Free Republic

A Knox County jury delivered the death sentence this afternoon to the ringleader in the torture slayings of a young Knoxville couple following a carjacking. The same panel of seven men and five women who convicted Lemaricus Davidson, 28, in the 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, decided his fate. Davidson was found guilty of more than 30 counts, including felony murder and premeditated murder of each victim. The jury had a choice of a life sentence mandating a minimum of 51 years in prison, life without parole with no...

Davidson found guilty Murder One all counts.

KNOXVILLE - While jurors watched for the second time torture-slaying alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson's account after his arrest in the January 2007 slayings of a Knox County couple, the parents of one victim lashed out at defense claims of drug use. Within a half hour of resuming deliberations this morning, jurors pondering Davidson's fate in the slayings of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom asked for a replay of a two-hour-long interrogation video of Davidson after his Jan. 11, 2007 arrest.

“I ain’t never seen the girl before in my life,” Davidson answered during the interrogation shortly after his Jan. 11, 2007, arrest. Defense attorneys David Eldridge and Doug Trant have been trying this week to sow seeds of doubt about whether Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, were victims of a carjacking turned kidnapping, rape and murder by suggesting the couple went to Davidson’s Chipman Street neighborhood in search of drugs. “I’m assuming my gun was used ‘cause the pistol, a bullet was missing out of it,” he said. “One of my bullets had been shot. (He told...

It was the kind of crime that strikes terror into the hearts of parents everywhere. A bright young couple were carjacked after a Saturday night date and murdered in the most brutal way imaginable. Christopher Newsom, 23, was tied up and raped, shot in the back of the head and then dragged to a railway track and set on fire. His girlfriend, 21-year-old University of Tennessee student Channon Christian’s fate was even more horrific. Her death came only after hours of torture, during which time she was raped and savaged with a broken chair leg. She was beaten in the...

"Please Pray for Justice for my baby girl and our angel, Channon" http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=10952439561&ref=nf

Torture-slayings trial, Day 9: Victim's families: Jury 'let us down' with Letalvis Cobbins verdict KNOXVILLE - The families of a young Knox County couple tortured and killed in January 2007 tonight sharply criticized a jury's decision to spare defendant Letalvis Cobbins the death penalty. "I think the jury has let us down," said Mary Newsom, mother of murder victim Chris Newsom. "I think they've let Channon and Chris down. We were hoping for the death penalty." After deliberating a little more than two hours, the jury delivered its verdict about 6:50 p.m. in Judge Richard Baumgartner's courtroom. The judge polled...

Jurors in Knoxville, Tenn., have begun hearing arguments in a trial over the grisly deaths of a white couple – allegedly at the hands of a gang of black men and one woman who tried to conceal DNA evidence by dousing one victim with bleach. According to court documents, the two were tied up, blindfolded and taken to one defendant's rental home. Shortly thereafter, Newsom was sexually assaulted, shot in the head, set on fire and his body was left beside railroad tracks. The attackers allegedly took 24 hours to kill Christian, raping her multiple times and spraying bleach in...

The first of four alleged members of a black gang scheduled to be tried for murder for the torture-slayings of a young white couple has been found guilty on multiple counts by jurors in Tennessee. WND reported just days ago when the trial was begun for Letalvis Cobbins on counts of first-degree murder and others for the 2007 deaths of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Carjacking victims Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom The brutalized bodies of the victims showed evidence that the attackers had tried to destroy DNA evidence by dousing Christian with bleach and Newsom's body was burned beyond...

In a case that's been widely ignored by the mainstream media, justice prevailed today as Letalvis Cobbins was found guilty of the vast majority of charges, including that of first-degree murder. Cobbins was one of a group of thugs who carjacked, then raped, tortured and murdered two Knoxville residents. For more on the story, see the Knoxville News-Sentinel. http://digg.com/d311xYc

KNOXVILLE — Jurors this morning convicted Letalvis Cobbins of first-degree murder in the torture-slaying of Knox County couple Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. -snip- Description of crime (Wikipedia); According to the testimony of the Knox County Acting Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan at the subsequent trial of Eric Boyd, Newsom was repeatedly raped and then blindfolded, gagged, arms and feet bound and his head covered. Barefoot, he was either led or dragged outside the house to a set of nearby railroad tracks. He was shot in the back of the head, the neck, and the back, and his body then...

