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Old August 18th, 2009 #21
-JC
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Default "Pled guilty to kidnapping but not murder"

In many jurisdictions, when one intentionally starts a fire- an arson- and, say, a fireman is killed in an vehicle accident responding to the fire, it is considered murder. Probably not in Tennessee. But that still needs to be brought out by the prosecution.

If this situation were reversed and a white was not convicted in such a case, you could bet on Knoxville burning. Perhaps those noting that in increasing number of whites are not pleased with black on white crime, with black rule, etc., much conclude this is not the time for a cover-up.

However, the tribe of the defense attorney and one of the commentators on the video is not noted for noticing that they are overreaching.

Anything less than the death penalty for all four will likely cause giant trouble and may be just what the doctor ordered, on the theory that "worse is better."

Suppose Obama will weigh-in on this one at a press conference on an unrelated subject? Maybe have the victim's parents up to the White House?

Last edited by -JC; August 18th, 2009 at 09:09 AM.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #22
conflict
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Originally Posted by Sean Gruber View Post
They are all on the same page. The families were made to accede to that egregious bullshit. Plainly under pressure from the other two parties mentioned: police and prosecutors.

Were the way-over-the-top rapes and tortures committed by the animals not evidence of hatred - of deep, maniacal, burning resentment and hatred, the evil hatred of a monster toward innocents?

The "police, prosecutors and the victims' families" make it sound as if the rapists-torturers-murderers haplessly did what they did, on accident. Something went "awry." Oops! For hours we raped and tortured you, then killed you - we didn't mean it, we just goofed up!

A "carjacking gone awry," if language has any rational meaning, is if the carjacker fails to jack the car, and the intended victim flees successfully. A "carjacking gone awry" (no matter how "terribly") does not include leaving the car behind, taking the driver and passenger to another location, raping and torturing them for hours, cutting off body parts, burning one to death on a railroad track, carefully loading the throat of the other one with burning Drano, and tucking one away to die in multiple garbage bags. Doesn't sound like anything went awry; it sounds like everything went down pretty much as intended by the people who did it.



With due respect to Alex (), I have to say it: this is classic blaming the victims if I ever saw it.

So the story according to "police, prosecutors and the victims' families" (as reported in the controlled media) goes like this:

Chris and Channon were in the wrong. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shame on them.

This wrong, committed by Chris and Channon, caused what otherwise would have been a happy, normal little carjacking to go "awry." If fact, Chris and Channon were so in the wrong that the carjacking went "terribly" awry.

They ended by getting raped, tortured, and murdered, but after all, they caused all this to happen. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time (a street in America). They spoiled a perfectly good carjacking, thus causing a huge problem for us all!!!!!

God damn the police and prosecutors and media. They deserve what the "carjackers" they're making excuses for deserve.

Note that today (August 17, 2009), Jamie Satterfield on the front page of the Knoxville News-Sentinel referred to the trial as "the carjacking trial."

The carjacking trial. Not the murder trial. The carjacking trial.

Here words become illegal. So the post must end.
Exactly like we're supposed to accept carjacking as part of Amerikwa culture. The rapes and torture happened only because these poor unfortunate negroes didn't know all the rules. They just need to watch more jewish movies and next time they'll just steal the car and hold off on the rest.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #23
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Assistant District Attorney Takisha Fitzgerald told the court that railroad tracks and a trash can were the final resting places for Channon and Chris.
They've got a 'groid on the prosecution?
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Old August 18th, 2009 #24
Steve B
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Default Incompetent Knoxville cops may have cost Channon Christian her life

According to this, had Sterling Owens finest acted on time to obvious fingerprint evidence they in their possession, Channon Christian might be alive today.


Quote:
Letalvis Cobbins trial - Tuesday, August 18, 2009

KNOXVILLE - The key to unlock the mystery to Channon Christian's disappearance lay undiscovered in police custody for 12 hours.

It would be another 12 hours before it was acted upon, and Christian's body discovered.

