Fifth Person Found Guilty in 2007 Christian/Newsom Torture Murders
A chilling act of brutality largely ignored by national media because of racial implications
On January 7, 2007, Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, were kidnapped, beaten, tortured, raped, and murdered in one of the most heart-wrenching and purely evil crimes in my memory. The fifth person to be tried in relation to these heinous crimes was found guilty Tuesday, August 13, 2019.
The details of what this promising young couple endured are unspeakable and have left a lasting mark not just on their friends and families but on all of us who are familiar with the case. I wrote an extensive post about the case on the 10th Anniversary of the murders, 10 Years Later: The Brutal Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
You probably have not heard the names Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
But I remember those names, and the tears that were brought to my eyes when I heard about what happened to them.
On January 7, 2007, the young white couple—Channon was 21, her boyfriend Chris was 23—was abducted, beaten, raped, tortured, and murdered. Chris eventually shot to death before being set on fire, and Channon left to die with a plastic bag over her head in a trash can. The perpetrators were all black.
If you have not heard their story, it’s because the racial nature of that black-on-white crime was uncomfortable for the national media a decade ago. Even now, it’s uncomfortable, as the delayed and reluctant coverage of the Chicago tortures showed.
Here is their story.
In December, 2018 we reported that the trial date of Eric Boyd, one of the five persons involved in the horrific crimes against Christian and Newsom, had been set. His is the last trial for this tragic and senseless double torture murder.
At that time, Boyd was serving a federal sentence for harboring the ringleader Lemaricus Davidson, who is currently on death row.
Both are pictured here along with the other three persons convicted of these crimes:
The man long suspected of helping kidnap and murder a young Knoxville couple out on a date in January 2007 is getting a new trial date.
. . . . Authorities have long suspected Boyd, a friend of Davidson’s, took part in the kidnappings and killings. In March 2018, the Knox County district attorney general sought and secured murder and kidnapping indictments against Boyd.
. . . . Eric Boyd will now face trial in Knox County Criminal Court on Aug. 5, 2019, in what will likely be at least a two-week trial. He had been set for a January trial, but considering the complexity of the case and the fact that he was just indicted in March 2018, the case likely was going to be put off.
Judge Bob McGee agreed to delay the trial Wednesday and also set several check-back dates in the interim.
McGee also agreed to hold off on sending Boyd, who was present Wednesday, back to federal prison in Yazoo City, Miss. Boyd is serving a federal, 18-year sentence for harboring the ringleader in the 2007 killings, and has been shuttled back and forth several times to court while in federal custody.
Boyd was tried on 36 counts, including first degree felony murder. On Tuesday, Boyd was found guilty on all 18 of the murder charges related to the torture deaths of Christian and Newsom.
A Knox County jury found Eric Boyd guilty on Tuesday afternoon in the murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.
Boyd received life sentences with the possibility of parole on all 18 murder convictions related to their deaths. A sentencing hearing on the other charges will be Sept. 18.
A Knox County jury that heard a week of testimony began deliberating Monday afternoon. Just before noon Tuesday, the jury had a question that Knox County Judge Bob McGee addressed and the jury returned to deliberations.
This was not a death penalty trial, but Boyd faces an automatic life sentence for each of the murder convictions. The judge will determine if the sentences will run consecutively or concurrently and what, if any, further time may be added for the related crimes including kidnapping and rape.
A Knox County jury on Tuesday declared Eric Boyd guilty in the Christian-Newsom murders.
The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated since Monday before returning its verdict of first-degree murder in the Knox County Criminal Court trial on Tuesday at approximately 2 p.m.
The verdict carries an automatic life sentence for each of the two slayings. Judge Bob McGee will decide at a Sept. 18 sentencing hearing whether those two life sentences should be stacked one onto the other and what, if any, extra punishment Boyd should receive for the related crimes, including kidnapping and rape.
Boyd is the fifth defendant to stand trial in the 2007 Knoxville slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.
The Knox County couple were preparing to go on a date when they were carjacked and kidnapped and taken to the Chipman Street house of Lemaricus Davidson. Both were bound, gagged and blindfolded.
Newsom was raped, shot three times and his body set afire alongside nearby railroad tracks within hours of the kidnapping. Christian was held captive inside the Chipman Street house for 36 hours, repeatedly raped, forced to swallow bleach in a bid to destroy DNA evidence of those rapes, and then stuffed — alive — inside a trash can in the kitchen. She slowly suffocated to death.
WBIR reports that “the Newsom and Christian families want their kids’ lives remembered.”
Convicted murderer and rapist Eric Boyd stood stoic before a Knoxville courtroom on Tuesday afternoon as a jury found him guilty of all charges in the 2007 torture slayings of Chris Newsom and Channon Christian.
