Letalvis Cobbins Sentenced to LWOP in 2007 TN Double Rape/Murder

[Jeff1857]

Letalvis " Rome " Cobbins, 24, also faces the same 46 charges as George Thomas (16 counts of felony murder growing out of the rape, robbery, kidnapping, and theft of Christian and Newsom, 2 counts of premeditated murder, 2 counts of especially aggravated robbery, 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft) . In 2003, Cobbins was convicted of third-degree attempted robbery in New York state. He and Davidson are brothers.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A prosecutor will seek the death penalty for at least one of four defendants accused in a fatal carjacking of a Knoxville couple.

Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols filed notice on Friday of the state's intent to seek the death penalty for Letalvis Cobbins if he is convicted.

Cobbins' attorney, Kimberly Parton, could not be reached for comment.

He is one of four defendants charged with murder in the January slaying of University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23. Cobbins is scheduled to be the first of the four to go to trial.

Authorities said Christian and Newsom were on a date when they encountered armed carjackers.

Prosecutors say the pair were robbed and taken at gunpoint to a house where they were beaten, tortured, raped and killed.

Newsom's body was burned and dumped alongside railroad tracks while Christian's was discarded in a large trash can inside the house, prosecutors said.

Nichols has not yet said whether he will seek the death penalty for alleged ringleader Lamaricus Davidson, who is Cobbins' brother, or for the other defendants - Vanessa Coleman and George Thomas.

Nichols cited eight factors for seeking the death penalty against Cobbins including a violent felony already on his record.

Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, www.knoxnews.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Hopefully they'll go after all 4.

[Michael]

Yepp, I can´t understand why theyre thinking about the DP in this case. No question - DP for all of them!

regards

Michael

[ScoopD (aka: Pam)]

The one who faces the death penalty is the one who is being tried first - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the other 3 probably took plea deals in exchange for their testimony and to escape the death penalty themselves.   

[Michael]

I see this Pam, but I don´t like these deals. On one hand there´s the possibility of unfair trials and in this case they don´t need theese deals for the conviction (in my opinion). There´s enough other evidence.

And I think instead of the Kenneth Foster case this would be a good case for the law of parties.

Regards

Michael

[Jeff1857]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The first of 4 black defendants charged in the brutal carjacking, rape and murder of a young white couple won't go to trial until 2009.

Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner agreed Thursday to give defense attorneys more time to prepare as prosecutors seek the death penalty against 24-year-old Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins.

He reset Cobbins' trial from May to next Jan. 26 - about two years after the bodies of 21-year-old University of Tennessee student Channon Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, were found dumped in a trash can and burned, respectively.

The judge's decision likely will alter a succession of trials set through the summer for Cobbins' codefendants. Some attorneys for the defendants have argued that bloggers and other outside groups have tried to provoke racial tensions in the case, endangering their clients' chances for fair trials.

[Jeff1857]

Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols said this morning he will seek the death penalty against the remaining two people charged in a carjacking that led to the deaths of a University of Tennessee student and her boyfriend last year.

Lemaricus Davidson and George Thomas now face death along with Letalvis Cobbins and Vanessa Coleman in the January 2007 deaths of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.

The announcement by Nichols came during a routine hearing before Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner.

Eric Dewayne Boyd, the one suspect not charged in the slayings but only as an accessory to the carjacking for allegedly helping hide Davidson out, likely will stand trial in federal court before any of the slaying suspects.

Davidson, the alleged ringleader, Cobbins, Coleman, and Thomas face first-degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape and theft charges in the couple's slayings.

Attorneys for Davidson and Thomas have said they would consider negotiating plea agreements.

Cobbins had been set to go to trial in May, but it has been postponed to Jan. 26, 2009. The other defendants' trials will follow.

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

[tramoore]

Prosecutors' push for death as punishment for all four suspects in a fatal carjacking came as no surprise to the quartet's defenders.

Their bid for hair and swab samples for DNA testing is proving a legal shocker, however, with at least one defense team questioning whether the state has lost or destroyed similar evidence collected more than a year ago.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner has set a Friday hearing on a motion filed by Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price seeking a dozen samples each of head and pubic hair and two swabs from inside the mouths of the suspects in the January 2007 slayings of a 21-year-old University of Tennessee student and her 23-year-old boyfriend.

