On Saturday, the 7th of January, 2007, 21-year-old Channon Christian finished her shift and headed to her friend Kara Sowards’s apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee, to get ready for a party.
Her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, was planning to pick her up before night so they could have dinner together before heading to the party. Before meeting Channon, he passed the time with his best friend, Josh Anderson.
The couple had only been dating for a few months, but were completely smitten with each other. By 8pm that day, Chris was running late, so Channon told Kara to head on to the party without her.
At the party, Kara spotted Chris dropping Josh off and texted Channon that he was likely on his way to see her. When Chris arrived at Kara’s, Channon was understandably annoyed that he’d taken so long to pick her up, but they quickly got over it, laughing and hand-holding their way to the parking lot.
The couple shared an intimate kiss beside Channon’s SUV before their world turned upside down. Three men had crept up, pointing guns at them. Before they could process what was happening, the two were shoved into the back seat of her vehicle. The men also bound their hands behind the couple’s backs and blindfolded them.
Christopher and Channon were driven to a nearby house, where the situation escalated quickly. What had initially begun as a carjacking transformed into the stuff of nightmares.
A Trail of Breadcrumbs
The next morning, Channon’s mother, Deena Christian, was worried when her daughter did not come back from the party. She also noted that her daughter had not called once, and all calls to her phone went straight to voicemail.
Her worry intensified when she found out from Kara that Channon and Chris hadn’t even made it to the party the previous night. There was no communication to any of their friends that they would not be able to attend the party.
Two of their friends did go to the parking lot of Kara’s apartment complex to check on the couple at 11 pm the previous night. They only spotted Chris’s car, but there was no sign of Channon’s.
That morning, Channon’s workplace also called to say she did not come in. When Deena reached out to Chris’s parents, Mary and Hugh Christopher Newsom, they were equally confused about their son’s whereabouts.
The two families then decided to call the police and report the couple as missing. Knoxville police determined that it was too early to investigate, especially since the two individuals in question were adults.
Sensing something was off, both of the couple’s parents, along with some friends, decided to search for Chris and Channon, tracking them from where they were last seen. They also called local hospitals and anyone who might have had information about them.
Their first break came when the parents got Channon’s cell phone provider to provide her location data. It showed her cell phone last pinged at a tower on Cherry Street in Northeast Knoxville. This was six miles from the parking lot where they were last seen.
Immediately, this information raised everyone’s anxiety because Cherry Street had a reputation at the time for high crime rates.
Two days later, on January 8th, they eventually found Channon’s abandoned SUV at an intersection on Cherry Street. Someone had removed the window stickers from the car. They had also cleaned it out of Channon’s belongings.
The car had mud all over the floor, and the driver’s seat was significantly further back than Channon would have adjusted it. Armed with this information, Chris and Channon’s parents went to the police and reported what they had found. This time, their concerns were taken seriously, and investigators arrived at the scene to impound the vehicle.
The day before, the police had already been notified of a discovery they did not know would pertain to this case. At midday, a railway worker had come across the body of a badly burned adult male.
The victim was wrapped in a comforter, with a sweatshirt around his head to secure a sock gag. A belt was tied around his ankles, and a shoelace secured his wrists behind his back. He had also been sexually assaulted and shot three times. One in the back, another in the neck, and the kill shot was to the head.
The body was then doused in gasoline and set on fire. Police soon confirmed the body belonged to Christopher Newsom and notified his parents.
When she heard the news, Mary collapsed in shock. The police advised them not to view the body due to the severity of the injuries, but their advice fell on deaf ears as Mary insisted on seeing her son’s remains.
Jarred by this turn of events, the Christian’s clung to the hope that their daughter was somehow still alive. Inside the vehicle, the police found an envelope with the address of a house a few blocks away.
They also found fingerprints on the vehicle and traced them to 24-year-old Lemaricus Devall Davidson, who was also coincidentally living at the residence indicated on the envelope.
The Knoxville Police Department and the County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant and arrived at 2316 Chipman Street on 9th January 2007. They knocked on the door but received no response, so they forced entry.
When officers went into the house, they searched the rooms. In the kitchen, they opened a large garbage can and found Channon’s body. It was covered with bedding and other items.
The medical examiner indicated that Channon had been forced into a fetal position. Her head and shoulders were twisted downward against her knees. A sheer curtain was tied around her ankles and wrapped around Channon’s neck.
There was a floral fabric tied around her thighs, which forced her legs against her chest. A white plastic bag was tied over her head to cover Channon’s nose and mouth. The medical examiner ruled that she probably lost air within 30 minutes and died after five minutes when the oxygen was depleted.
Her body also appeared to be riddled with injuries, including deep bruising to the head, arms, and legs. She also had severe bruising and lacerations on and in her genital area.
Channon’s mouth was also damaged from an apparent forced oral sexual assault. The perpetrators poured bleach down her throat in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
If you enjoy stories like this, follow my Instagram page Skip Boring for more interesting posts across crime, history, culture, and other fascinating topics.
Investigations Reveal the Parties at Fault
Lemaricus Davidson’s prints were found on items in the garbage bags covering Channon’s body. They also found his semen on her clothing, which provided enough evidence to begin a manhunt.
They reviewed call logs and found that Lemaricus had been conversing frequently with a man named Eric Boyd. Boyd, 34, was hauled in and asked for information concerning Lemaricus. He directed them to a vacant house where they arrested Lemaricus on 11th January 2007.
Boyd was a suspect from the beginning, but he insisted that he was not anywhere near the apartment block where the kidnapping took place or Chipman Street where the murders happened.
At the vacant house where they arrested Lemaricus, were Newsom’s size 9 and a half Nike Shox athletic shoes along with a 22-calibre pistol. Lemaricus was questioned by Forest Webb from the Tennessee Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Knoxville Police Department Investigator, Ryan Flores.