The Knoxville Police Department had to face before a jury this morning a delay that has haunted investigators and crime scene analysts ever since the January 2007 slayings of Chrisatian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23.

In the second day of suspect Letalvis Cobbins' trial, KPD fingerprint expert Dan Crenshaw told jurors he found a bank envelope in Christian's carjacked 4Runner on the night of Jan. 7, 2007.

By then, Newsom's charred body had been found as had Christian's vehicle. She was still missing.

As his shift ended the next morning, Crenshaw headed home after searching to no avail the vehicle itself for fingerprints, he told jurors.

"I saw some media reports about what was going on, and I thought about that bank envelope," he said.

Crenshaw said he called KPD and asked evidence technicians to process the envelope for prints. They didn't.

When Crenshaw returned to work that night, he processed the envelope himself and discovered a print from Cobbins' brother, Lemaricus Davidson, and looked up his address on Chipman Street.

Crenshaw explained that KPD policy requires a second identification from another analyst to consider it valid. But he called lead Investigator Todd Childress with the news anyway.

"When you called Detective Childress and told him, 'Hey, I've got a match,' did anyone from the Knoxville Police Department respond to 2316 Chipman Street?" defense attorney Scott Green asked.

"No," Crenshaw said.


As a civilian officer, Crenshaw had no authority to pursue the lead himself. The print was verified by a second analyst the next morning - nearly 20 hours after the 4Runner was found by Christian's family a stone's throw away from that same house.

It would be nearly seven more hours before police - armed with a search warrant - went to the house. KPD Sgt. Keith Debow said he found Christian's body inside a trash can in the kitchen. Prior testimony has shown she probably had been dead since late evening on Jan. 7, 2007.

That's when they went missing.


They were overdue at a get-together and neither was answering calls.

"Everybody was calling her and Newsom," Christian's best friend, Kara Sowards, testified Monday. "I tried to call her repeatedly, so I was getting frustrated. We all kind of were."

That frustration turned to fear when, the next day, Christian failed to show up for work and their friends discovered his truck still parked at Sowards' Washington Ridge apartment and Christian's sport utility vehicle gone.

Newsom's parents, Mary and Hugh Newsom, phoned authorities, as did Christian's parents, Gary and Deena Christian. But these were missing adults and, college-aged at that, and authorities figured they'd turn up soon. The parents phoned area hospitals to no avail.

Hours later on a frosty, overcast January 2007 day, Norfolk Southern train engineer J.D. Ford would discover a charred body alongside the tracks near Chipman Street. By nightfall, Gary Christian and son, Chase Christian, would find Channon's 4Runner in the same area.

"He said, 'Daddy, it's hers,' " Gary Christian testified Monday.

It would be that same evening when the Newsoms learned that body, which had been doused in gasoline and set afire, was their son. It would be two days before the Christians would learn Channon Christian's fate when she was found stuffed suffocated to death inside a trash can inside a rental house on Chipman Street.

More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/au...tered-followi/
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #25
donna tnmtngurl
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Default he wont get death

I can already bet he won't get death.

His lawyer is pointing everything towards davidson.

What's it matter all are guilty of muder.

If davidson did do it the others at anytime could have went to a phone while they were still alive and dialed 911 this action would have saved their lives.

The knox cops could have at anytime checked the fingerprints got an address and been there to rescue them.

We got to take care of our own the world is heartless.

I think its time to stick hot irons and tazers up there ass and that's just for starters.

I have a daughter and two sons they are my life I don't know how I could go on if I were in the christians or newsoms shoes. It breaks my heart and makes me angry

God Be With Them
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #26
donna tnmtngurl
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Default btw

Cobbins trial is costing over 300,000
Davidsons is costing less than 70,000
Looks like to me all of them are going to point the finger at davidson.

Oh I quess they're going to say he did it all

Davidson will fry the rest will live
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Send them all back to africa.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #27
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Quote:
Crenshaw said he called KPD and asked evidence technicians to process the envelope for prints. They didn't.