In the gallery behind him, a collective gasp resounded from the area where Channon Christian and Chris Newsom’s loved ones sat and processed the reality that one of their children’s killers will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
. . . . “Twelve years ago we made a promise to Chris,” Mary Newsom, Chris’s mother, said. “And today, that promise was fulfilled. This is the closure we’ve been looking for.”
For Christian and Newsom’s family and friends, this final conviction of Eric Boyd marks a conclusion of sorts to a long-fought battle they hoped would bring justice to a man they said escaped it twelve years ago.
“Our final goodbye to Chris…we embraced him in his body bag. We were not allowed to see him,” Hugh Newsom, Chris’s father, said. “At that particular time, Mary and I both promised we would not stop until Eric Boyd was prosecuted for killing him.”
Deena and Gary Christian, Channon’s parents, also responded to the verdict, WBIR continues:
Deena Christian, Channon’s mother, thanked the jury for their diligence and hard work throughout the trial.
“The two Knox County juries that we’ve had through all of these seven or eight trials.. are the two juries that have really stepped up and done what’s right. So I’m really grateful to this state of Tennessee,” Deena Christian said.
Gary Christian agreed and said though the family’s days in court are not over, the trial’s conclusion provides solace.
“We’ll never get justice on this Earth, but I think we got them all the best we can,” Gary Christian, Channon’s father, said. “And that’s what I promised my daughter, that they wouldn’t hurt anybody else.”
Knox News reports that Deena Christian also stated: “It’s been a long time coming, I’m very happy. I do feel justice was served today, but it never goes away for us. I don’t want anyone to ever forget Channon and Chris.”
Boyd will be sentenced September 18, 2019 on the other charges for which he was convicted.
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Comments
Burn every last one of these feral animals.
Damn. Five less people at the obama/jarrett Thanksgiving table this year.
Thank you for doing a job of reporting what the MSM failed, fails, to do. If the crime of all involved were reversed by the color of their skin, not the deeds done, it would have had then and continue to have national “lynching mob” coverage. As to who the MSM media are protecting by their “nothing to see here” attitude, gives credence to their bias of protecting their own.
CNN and the “Alphabet Networks” can’t provide enough coverage of things that fit their agenda (e.g. Covington Catholic Boys), no matter how trivial. They censor reporting on anything that harms the agenda. Politically-correct FNC isn’t much better.
Cases like this make me think we should bring back some of the old fashioned ways of publicly killing these characters, drawing, quartering, evisceration, and perhaps most appropriate in this case would be a pointed stake which enters their anus set in a hole in the ground with their feet a meter or so off of the ground.
Most of the time perps of capital crimes should be put down quickly, but in this case they deserve to suffer greatly.
People ask me how I can be pro-life and pro-capital punishment?
It is because I value the lives of the innocents. I value innocent babies and innocent victims.
You might also mention that criminals are given due process. Evidence is presented to a jury. A judge oversees the process. They have lawyers to defend them. They can face their accusers and (through their lawyers) try to poke holes in their testimony, which is taken under oath.
Aborted babies have no protection at all. Not even the law.
My answer is that I’m not pro-life, I’m anti-abortion. Two different subjects.
To people who oppose the death sentence, I say, “There’s an illness called AIDS. It occurs when the body is infected with a virus that prevents the body from killing other infectious organisms. When a body politic is incapable or unwilling to kill its infectious organisms, it is similarly ill.”
“The verdict carries an automatic life sentence for each of the two slayings. Judge Bob McGee will decide at a Sept. 18 sentencing hearing whether those two life sentences should be stacked one onto the other and what, if any, extra punishment Boyd should receive for the related crimes, including kidnapping and rape.”
For “extra punishment” I suggest Boyd should be drawn and quartered.
The possibility of parole? BS, they should all be drawn and quartered.
The dogma is, black people can’t be racist.
The facts of this story argue otherwise.
Ministry of Truth: This story is doubleplus unwelcome!
If the races had been reversed this would’ve been the hate crime of the century. When, ever, have white thugs captured a black couple and tortured and gang-raped them both?
I haven’t seen any evidence cited that it was motivated by hatred for the victims’ race. If you have, please inform me (and link it if you can find it).
It was probably when they started screaming, “Die, white bitch!”
Or something like that as they were raping her to death.
And your evidence for that is? I’m completely open to the idea that it was racially motivated, but as far as I know the evidence is all against it.
You have to go back to the original trial transcript. Letalvis Cobbins’ testimony is probably the most damning. His screeds against white people coupled with the extensive damage to Channon Christian’s body helped drive the hate crime narrative.
Where can I find information about this? Nothing I’ve seen so far matches up with it.