During his questioning, Lemaricus told several versions of what happened between January 6th and 8th. The first one was that he left his home on Friday and knew nothing of what happened in the house on the days in question.
The second version was that his 25-year-old half-brother, Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, came to his house, driving Channon’s vehicle while making a drug delivery. He left it there. When he learned about the body beside the train tracks, Lemaricus allegedly wiped the vehicle down to remove his fingerprints.
The next version was that he spent all of Saturday at home and began selling drugs at 5 pm. He then said that he went to bed and woke up on Sunday evening. His girlfriend, Daphne Sutton, called to tell him about a dead body near the train tracks. Lemaricus said he wiped down Channon’s vehicle and stayed at Daphne’s house on Monday and Tuesday.
Next, he claimed that Cobbins and his friend, 27-year-old George Geovonni “Detroit” Thomas, had taken Channon and Chris from a parking lot and brought them back to his house. The two apparently said they carjacked some people, but Lemaricus said he did not want to be a part of it.
So he left them to smoke marijuana down the street. Lemaricus said that when he came back, Channon was in his house and on the bed. She pleaded that she did not want to die. Thomas and Cobbins then left with Christopher and Channon.
They returned with Channon only, and Lemaricus opted to leave in Channon’s vehicle. He said that when he got back to his house, he did not go past the living room and did not see Channon. He also categorically denied having sex with her.
On January 11th, Letalvis Cobbins and George Thomas were detained in Lebanon, Kentucky. The police also discovered soon afterwards that 18-year-old Vanessa Coleman, Cobbin’s girlfriend, had been staying with the group following the murders, so there was a high possibility she might have been present during the acts.
On January 31st, 2007, she was arrested and charged in connection with the murders. Law enforcement also seized a computer belonging to Cobbins and Thomas, which had recorded news coverage from local outlets about the murders. Police also found a purse containing several of Channon’s belongings, including her cosmetic bag and change purse.
Confronted with this evidence, Cobbins admitted that he, Lemaricus, and Boyd drove to the apartment complex, where they spotted a white woman, presumably Channon, speaking to a male.
They carjacked them, and Cobbins drove them back to Chipman Street to Lemaricus’ house. Boyd then allegedly drove away with the man, but returned without him.
Cobbins denied being involved in the rape or murder of Channon. However, he was present in the house when the crimes were happening.
Trial and Convictions
The suspects were tried separately after being indicted on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The trial date was then moved to 2009, and Judge Richard Baumgartner allowed two of the suspects, Cobbins and Thomas, to be tried by a Nashville jury.
The defence tried to file a motion for a quick trial, arguing there was no definitive link between their client, Thomas, and the crime scene. However, the judge ruled that phone calls made from the jailhouse to his acquaintances were admissible as evidence.
Lemaricus was also indicted on a separate robbery that was committed against a Pizza Hut on the day following the murders. Eric Boyd was also indicted for helping Lemaricus evade the police following the commission of the crimes.
During the trial, it became apparent that Vanessa Coleman was at one point left alone with the victim, Channon Christian. She did not, however, render aid to her. In her defence, Vanessa said the men threatened her life if she tried to intervene.
Vanessa contended that she kept checking on Channon and was present when she was finally suffocated.
On April 16, 2008, Eric Boyd was the first to be convicted. He was found guilty of being an accessory to fatal carjacking and failing to turn in a known fugitive. Boyd was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Letalvis Cobbins was the second to be convicted on August 25, 2009. He was found guilty of the murders of Christopher and Channon. The judge sentenced him to life without the possibility of Parole.
Lemaricus Davidson was convicted on October 28, 2009. The jurors were unanimous that he should be given the death penalty. In June 2010, Lemaricus was sentenced to death. He was also given 80 years for charges related to the murders.
Vanessa Coleman was granted immunity by the authorities because of her crucial testimony on the carjacking. She was acquitted of the murder charges, but the state determined that federal immunity did not extend to state charges for murder. On July 30, 2010, Vanessa was sentenced to 53 years in prison.
During her sentence, Channon’s father said, “For me, personally, you took my baby. You took my opportunity to say yes to a young man one day. You took my wedding dance away. You took my opportunity to hold her child, my grandbaby.”
Controversy Concerning the Judge and the Rulings
In 2011, Judge Baumgartner was investigated and found to have a prevalent addiction to prescription medication. According to the Associated Press, in his final years on the bench, he was having sex and purchasing pills during courtroom breaks.
He stepped down from the bench and pleaded guilty to a count of official misconduct in March 2011.
This threw the cases into contention because it would be the same period during which Judge Baumgartner was presumably intoxicated.
In December 2011, Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood ruled that the defendants’ trials were structurally flawed due to the presiding judge’s conduct.
This set the stage for retrials, but in March 2012, the Tennessee Attorney General’s office stepped in to ask the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals to hold off. The Appeals Court did not issue an opinion on that.
Eric Boyd Retrial
In March 2018, a grand jury in Knox County came together to indict Eric Boyd on 36 counts, including first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder, aggravated kidnapping, and rape.
George Thomas testified as a witness against Boyd. In return, he would have his first-degree murder convictions reduced to second-degree murder. The sentence of life in prison would also be reduced to 50 years.
The jury found Boyd guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. He was also sentenced to 90 years for kidnapping, robbery, and rape. These will be served consecutively.
All four are currently serving their sentences. While two of them have life sentences without the possibility of Parole. Vanessa is the only one who had her sentence reduced. She was eligible for Parole in 2014 and 2020, but the victim’s parents gave statements opposing Parole. The board members voted unanimously to deny Parole for Vansessa Coleman. George Thomas’s sentence will end in May 2053.