Welcome to Tennessee.
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Old August 18th, 2009 #28
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Originally Posted by Anchorage Activist View Post
From the Knoxville News-Sentinel, August 17th, 2009:


Day 1: Carjack/slayings trial ends with grisly testimony

By Jamie Satterfield
Posted August 17, 2009 at 9:44 a.m. , updated August 17, 2009 at 5:23 p.m.

KNOXVILLE - Earlier this afternoon, jurors in the January 2007 slaying of a Knox County couple ended their day with testimony about the grisly discovering of one victim's body that had been burned beyond recognition.

Norfolk Southern engineer J.D. Ford told jurors he saw the body of Christopher Newsom, 23, lying near railroad tracks in the vicinity of the Chipman Street house where Newsom and girlfriend Channon Christian, 21, were taken after they were carjacked and kidnapped.

A photograph displayed movie-sized on a projection screen in Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner's courtroom showed Newsom's body burned from head to toe. His face was unrecognizable.

State arson investigator Robert Watson said an accelerant - likely gasoline - had been poured directly on Newsom's body and ignited.

Authorities say Newsom was raped, bound, gagged and led to the railroad tracks, where he was shot execution-style.

Christian, they say, was kept alive inside the Chipman Street house for several more hours, repeatedly raped and then stuffed inside a trash can. She suffocated to death.

Today marked the first day of trial for suspect Letalvis Cobbins, the first of four defendants to be tried.

Prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price spent today plotting the movements of the couple in the hours before their abduction and frantic efforts by family and friends to find them after their disappeared from Washington Ridge Apartments off Washington Pike on Jan. 6, 2007.

They made quick work of 11 witnesses, primarily because Cobbins' defense team did little to challenge the testimony. That's because they aren't challenging his involvement, only whether his role merits murder convictions and a death sentence.

Cobbins is a coward and a rapist, but he's no killer, his defense attorney told jurors this morning.

"You're not going to like Letalvis Cobbins," attorney Scott Green said in opening statements. "You shouldn't."

Fitzgerald told jurors Cobbins, 26, brother Lemaricus Davidson, 28, pal George Thomas, 26, and an uncharged fourth suspect, Eric Boyd, 37, carjacked the couple and decided to rape Christian but had to get rid of Newsom, 23, first.

Newsom, she said, was bound, gagged and raped with some sort of object before he was led to his death near railroad tracks behind Davidson's Chipman Street house.

For the next several hours, she said, Christian, 21, was sexually savaged, raped orally, anally and vaginally. Fitzgerald said DNA evidence links Davidson and Cobbins to those rapes.

"Five (DNA) strikes for Davidson, three strikes for Cobbins," she said, referring to semen stains on Christian's clothing and sperm on her body.

But Green countered that Davidson was a violent and manipulative "big brother" who plotted and carried out the crimes with Boyd, who so far has only been convicted in federal court as an accessory.

Green conceded Cobbins forced Christian to perform oral sex but said it was Davidson who ripped her lower body with the savagery of sexual assault.

Earlier today, Cobbins pleaded guilty to facilitation of murder. If Green and co-counsel Kim Parton can convince jurors Cobbins did not plan the crimes or participate in the murders, Cobbins would still go to prison but could escape the death penalty.

Should Cobbins' defenders fail at securing facilitation convictions, they then must mount an effort to save his life in the penalty phase of trial. To do so, they must convince jurors that factors mitigating his responsibility - terrible childhood, undue influence from his brother, psychological issues - outweigh aggravating factors presented by the state. Those aggravating factors include the sheer brutality of the crimes, Cobbins' prior history of carjacking, and failed attempts to rehabilitate him.

Davidson's girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, 21, also has been charged with first-degree murder and is facing the death penalty.
" likely gasoline - had been poured directly on Newsom's body and ignited."


I hadn't thought of this earlier until now. Those miserable fucking nigger homo's were trying to cover up the fact that they raped Christopher. Why set the body on fire? It wasn't like they were trying to burn the remains of the body to cover up the murder. They were trying to hide the fact that they raped a guy, and get rid of the dna evidence.