Don’t play dumb (or maybe you’re not playing). Plenty of whites have been charges with hate crimes even tough there was no evidence the crime was racially motivated. There’s definitely a double standard.
That is just not true. Sentence enhancements must be proved separately to the jury, and without any evidence on which a jury could make such a finding no judge will let it through to them.
the hate crime was invented to keep the myth of the oppressed black alive for political reasons. in the united states the racial oppressor is the black. this crime is an example of that oppression.
Hey Millhouse, are you stupid or willfully blind?? It is folks like you who CHOOSE TO IGNORE THE OBVIOUS that prove our society is sinking into a moral & ethical morass, which if left unchecked will ultimately & inevitably end in the collapse of American society. WAKE THE HELL UP, Milly-boy.
Exactly, if you reverse the races that fact alone becomes prima facie evidence of racism.
The terrible thing is that declaring this a hate crime provides an excuse that mitigates its utter depravity and makes it seem less horrible.
In the irresponsible tabloid press, perhaps. (By which I mean such gutter rags as the NYT and WaPo. They may use broadsheet paper, but their souls are tabloid.) But in a court of law it is nothing of the sort.
I give you Geo Zimmerman in rebuttal. He was prosecuted because the races were reversed. The police thought him not chargeable, but…
You may be found not guilty, but the race reversal will get you into court; the howling mobs will demand it. They think that at the least the process is the punishment, and they could always get lucky and put a needle in your arm. The law and those who control it are nowhere near as pure as you imagine them to be. In blue districts, the cause it serves ain’t justice.
The claim was that “if you reverse the races that fact alone becomes prima facie evidence of racism”. To the best of my recollection Zimmerman was not charged with racism.
True, the only reason he was prosecuted was because of the riots, and the only reason for the riots is that his name sounds Jewish to some people, and his attacker was black. But by the time it came to court it was not about race.
Milhouse rote:
But in a court of law it is nothing of the sort.
VaGentleman replied:
You may be found not guilty, but the race reversal will get you into court.
Since it gets you into court and since no jury’s verdict can be assured, the uneven treatment of race reversal it is certainly something of the sort.
Color supremacy does exist. Black supremacy does exist, was a real threat to other black people, and, with progressive policies, is a real threat to everyone. Diversity breeds adversity.
No federal hate crime?
What would the federal crime be?
This was a gruesome, heinous criminal act. And it received almost NO media coverage outside of the Knoxville area since it occurred in 2007. This case involved a series of predatory attacks upon two young people who were the epitome of innocence. It was not retaliation for a drug deal gone bad. It was not related to any criminal activity on the part of the victims. it was a vicious thrill killing involving physical and sexual torture of a young white couple. And, the media refused to cover it. Largely because the perpetrators were Black.
The media has been totally color blind for the last 20 years. It can not see black or brown, except in a good light.
Ditto the Carr brothers in Wichita.
The original state convictions were set aside because the Judge was using a penis pump during the trial. How does something like that not make the national news?
Why isn’t this a racist hate crime?
Is there any evidence that it was one?
what the hell do you consider a hate crime? it that wasn’t a hate crime there has never been one.
“Black lives Matter”?
Thank you for your compassionate coverage of this brutal crime. You and everyone at LI are keeping the memory of these young people. As Channon’s father said, we will never get justice on this earth.
Thank you indeed.
The families of both victims had to sit through trials and sentencing now for each of the 5 perpetrators. I cannot imagine how hard that has been on them.
And one perp, the disgusting Vanessa Coleman, became parole eligible in 2017 so now the families have to prepare for parole hearings for her to make sure she serves her full sentence.
The man got multiple life sentences. Who cares if it was or wasn’t a hate crime?
For the political narrative. Federal hate crime legislation should be colorblind, but its not. Currently, only white people can be accused of a racial hate crime.
That is an absolute, bare-faced LIE. You should be ashamed of yourself. You know very well that it is not true.
No milhouse we know it’s true because the only hate crimes we know of are those covered by a liberal media totally biased in their coverage of the evil White man against the poor, oppressed Black man.
Perhaps you, the one always challenging others for evidence supporting their writings, can supply evidence of hate crimes of White victims and Black aggressors for once!
Just look at the FBI statistics and the prosecution record. It is common for crimes by non-white people to be charged and sentenced as hate crimes.
since what makes a crime a “hate” crime is completely subjective do you lawyers think that should be a legal concept?
He deserves a horrible death of the same nature he perpetrated time two.
Now we get to warehouse these feral animals for years while their appeals work their way through our system. We are way too nice to criminals. Im sick of the fools who argue the death penalty is not a deterrent or its cheaper to warehouse them than to pay for their appeals. It wouldnt be so expensive if there wasnt a army of do gooders helping them game the system. Justice Delivered is right; execute them in a timely and painful public manner. Especially in cases like the recent El Paso killings where there is absolutely no doubt as to his guilt. That punk deprived his victims of their humanity by killing them and as a consequence he should be stripped of his humanity by denying his due process rights and executing him immediately.
