Christian, a University of Tennessee student, and Newsom were on a date Jan. 6, 2007, when her sport utility vehicle was carjacked at gunpoint by several people in Knoxvil The attackers blindfolded and bound the couple and took them to a rundown rental house. Police concluded Newsom was soon taken away, sexually assaulted, shot in the back of the head, set on fire and left beside some railroad tracks. Christian was beaten and repeatedly raped over the next 24 hours. An autopsy said she died of suffocation after she was choked, wrapped in plastic bags and dumped in a trash can. Cobbins' brother, Lemaricus Davidson, 28, of Knoxville, has been identified by investigators as the ringleader in the attack. Davidson, Cobbins' friend George Thomas, 26, and girlfriend Vanessa Coleman, 21, both of Lebanon, all are in jail awaiting trial. Another person, Eric Boyd, is serving a federal prison sentence for being an accessory.