I don't know about anybody else, but I have an incredibly difficult time reading about his case and not want to come on this board and start saying things that are going to get me into trouble. As a father of two wonderful girls, this case makes my blood boil. My hatred against these particular niggers is beyond measure. Executing these people would be too kind. Slow, slow measured starvation would be a nice start for these animals.
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[8/6/2007 10:38:41 PM] craig_cobb says Fuck an A-- I'm with Alex--she is the greatest talent on the board--and you dense assholes can't see the sun.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #29
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Originally Posted by donna tnmtngurl View Post
I
God Be With Them
If god was with those kids and their families, then this shit would not have happened.

What kind of god would allow this to happen?
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Old August 18th, 2009 #30
Sean Gruber
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Originally Posted by McKinley View Post
What kind of god would allow this to happen?
Nothing we can do to save the lives of Chris and Channon now, but - God helps those who help themselves. Let's band together and enforce it.
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Old August 18th, 2009 #31
remnant
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Default Mudshark misery

Looks like Lemaricus' Mudshark took the stand today ( Daphne Sutton), and is making a plea for sympathy. Remember, she spent several nights with him after the Horrific incident, knowing he had just committed rape and murder.

I have a real slow connection right now, if someone can snag the video, I would like to see it:
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story...=96277&catid=2

If memory serves , she's the niece of one of Knoxville's finest.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #32
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Originally Posted by Bud White View Post
I don't know about anybody else, but I have an incredibly difficult time reading about his case and not want to come on this board and start saying things that are going to get me into trouble. As a father of two wonderful girls, this case makes my blood boil. My hatred against these particular niggers is beyond measure. Executing these people would be too kind. Slow, slow measured starvation would be a nice start for these animals.
No, you aren't alone. My thoughts grow incredibly dark when I think of the facts of this case. They always have.

This nigger isn't looking to confident at the moment. I'd like to change his expression to horror.


Last edited by OTPTT; August 18th, 2009 at 09:29 PM.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #33
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Doesn't this picture just break your heart?

 
Old August 18th, 2009 #34
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Wermimont testified that Cobbins told him Davidson "f***ed some b**** and threw her in a trash can


A fingerprint expert with the Knoxville Police Department testified Tuesday on the big break in the case against Letalvis Cobbins and three others, prints that matched theirs.

However, it was defense attorney Scott Green who pointed out that after investigators had recovered Newsom's body, Christian's stolen SUV and identified the suspects, it took another day to find Christian's body.

Cobbins is the first to be tried for the carjacking, rapes and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in 2007.

The three other suspects charged in the couple's killings are Lemaricus Duvall Davidson (Cobbins' half brother), George Giovanni Thomas and Vanessa Coleman.

Crime scene investigator Joe Cox, with the police department, took the stand as the state showed his video of the Chipman Street home almost immediately after Christian's body was found.

The courtroom was very quiet as the video rolled showing bullets, a gas can, trash and heaps of clothing on the floors, liquor bottles, a TV turned on and sheets for doors.

The video also showed the trash can in the kitchen that had Christian's body in it. Christian's father, Gary, looked furious and rocked back and forth in his seat as it played.

Cox said there was so much evidence in the house a paddy wagon was used to haul it.

One of the state's last witnesses Tuesday was Vincent Wermimont, who was in prison with Davidson at one point.

Wermimont testified that Cobbins told him Davidson "f***ed some b**** and threw her in a trash can.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #35
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Update: Christian and Newsom families turn down plea deal

Two families facing four defendants accused of killing their children are committed to see the cases through to conviction and execution.

However, frustration from court delays and piles of legal paperwork have motivated both familes to break their silence about a proposed plea deal and a trip to Riverbend Maximum Security Prison.

"One of the suspects was offering, advancing the plea bargain of possibly accepting two life sentences without parole," Chris Newsom's father Hugh said.

Channon Christian and Chris Newsom were carjacked, raped and killed in January 2007.

A year later, their parents were called to the Knox County District Attorney's office to talk about a potential plea deal with one of the four people accused of killing their children.