Davidson County jurors bused to Knox County Criminal Court last week to consider the fate of 26-year-old torture slaying suspect Letalvis Cobbins spent six days hearing testimony, viewing gruesome photographs and listening to hours of attorney arguments and legal instruction.Cobbins' defense team of Scott Green and Kim Parton and prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price had one last chance Saturday afternoon to argue their respective cases. Despite the unexpected testimony of Cobbins against his defense team's advice, neither wavered from their original positions on Cobbins' alleged role. Neither paid much heed to Cobbins' claim that Christian volunteered oral sex in...

This bastard murdered this young woman, and is accompliced to the murder of her boyfriend. It is now in the hands of the jury. 3 more are involved. It is a sad place to acknowledge. I stayed quiet until this trial was over. The anger is real.

Longtime readers will remember Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, the young couple brutally murdered in a racially-charged case in Knoxville, TN in 2007. My archives on the case are here. The trial of the first defendant Letalvis Cobbins began yesterday. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports:

Bishop Richard F. Stika Knoxville, Tenn., Aug 17, 2009 / 10:42 am (CNA).- Catholics in the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee are praying for their new bishop after he suffered a mild heart attack while on a trip this past weekend.According to Deacon Sean Smith, chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville, Bishop Richard F. Stika, was paying a visit to a friend who is sick in Florida. Things took a turn for the worse when the bishop "became ill with severe flu-like symptoms, which precipitated a diabetic crisis," Smith said.The "diabetic crisis" caused Bishop Stika to suffer a mild heart...

Please begin praying immediately for the health and recovery of Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville. While in Florida Bishop Sitka suffered a massive heart attack, his kidneys are failing and his sugar count is over 1000.

As regular readers know, I very seldom rely on other people’s reporting. Most reporters are lazy, or biased, or both, so you cannot trust what you read or watch from them. There are shining exceptions, and one of those is Michelle Malkin. At the end of this column I’ll cite two of her columns that cover much necessary background on the Tea Parties around the nation on 15 April. In the meantime, let’s talk about white stockings, a grey wig, and a trip to Tennessee. Last week I was asked to take part in the program of the Knoxville Tea...

In a show of discontent with government actions such as the federal bailout and property taxes, a crowd Knoxville police estimated to top 1,700 people gathered at the World's Fair Park amphitheater on an overcast Wednesday afternoon as part of a nationwide "Tea Party" protest. Calling it an "ideological war," Knoxville rally co-organizer Rand Caldwell told the crowd they need to be "relentless to save our nation" from government spending and higher taxes.

Trevor Hill owns what was once a blighted, rundown building in Knoxville, Tennessee. Hill has upgraded and repaired the building and built a restaurant there that he’s christened The Hill restaurant. It’s a full service restaurant and that means it is to serve alcohol. And that last fact seems to be causing a conflict with the folks that own the neighboring building: the Anoor mosque. Apparently one of the mosque board members, Nadeem Sidiqqi, is upset that an American property owner could possibly serve alcohol in his own business. Sidiqqi thinks he should be able to tell the owner of...

A judge in one of the nation's most brutal carjacking and murder cases has openly questioned in court whether news websites – such as those covering his trial – should be permitted to allow open and anonymous "comments" sections at the bottom of Internet-posted stories. "I'm saying if there is a profit, there is a responsibility that goes with it," said Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner of Knox County, Tenn., to an attorney for the Knoxville News Sentinel. "This is not the Internet. This is a site created by you in which you invite comments," the judge stated. "This is...

January 21, 2009 # Note: The following text is a quote: http://knoxville.fbi.gov/pressrel/2009/kx012109.htm Suspicious White Powder Letters Postmarked from Knoxville Received in New York and Massachusetts On Wednesday January 21, approximately 13 powder-laden envelopes were received at the office of the Wall Street Journal in New York City. The letters reportedly bear a Knoxville, Tennessee postmark. New York City Police Department's Emergency Services Unit and the FBI responded to the scene and are testing the letters to determine whether they contain a hazardous substance. An additional letter was also received today at Harvard Law School addressed to Alan Dershowitz. This letter...

