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Old July 10th, 2007 #2
Alex Linder
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This just in 14 mins ago from our gal pal Jamie over at Knoxville News-Sentinel...

Judge releases crime scene
House where couple killed returned to owner; SUV held

By Jamie Satterfield (Contact below)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007


Photo by J. Miles Cary

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner questions defense attorney Tom Dillard during a motions hearing Monday in the carjacking, rape and murder of a young Knox County couple.


Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner questions defense attorney Tom Dillard during a motions hearing Monday in the carjacking, rape and murder of a young Knox County couple.

The scene of the rape and murder of a young Knox County couple is no longer a crime scene.

Six months after Channon Christian, 21, and boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, were kidnapped, robbed, raped and slain, both police and defense attorneys are done probing whatever proof of the double murder might have remained inside the Chipman Street house where authorities say the crimes occurred.

On Monday, Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner signed an order releasing the rental house to its owner. Both Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price and attorneys Tom Dillard, David Eldridge and Kim Parton and Russell Greene agreed that neither side had further need of examining the house.

Eldridge represents Lemaricus “Slim” Davidson, the 25-year-old man authorities contend was the ringleader in the January carjacking that turned, instead, into a kidnapping, rape and murder.

Parton is defending Davidson’s brother, Letalvis “Rome” Cobbins, 24, while Dillard represents suspect George “Detroit” Thomas. A Kentucky law firm is handling the defense for a fourth suspect, Vanessa D. Coleman, who is Cobbins’ 19-year-old girlfriend. Greene, a Knoxville attorney, is assisting the Kentucky lawyers.

All four suspects face a host of charges ranging from first-degree murder to theft. A fifth man linked to the case, convicted serial robber Eric Boyd, is accused in a federal indictment of being an accessory to carjacking by helping Davidson hide out after the slayings. Boyd is not charged in the slayings.

None of the four accused slaying suspects appeared at Monday’s hearing. Their attorneys each had waived their presence for what was a quick and minor hearing.

Also discussed at the hearing was the status of forensic testing on the Toyota 4-Runner that Christian was driving the night the couple was kidnapped. That vehicle was later found abandoned near the 2316 Chipman Street house where Christian’s body was discovered dumped inside a trashcan.

Authorities believe Christian was strangled. Newsom was shot and his bound body set afire along railroad tracks near the Chipman Street house. Court records indicate that both were repeatedly raped. Newsom was killed first, while Christian was held several more hours before she was slain, records show.

Price said not all test results have yet been received.

“There are three tests that are still out there,” Price said.

Although Price said he expected testing being done by the Knoxville Police Department to be finished within a few weeks, testing on hair taken from the vehicle’s seats is being handled by the FBI.

“That could be months,” he said.

Baumgartner set a July 30 hearing to get an update on the status of the forensic testing and to decide whether the defense may need the Toyota to do its own testing. Price is trying to get the vehicle released back to the Christian family.

The judge also pushed back one week the deadline for prosecutors to announce whether the death penalty will be sought. That deadline now is Oct. 4.

Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308.
[Post to her through this link: http://www.knoxnews.com/staff/jamie-...field/contact/

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/ju...s-crime-scene/