Both families said they were told life in prison would be 23 hours in a small cell with one hour to walk around, but a trip to Riverbend contradicted that statement and fortified their commitment to see the trials through.

Channon's father Gary said he remembers asking to see what life at Riverbend would be like.

Prosecutors called the governor's office and organized a trip to the Nashville prison.

Hugh Newsom said Knoxville's police chief as well as other local officers and federal agents joined the families on their journey to see what the male defendants would face should they be convicted for the crimes.

"We were told it would be in a cell 23 hours a day with only one hour out for a break. Well that was not the case when we got down there. We were shocked at what we found," Chris Newsom's mother Mary said. "The prisoners on death row that we were able to talk to were playing racquetball at the time. The ones on the other side were playing poker.

The Christians said the prison reminded them of a resort.

"Augusta National, that place was more manicured than the prison, but not by much. I can assure you it is ridiculous," Gary said.

The Newsoms said the lush landscaping on the outside and amenities on the inside did not resemble the punishment they imagined. "If they want to bring a stereo or television in their cell, they're able to do it, it was more like a college dorm," Mary said.

The warden took the families into the execution chamber in the prison and told them about the debate over lethal injection as a humane form of capital punishment .

Gary recalled thinking about his daughter and her accused killers. "What was the last thing she saw when he stuffed her in that trash can? What did she see? How inhumane was the way she was treated."

Both families feel the crimes that took their children have sentenced them to life, fighting for justice they don't believe will ever come.

"The warden told me to my face that the death penalty was a lifetime commitment," Gary said.

I'll go to my grave to defend my daughter and Chris, " Deena Christian said.

"Our lives will never be the same again. We will never be as happy as we were before this happened because we'll always be reminded of what happened and always miss Chris," Mary Newsom said. "We've got to do this for Chris. We've got to do it for him. He can't fight for himself, so we'll fight for him."

"We're not going to lay down and play dead," Hugh Newsom said, as he and his wife finished their interview from their home.

Neither family will go on the record to say which defendant was willing to take two life sentences in exchange for evidence.

Race and the death penalty

The families of a young Knox County couple who was carjacked and killed, said the death penalty is the only suitable punishment for the people accused of murdering their children.

Gary and Deena Christian sat in their dining for an interview Friday morning to discuss race and the death penalty.

"We're persecuting somebody that raped, tortured and murdered two innocent kids, I could care less what color they are," Gary said.

This week, defense attorneys for Lemaricus Davidson filed a motion to dismiss the death penalty based on racial disporportionalilty.


Then, Thursday afternoon, a motions hearing for Friday was postponed until May 29, which ignited even more frustration for the Christian and Newsom families.

"It had nothing to do with the color you are. A crime was committed that's the reason we were going for the death penalty," Mary Newsom said.

"I would have asked and pursued the death penalty, I wouldn't care what color they were," Hugh Newsom added. "It was a hideous crime."

The Newsoms and the Christians say the brutality of the crime is what makes them committed to seek justice and to push for the death penalty.

"They poured cleaning substance in her mouth," Gary said. "While she was alive," Deena said. "The person that did it has got to die,"Gary said as the couple finished the other's sentence.

Gary Christian says people have been trying to make this crime about race from the beginning, which he has refuted. Now, he's baffled by the defense's efforts to use race in considering the death penalty. "All the time that I've been trying to keep this, from letting anybody make this a racial issue, I'll be dad-gum if his own attorney, Davidson's own attorney don't stand up and try to make this racial."

The Christians say more details will be revealed in the trial that convinced them the death penalty was the only punishment that suited the crime.

Last edited by OTPTT; August 18th, 2009 at 09:48 PM.
 
Old August 18th, 2009 #36
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Originally Posted by OTPTT View Post
...you aren't alone. My thoughts grow incredibly dark when I think of the facts of this case. They always have.


I think all of us experience this. It's one reason I've almost never posted on this crime: words are inadequate, insufficient.