As you can see, Bishop-elect Richard Stika has already made himself at home in Volunteer Country, donning a University of Tennessee hat during this morning's presser. Well-known for his "just folks" ways, the moment was no put-on. Stika's predecessor in the post, now Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, was in attendance, as were the the state's other two ordinaries, Bishops Terry Steib SVD of Memphis and David Choby of Nashville. As the folks in the 60,000-member church begin trying to figure out who the new arrival is and what he's like, no reporter knows him better or has covered...

Bishop-elect Richard F. Stika Vatican City, Jan 12, 2009 / 11:04 am (CNA).- This morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Msgr. Richard F. Stika of the Archdiocese of St. Louis as bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee.  Msgr. Stika will be ordained to the episcopacy on March 19 of this year. The bishop-elect will fill the position that was left vacant in August 2007 when Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz was appointed Archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky. Msgr. Stika was born in St. Louis in 1957 and was ordained a priest in 1985.  In his years...

How?It is that question, Hugh Newsom testified Wednesday, that he cries out every day since his son and his son’s girlfriend were slain in a carjacking turned torture slaying.[snip]U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan did not have an answer, but for the families of the slain couple he did serve up the dish they sought — the toughest penalty allowed by federal law for Eric Dewayne “E” Boyd, whom a jury concluded earlier this year helped hide out slaying suspect Lemaricus Davidson.“The underlying crimes were unquestionably horrific in nature … and will long be felt by the families of Channon Christian...

A house where a Knox County couple was tortured and slain was razed today."It was an evil place," said Gary Christian, whose 21-year-old daughter was killed inside the 2316 Chipman St. house. "I'm glad it's gone."Waste Connections Inc., which is located next door to the house, bought it with the intent of tearing it down and putting in its place a memorial honoring Channon Christian and 23-year-old Christopher Newsom. "We have to work every day next to this awful scene," said Waste Connections division vice president Benson Henry.Henry said that the firm wants to keep the memorial simple."We want something...

A shooting at Central High School ended the day before it even began as one student was fatally shot Thursday morning. Students were in the cafeteria of the school when witnesses said they saw two male students shoving and would end with the death of Ryan McDonald, age 15. The school went into lockdown immediately as students run into rooms and teachers locked doors. Other area schools were also put into lockdown mode. The shooting occurred at 8:11 a.m. and the school resource officer was at the school at the time. By 8:13 a.m. Knoxville officers had arrived at the...

National, and even international, coverage of the shootings at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church turned late this week into a discussion into whether it's safe in America to be a liberal.

Interesting the National media is putting out this crap that this guy divorced 5 times, wasn't a Christian himself, turns out his last ex-wife was a member of the church in the past. I bet you didn't know that. http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=8752217 Ex-wife of church shooting suspect is former member Posted: July 29, 2008 08:47 AM CDT Video Gallery <1> Ex-wife of church shooting suspect was past member of church 2:25 Discuss & Share Sound Off Join the discussion >> WATE Blogs Leave a comment >> Photo Gallery Share your photos >> By KRISTYN HENTSCHEL 6 News Reporter KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- An...

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- The suspect in a fatal shooting at a Knoxville church Sunday was motivated by frustration over being unable to obtain a job and hatred for the liberal movement, police said Monday. Authorities recovered a four-page letter in which the suspect, Jim Adkisson, described his feelings and motives, police said. Adkisson, 58, of Powell, Tennessee, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder in the shootings at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. The gunman killed two adults and wounded seven others before being overpowered by congregants, authorities said. The case is being investigated as a hate...

A man who shot and killed two parishioners during a children's play at a Tennessee church yesterday attacked the congregation because of its outspoken socially liberal and gay-friendly beliefs, police said. The 58-year-old unemployed engineer accused in the Sunday morning attack at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, was driven to bloodshed in part by his "stated hatred for the liberal movement" as well as his hatred for gays, said Knoxville, Tennessee, police chief Sterling Owen. "We're certainly investigating it as a hate crime."