I once googled up years ago “murderers who have been released from prison and killed again”. It was years ago but i remember being astounded that there were thousands of instances, thousands of people who would have been spared if the deterrent effect of the death penalty had been utilized.
I don’t think the endless appeals and merit-less motions in death penalty cases are even about the criminal. I think that is about Featherbedding.
Consider the lawyer representing Demaricus Davidson. Over the two or three decades that Mr. Davidson is on death row: his lawyer is going to rack up thousands of billable hours at hundreds per hour, writing all of those appeals and motions. By the time it is over, the bill could approach 7 figures. And Davidson doesn’t have two pennies to rub together. The taxpayers are on the hook for that one.
Just a reminder that Snopes said this was not a race crime…in spite of all the trial evidence that it was exactly that.
Could you please describe some of that evidence? Because I’ve never heard of it, and would like to know the truth.
Law-itis.
That these folks had multiple trials, that they HAVE THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE?!
Law-itis.
I’ve been following this over at nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com for several years. A local who writes form, or sends things to Nicholas for publication, has been a spectator, What happened to these two young people is beyond description.
So I did a search (Yahoo) for the names.
This site and local Knoxville sites carried this story. I also saw a couple sites asking if this was a real case.
How sick that the mainstream media ignores such tragedies.
I know, I know, it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Time to bring back PUBLIC HANGINGS !!!
I don’t care if they’re public or not. While I’m not a big fan of stoking the emotions of the populace, a public hanging has the advantage of transparency.
But, absolutely, bring back hangings.
This is about “reverse discrimination, & irresponsible news reporting! Imagine the public outrage, if this had been white on black crime! {rioting aplenty!}….Heinous acts, of torture, rape, & murder, calls for the DEATH PENALTY! Liberalization of our legal system is totally wrong! The families of the victims must have Justice, & closure! if these”inhuman perps”, ever get free, by whatever means, they will repeat their animalistic behavior! Our Society does not need this type of human-animal existing with “good citizens”! { REINSTITUTE THE DEATH PENALTY }
given the depravity of these crimes, how on earth could anyone propose mercy or consideration for the perpetrators? what sort of ” appeal ” could they possibly make? on what grounds? again, acknowledge the professional composure and restraint of officers in this case–had been on scene for their arrest myself would have found it near-impossible to refrain from taking them out with extreme prejudice then and there
the idea that any of them should EVER be eligible for parole is simply beyond comprehension
Boyd was found guilty on all 18 of the murder charges
Can someone please comment on how there were 18 “murder charges” when there were only TWO victims? That makes no sense.
Also, what sentences did the other 4 receive? One is evidently on death row, but what about the other 3?
Milhouse–as is typical–is obfuscating the issue here. The issue is not whether the crime was in a technical legal sense a hate crime. That was not the issue either in the court nor the in the legal insurrection report. It was the disparity in med ia reportage depending on the victims and the guilty. An attack by a white against a black gets headline treatment with accompanying indignation about racism; the reverse is buried.
There is even a larger issue that needs to be addressed. Virtually every new group of immigrants to the United States was the target of hostility. This was true even of the Germans in colonial Pennsylvania; the Irish in the 1840s and 1850s; the Norwegians in late 19th century Wisconsin (the major source of Robert La Follette’s support was Norwegians resentment against Anglo-German domination); the Italians and Jews in the early twentieth century.
With time–and ithe increasing assimilation of the second and third generations–such hostility faded. Why the continued animus against blacks? I will argue that the source lies in the continued behavior of a large segment of the black population such as the case under discussion–and is further aggravated by the demands by black leaders for special privileges such as affirmative action and reparations for slavery.
There are two separate issues. This crime never got the coverage it would have got had the criminals been white and the victims black. That’s clear. But many people, including commenters here, insist on calling it a hate crime, and complain that it wasn’t charged as one, when the evidence is simply not there, and indeed seems to be against it. The evidence is that these criminals were not motivated by the victims’ race, so they would not be eligible for a sentence enhancement for that. That’s all.
Then there’s the totally bizarre claim by stl that “only white people can be accused of a racial hate crime”, which is just an outright lie. Everyone knows that it is not true.
if white people did this to black people you would definitely considered a hate crime. you for the law not being applied equally to all people.
the reason the democrat party-media complex didn’t cover this story is because it wouldn’t make black people hate white people. other then hating white people what does the democrat party have to offer it’s non-white voters? what, look how good our policies have worked out for you.