The hunger is to say what cannot be publicly said. and to make it so.
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Old August 18th, 2009 #37
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Gary Christian says people have been trying to make this crime about race from the beginning, which he has refuted. Now, he's baffled by the defense's efforts to use race in considering the death penalty. "All the time that I've been trying to keep this, from letting anybody make this a racial issue, I'll be dad-gum if his own attorney, Davidson's own attorney don't stand up and try to make this racial."
It's always been about race, Mr. Christian. That's why some White people went to Knoxville to protest this most heinous of crimes that was committed upon two young innocent White people by black savages. And all too frequent occurrence nowadays, if you believe FBI race and crimes stats...not to mention your own eyes.

It's all so sad and scripted. The blackout of the crimes at the national level by the jews media. The local media calling it a "car jacking gone wrong". The ludicrous denial by law enforcement that this wasn't a hate crime. The Knoxville chief of police being an ex-FBI agent and receiving training in Israel under the LEEP program(Law Enforcement Exchange Program). The great cost spent trying these monsters. The Knoxville keystone cops roughing up and jailing Linder for carrying a sign. And now a report that the Knoxville police might have been able to save the life of your daughter had fingerprint evidence been processed in a timely manner.

It's enough to make a guy think YT is playing against a stacked deck. And it's up to you to figure out who is marking the cards. Hint: It ain't the liberals.

My deepest and sincerest condolences to the loss and suffering you and your family are going through at this time.
 
Old August 19th, 2009 #38
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Originally Posted by OTPTT View Post
Doesn't this picture just break your heart?



Imagine having to sit through this insanity;Only one White male on the jury;Savage Simians cleaned up and paraded around with props to make them look studious.


Bud's right, Chris Newsom was torched because the Niggers didn't want it out that they were on th DL.
 
Old August 19th, 2009 #39
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[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/J/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/J/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.jpg[/IMG]http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=96277&catid=2
Photos of Cobbins, Davisdon, and attorneys and original piece here

Day 2 Cobbins' trial: Accused killer's ex-girlfriend breaks down on the stand

Updated: 8/18/2009 8:43:37 PM Posted: 8/18/2009 6:33:48 AM

On the second day of Letalvis Cobbins' trial for the murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price will continue to set the stage for what they hope will amount to their burden of proof.

On Monday, the state called 11 witnesses to establish a timeline and perimeter for the crimes that left Channon Christian and Chris Newsom brutally murdered.

Letalvis Cobbins is the first defendant to go to trial to face a long list of charges to include robbery, kidnapping, rape, and premeditated murder.

Cobbins, his brother Lemaricus Davidson, his friend George, Thomas and girlfriend Vanessa Coleman all face execution if they are convicted of the crimes.

The state is calling more witnesses Tuesday morning.

Among the witnesses expected to testify on Tuesday, the state is expected to call Daphne Sutton to the stand.

Sutton is Davidson's ex-girlfriend who also testified in Eric Boyd's federal trial.

Boyd was convicted as an accessory after the fact for helping Davidson hide from police. Boyd was sentenced to 18 years.

Day 2 of the Cobbins trial started with testimony from Roy Thurman. Thurman is a sandblaster who was working in the Chipman Street area at 7:45 Sunday morning on January 7, 2007.

During direct questioning, Thurman said he saw smoke coming from the railroad tracks while he was working.

He later heard that a body had been found in the area where he saw the smoke rising. Newsom's body was discovered by a train engineer that same day.

KPD Fingerprint analyst testifies
Don Crenshaw will not soon forget the morning he was called to investigate a silver Toyota Four Runner.

Crenshaw told the court, he was called to Chipman Street at 2 a.m. Monday January 8, 2007. He took pictures, fingerprint samples and inventory of the items in the SUV that he believed belonged to a missing girl named Channon Christian.

During questioning, Crenshaw told the prosecution that he believed the Four Runner had been wiped down and he could not get any reliable fingerprint samples off the hard surfaces of the vehicle.

The case stuck in his mind hours after he had the SUV towed and impounded in the police parking lot. He began to rack his brain about what he could do to help find the girl and her suspected abductor.