<p>Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals "who are ruining the country," court records show.</p>

The man accused of a mass church shooting this morning was described by his Powell neighbors as a helpful and kind man, but one who had issues with Christianity. Jim D. Adkisson, 58, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, which killed one and injured eight others. He is being held on $1 million bond. More details as they develop online and in Monday's News Sentinel. "He had his own sense of belief about religion, that's the impression I got of him," said neighbor Karen Massey. "We were talking one day...

11:29 am Steve Drevik says the suspect isn't believed to have any connection to the church. 11:19 am Steve Drevik, a member of the TVUU Church spoke to media outside the church building, where media are assembled. He says the suspect is now in custody. Drevik says the shooting happened during a regular service, as children of the church were performing music from Annie for parishioners. A man with long blond hair, who appeared to be in his 40s, walked into the sanctuary and opened fiire with a shotgun, shooting indiscriminately. At least six or seven people were hit by...

(NECN/ABC) - A second person has died as a result of the church shooting in Tennessee, 61-year-old Linda Kraeger, who passed away several hours later in a hospital. At the time of the shooting, church members were watching a children's production of "Annie." Eyewitnesses say one of those killed -- 60-year-old Greg McKendry -- jumped in front of the gunman's bullet to protect other parishioners. Churchgoers quickly tackled the gunman and held him until police arrived. There were about 200 people in the church at the time of the shooting. The shooter, Jim D. Adkisson, is being charged with first...

Multiple people have suffered gunshot wounds in what witnesses describe as a mass shooting inside a church in West Knoxville Sunday morning. The shootings happened at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Kingston Pike. A witness who spoke to 10 News said police had arrived and one person was being detained at the scene. A children's production of "Annie" was taking place as part of the normal Sunday service at the time of the shooting, the witness, who is a member of the church, said. The gunman walked into a packed sanctuary and opened fire. The number of people...

Horror in Knoxville update: Trial stalled for one year By Michelle Malkin • July 14, 2008 02:56 PM It must be maddening for the families of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. I know you haven’t forgotten the young couple brutally murdered in a racially-charged case in Knoxville, TN. I haven’t, either. The latest? Justice delayed in the trial of suspect George Thomas:

The defense in the case of an accused accessory to a fatal carjacking rested its case in U.S. District Court just before noon. Defense attorney Phil Lomonaco sent only two witnesses to the stand, one of whom was a government witness from Monday. The first witness was a carpenter whose sole job was to measure the distance from the Chipman Street house where a Knoxville couple was slain to the parking lot of a nearby business where an employee earlier testified he saw a car linked to Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd soon after the January 2007 fatal carjacking. The second...

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...

Trevor Putnam knew the gun laws. The officer who stopped him didn’t. “When I told him that I hadn’t done anything, he said he’d find a reason to put me in jail,” said Putnam, 24, who works with guns every day as vice president of Coal Creek Armory in West Knoxville. “It’s not that I have a problem with police officers. I deal with police officers nationwide from Arizona to Maine every day. But I lost my confidence in a legal right that I knew I had.” Knoxville police officers will get a refresher course on the state’s gun permit...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Bloggers and media critics are complaining that the national media has ignored the rape and murder of a young Knoxville couple because of the racial implications of the story. Channon Christian, a 21-year-old University of Tennessee student, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, were raped, tortured and killed in January. Separate trial dates were set Thursday for four people charged in the slayings. Online critics have angrily insisted that reporters are ignoring the story because the victims are white and the defendants are black. "I am not going to call it reverse racism," said country singer...

The sudden force that the liberal press brought to bear on the falsely accused Duke lacrosse team has been curiously absent on a much more grisly crime committed against a white couple by a group of black youths.Personally, I don't think that local crime issues should ever be covered in the national press but if the media are going to cover them, they need to be consistent. My friend La Shawn Barber has a must-read post on the matter: Early this year, a white couple was carjacked, tortured, raped, and murdered by a group of black thugs. Christopher Newsom (23)...

