believe the black-on-white crime should be labeled a case of racial hatred and Boyd supporters who contend that authorities gave Davidson's white girlfriend a prosecutorial pass.
Another HATE crime toward whites.
One thing the Wright issue has brought to the front of the page is racist blacks.
I say hang them all.
I think the point was that if this had been a white on black or straight on gay hate crime, it would have been the lead story every day since it happened. And a lot of people seem to have never even heard of it. Compare that with Duke Lacrosse ‘rape,’ Tawana Brawley ‘kidnapping,’ Mathew Shepard murder, or another important case that stayed in the press for months. The savageness of this crime and innocence of the victims did not garner the attention and media outrage it should have.
So what you're saying is that the excessive coverage of the Duke Rape Case and Sheppard and Brawley was all justified, and that it's a shame that a media circus wasn't also made out of this case?
Cursory attention indeed. Considering that crimes involving such vile depravity are rare, you’d think this would be a much bigger story. The “robbery gone bad” angle sounds just a little absurd.
After the Cheshire CT home invasion/murders last summer, the cable networks were on that for days. The family victimized was even on the cover of People magazine. One issue Nancy Grace covered closely was why were the scumbags, with long criminal records, still out on the streets. To my knowledge, Nancy and the others have not done any segments on this Knoxville atrocity. The accused in this case also had long records, and perhaps even more violent ones than the creeps in the CT case. One of them already had been a carjacker and served only a few years. Yeah, I guess that taught him not to do it again.
I did read a transcript of a CNN story from last year where they talked not so much about the crime as about coverage of it. One of the panelists was insisting there was no dearth of coverage, and even made the laughable statement that if the races had been reversed, we would hear even less about it.
Nope, just making note of the obvious bias in what the MSM considers newsworthy.
The WAR ROOM controls information, facts, and context.
This feels like a bad sci-fi futuristic flick, where we are all zombies with no emotion, just fear, walking around taking orders from a giant TV screen.
(just walk thru an airport where CNN blares out at you every few feet, you can't escape it)
No, more that the Brawley, Sheppard, and Duke cases were all massively overblown because of the racial or “hate crime” angle. A story like this, in a country this big, really is more of a local story, horrible as it is, and won’t make much of a blip on the national news scene. This crime was more horrible than any of the other three allegations, and yet has received about 1/100th of the attention. There are some fairly obvious conclusions to draw from that regarding what the MSM finds “newsworthy.”
}:-)4
“Three strikes” law is a GOOD thing.
Vlad the impaler is my choice for executioner. The pole is the way to stretch them properly.
The heart of someone who would would choose to do these things would have to be black with evil, even if their skin were white as snow.
Our skin color will be neither a justification, nor an excuse for words, thoughts, or deeds done in the flesh, when we stand before the heavenly throne of judgment.
"...a vacant house on Reynolds Street where Davidson, wearing Newsom's tennis shoes, was hiding.
I wasn't thinking about the color of Davidson's skin when I read that. I was chilled that a heart could be so removed from God as to be able to do what was done to Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, and then to put on the dead man's shoes and walk away.
The problem isn't skin color. It is much deeper than that. It's the color of our hearts that matters.
I couldn't handle it. If animals such as this harmed a member of my family in such a way, I would pray for acquittal just so I could hunt them down and kill them one by one.
People organize themselves by the strongest signals.
Black murder, rape rates are almost universal world wide.
Ditto Asian industriousness.
Don’t know the reason, and don’t care.
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