The civilian fingerprint analyst remembered the bank envelope he photographed in the SUV and the fact that most people don't realize that paper can hold fingerprints really well.

Crenshaw told the court that he went back to the impound lot on his way into work Monday night and collected the envelope. With the help of some chemicals, Crenshaw instinct was correct. He discovered a fingerprint. After inputting his findings into a database, Crenshaw soon discovered that he had found the right thumbprint of Lemaricus Davidson.

Crenshaw told the court he also found Davidson's latest residence was at 2316 Chipman Street. He e-mailed the information to investigators but couldn't help but think about Christian.

The unarmed civilian went against protocol and went by himself to the house to see if he could see or hear anything. However, the house was quiet with only a dim light shining through the windows.

After Crenshaw heard about officers going into the house later that day, he immediately wanted to help. He started to ask questions and was told Christian's body was found in a trash can but her body and the container had already been removed.

That didn't stop Crenshaw. He went to the medical examiner's office and started fingerprint analysis on the trashbags and trash can used to kill Christian. Once again, Crenshaw said he found fingerprints on the bags that belonged to Davidson.

Finding Christian's body
Sergeant Keith DeBow is a SWAT officer with the Knoxville Police Department. He told the court on Tuesday morning that he remembered being called about going into 2316 Chipman Street on January 9, 2007.

Sergeant DeBow said he was told they were looking for Lemaricus Davidson who was he leaseholder at the house at the time.

The Knoxville Police officer said he went into the house with the SWAT team, but while searching the house for Davidson, he saw a bulging trash can.

Sergeant DeBow said he and another officer raised their guns as he removed the lid and found Christian's lifeless body. He said he reached forward, touched her arm and knew that she was dead.

Jury sees crime scene
KPD Officer Joe Cox remembers being called to 2316 Chipman Street on January 9, 2007. Cox told the court he was called after Christian's body was found in a trash can inside the house.

Cox told the court he took crime scene pictures and video that day.

Prosecutors showed the video which showed officers outside of the house, shell casings on a book shelf, piles of clothes throughout the house, and several air mattresses. Cox's video also showed a gas can next to a refrigerator in the kitchen and the trash can where Christian was found.

The crime scene pictures also show a burned driver's license in Christian's purse.

After jurors saw the video and photographs the state gave them a 3D demonstration.

Assistant District Attorney Leland Price put the actual trash can on top of the witness stand where Cox confirmed it to be the container used to hold Christian's body.

Jury sent out of the courtroom
Moments after prosecutors announced Stacey Lawson's name, the defense asked for a bench conference. Shortly after, Judge Richard Baumgartner sent jurors out of the courtroom so he could hear Lawson's testimony.

Lawson identified a silver revolver that she said belonged to "Rome". She pointed at "Rome" in the courtroom who is also known as Letalvis Cobbins.

Lawson told the court that she saw Cobbins cleaning the gun in the bathroom at the Chipman Street house back in December.

The judge allowed the jury to hear Lawson's testimony.

During Lawson's courtroom testimony she said she was George Thomas' girlfriend and visited the Chipman Street house 3 times during December 2006 and January 2007.

According to her testimony, Cobbins told her that his brother gave him a choice of two guns, and he chose the chrome revolver. Lawson knew Davidson as "Gutta", "Slim" and "Marcus".

While she was testifying, Lawson mentioned that she left the house on January 2, 2007 after Davidson pointed a rifle at her face.

Lawson testified that she saw Cobbins, Coleman and Thomas after the murders and asked them what was wrong. She said Cobbins told her that his brother killed two people. During cross-examination, Lawson told the defense that Cobbins had tears in his eyes as he talked about the crimes committed by his brother.

After Lawson finished testifying and left the courtroom, she broke out in tears in the hallway as she spoke to court officials.

Washington Ridge connection revealed
Ethel Lynn Freeman said she was friends and neighbors with Lemaricus Davidson. During direct questioning, Freeman told the court that Davidson and his friends Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Stacey Lawson helped her move into her apartment at Washington Ridge Apartments in December 2006.