Origins: On 6 January 2007, Knoxville, Tennessee, residents Christopher Newsom, Jr., 23, and Channon Christian, 21, went out for a dinner date at a local restaurant, then headed to a friend's house to watch a movie. They never came back. When the couple had failed to return by the following morning, their parents notified police. Christopher Newsom's body was found near some railroad tracks in East Knoxville that afternoon, but Channon Christian remained missing. A trace run on Channon's cell phone helped authorities locate her abandoned vehicle the next day, and fingerprints raised from an envelope inside the automobile led...

February 1, 2007KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Four suspects, including a woman arrested in Kentucky Wednesday night, are now facing murder, rape and kidnapping charges in the double slaying of a young Knoxville couple.But the location of the carjacking that began the series of charges in the investigation and why it happened is still being kept quiet.The suspects were indicted Thursday in Knox County, separate from the federal charges some of the men already face relating to the carjacking. The rape charges involve both murder victims, Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.Lemaricus Davidson faces 46 counts including felony murder, premeditated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape and theft.Letalvis Cobbins faces 46 counts including...

The major media has ignored this. Why did the Duke case get major coverage and this not? Channon Christian and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom were out for a date in January 2007 when the couple were carjacked, brutally tortured, and raped before being murdered and dumped. Christopher was bound, stripped, and raped. While he was still alive his penis was cut off, then he was shot, and finally set on fire all while his girlfriend was made to watch. His body was dumped by a set of railroad tracks. Channon was kept alive and gang-raped repeatedly over the next four...

Officials from the Tennessee Department of Transportation are now evaluating a sinkhole that opened up Monday evening on Pellissippi Parkway. Its in the southbound lanes of Pellissippi, just south of where the Parkway merges with Oak Ridge Highway. The hole looks to be about four feet wide on the surface, but a TDOT geologist says its at least 25 feet across, and goes under both southbound lanes. He says it was caused by water eroding the limestone. Crews will work all night to get that sinkhole filled, but they likely won't be finished by the morning commute, and it may...

“Equal and exact justice to all men...” —Thomas Jefferson PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE Murder in Black and White Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were described by family and friends as a “clean-cut and faithful couple—good kids.” Channon was a senior at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she met Christopher. She and Chris went out on a Saturday dinner date, after which Channon called her mom and told her that they were on the way to visit friends. But Channon and Christopher never arrived at their friends’ house—or returned home. The next day, the mutilated and burned remains of Chris Newsom...

KNOXVILLE: Jake Butcher helped bring the World’s Fair to the city in 1982, but the collapse of his banking empire soon after "took a lot of wind out of the sails for Knoxville," he said in a recent interview. WBIR-TV in Knoxville interviewed Butcher for the station’s coverage of the 25th anniversary of the World’s Fair that began May 1, 1982. The interview, a first for Butcher in many years, was aired Tuesday evening. Butcher, 70, former chairman of United American Bank, also was chairman of the Knoxville International Energy Exposition board of directors and used his political ties and...

Apparently prompted by the murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a group is planning a rally in Knoxville to protest crimes against white people by black people. According to special events and parade permit applications filed with the city, the rally would be held June 16 in front of the old Knox County Courthouse. The applications were filed by Ken Gregg on behalf of the "ABC Group." The applications - neither of which may be required, according to city and Public Building Authority officials - describes the planned event as a "peaceful protest against black crime on whites."

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - In a tragic twist to a familiar story, a teenager who had sex with his married 30-year-old teacher was fatally shot outside the woman's home, and authorities have charged the woman's husband. "You see all this stuff with teachers involved with their students. It just comes up time after time on the national news," said Norman McLean, father of suspect Eric McLean. "Well, this is the first time where one has actually died over it."

This past week, I have been asked many times why I voted for a new lieutenant governor. How could I vote for someone who is not a member of my own political party? The answer is very straightforward: I voted my conscience. The most basic tenet of democracy is that the majority rules. In the Tennessee Senate, Republicans have held the numerical majority for three years. Yet, we were in a peculiar situation where the minority continued to keep the majority in the form of the lieutenant governor. That is not our democracy. It was time for a change in...