Freeman said she sold and gave some things to Davidson and his girlfriend Daphne Sutton. Davidson owed her money for some furniture.
On Saturday January 6, 2007, Freeman said she expected Davidson to bring money to her Washington Ridge Apartment, but he never showed up.

Investigators believe that Christian and Newsom were carjacked from the Washington Ridge Apartments the night they disappeared.


Freeman said she called Davidson on Sunday and he sounded different.

Shortly after she reached Davidson by phone, Freeman told the court she went to Chipman Street to collect her money and she saw George Thomas also known as "G" walking back from the train tracks with a hoodie pulled up over his head.

During cross-examination things got heated when Scott Green asked Freeman if Davidson owed her money for more than furniture. The prosecution objected, then Green asked the judge to remove the jury from the courtroom for the second time.

Green told the judge he was trying to find out if Freeman was high on crack-cocaine when she saw Thomas at Chipman Street and he is testing her credibility.

Freeman denied Green's allegations that she traded oxycontin for crack-cocaine with Davidson.

Davidson's ex-girlfriend takes the stand
In 2006, Daphne Sutton she met Lemaricus Davidson and they quickly began a serious relationship.

She told the court she and her two children moved in with Davidson at 2316 Chipman Street in the fall of 2006.

However, the former Fulton High School student said their relationship was explosive and the couple fought often, even getting physical on several occasions.

Sutton told the court that Davidson hit her on Friday January 5, 2007. She got fed up and left the house that night to go stay with some friends.

On Sunday, Sutton says Davidson called her to go pick up some clothes he had for her.

A couple of friends gave Sutton a ride to the house because her car was broken down in front of the Chipman Street home.

When she arrived Sunday night, Sutton says someone was locked in the bathroom with the water running. Davidson grabbed her arm and wouldn't let her go into the kitchen either.

After Sutton left the house, she realized the clothes Davidson gave her in a Sears bag, were used.

During cross-examination Davidson's ex-girlfriend became emotional as Scott Green asked her about her realization that the clothes that Davidson gave her actually belonged to Christian.

"Is part of what is so upsetting about this case is not only what happened to Ms. Christian, but the thought that it could have been you," Green asked.

"Yes," Sutton said as she cried on the witness stand.

Sutton told the court room that Davidson had a short fuse and lost his temper often.

"On a number of times when Marcus would beat you up, would bruise you, would choke you, Rome was present wasn't he," Green asked Sutton.

"Yes," she responded.

Green's questions kept coming as he tried to establish Davidson as the bad guy. "He never stood up to his big brother, did he?" "Never tried to stop him did he?"

"No," Sutton answered.

"But after every single one of those times Rome would come and put his arm around you and say how are you doing," Green continued.

"Yes," Sutton replied.

Sutton told Green that her ex-boyfriend was a drug dealer and she saw him give crack-cocaine to Freeman, which is what Green was eluding to during Freeman's testimony.

Inmate with Knoxville connection befriends Davidson
Fulton High School graduate, Vinnie Wernimont admitted to being a convicted felon and good friend to Lemaricus Davidson during his testimony on Tuesday afternoon.

The Knoxville native said he met Davidson while they were inmates in Memphis at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary.
When Wernimont left prison he returned to Knoxville.

Then in 2006, Wernimont says Davidson was released from prison and was looking for a place to live. The former inmates became Knoxville roommates.

Green became extremely aggressive with Wernimont during cross examination. You did penitentiary time for shooting a man didn't you, sir? And that's where you met Mr. Davidson was in West Tennessee Penitentiary."

"Yes sir," Wernimont replied.

"So, I guess we have you to thank for bringing Lemaricus Davidson to Knoxville," Green continued.

"Yes, you do and I feel horrible about that every single day," Wernimont answered as he swiveled repeatedly in his chair.

The state called 14 witnesses on Tuesday.

Last edited by -JC; August 19th, 2009 at 04:05 AM.
 
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