Attorney Kim Parton, who represents Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins, and defense team Tom Dillard and Steve Johnson, who represent George Thomas, challenged the request Monday, arguing samples were taken and tested more than a year ago.

In a brief filed by Johnson, Thomas' defenders went one step further, openly questioning whether samples obtained last year and used in earlier testing had been lost or destroyed.

"The state's motion raises serious questions about whether it, its agents or others acting on its behalf have degraded or destroyed the biological samples obtained prior to (the quartet's indictment)," Johnson wrote.

Cobbins, girlfriend Vanessa Coleman, brother Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson and Thomas all are charged with kidnapping, robbing, raping, torturing and killing Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom after what began as an apparent carjacking.

District Attorney General Randy Nichols announced at Monday's hearing that he would seek the lives of Davidson and Thomas should the pair be convicted in the slayings. He and Price already had filed the necessary paperwork to seek the death penalty against Cobbins and Coleman.

The hearing was supposed to serve as a chance for Baumgartner to appoint a new attorney to serve as second chair to Parton. Suspects facing death are entitled under state law to two defense attorneys, at least one of whom must be skilled in handling capital cases. Parton is qualified under the law and is Cobbins' primary defender. However, attorney Rick Clark, appointed to help Parton in the case, has been hospitalized with cancer.

Baumgartner sought on Monday to appoint attorney Bruce Poston to the case. Poston said he was reluctant but would agree at the judge's behest. However, Nichols countered that Poston may have a conflict, alleging Cobbins has made incriminating statements to another of Poston's clients with whom Cobbins is housed in the Knox County Jail.

That issue also will be addressed Friday.

However, the real fight on Friday will be over DNA testing.

According to Price's motion, hair not belonging to either Christian or Newsom has been recovered from the crime scene, although it wasn't clear from his motion whether the hair came from Christian's Toyota 4-Runner or the Chipman Street house where the couple was held hostage and tortured before their deaths.

However, search warrant affidavits filed soon after the pair's bodies were discovered and the suspects rounded up show that samples of hair and saliva already have been collected. Johnson wrote in his response that those samples have been tested and compared to the hair found at the crime scene.

"No match at all was indicated with Mr. Thomas," Johnson wrote.

It was not immediately clear Monday whether attorney David Eldridge, who represents Davidson, and attorney Russell T. Greene, who along with a Kentucky attorney is representing Coleman, also will fight the DNA sample request.

[Jeff1857]

In what could be a case of judicial gamesmanship, a fatal carjacking suspect set to be tried last among his alleged cohorts is instead demanding to go first.

Attorneys Tom Dillard and Steve Johnson on Thursday filed a motion in Knox County Criminal Court demanding George Thomas' right to a speedy trial.

Thomas is one of four suspects charged in the January 2007 kidnapping, rape, torture and slaying of University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23.

All four suspects are being tried separately, with Thomas pulling up the rear in the prosecution's trial lineup. Knox County Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price and his boss, Randy Nichols, have not revealed the logic behind their proposed lineup.

However, conventional wisdom holds that in a case involving separate trials for suspects charged in the same crime, a smart prosecutor will push to try the strongest case first and the weakest last. With each conviction won, the odds that that weak-link suspect will plead guilty climb, particularly when, as in this case, the death penalty looms.

Dillard and Johnson give a nod to that strategical chess move in their motion and appear to be trying to score a checkmate by forcing prosecutors to try first a case with the least forensic evidence.

"The fact that this case involves four co-defendants is of no moment to a speedy trial determination," the motion stated. "Frankly, Mr. Thomas is in a different position than his co-defendants.

"Despite a substantive battery of forensic serological and DNA tests having been conducted on evidence obtained by law enforcement in this case, the result of all of the types of analyses performed is that there is no forensic link between Mr. Thomas and the scene of the alleged offenses or the victims themselves," the motion stated.

Thomas has, however, given statements in which he admits at least some involvement and knowledge of the torture slayings, federal court records show.

Judge Richard Baumgartner will consider Thomas' fight to keep his August trial date intact at a hearing today.

All four suspects had faced trial dates this year, but that changed when Nichols announced plans to seek the death penalty. Since then, Baumgartner has pushed into next year the trials of Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins and his girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, because of the added work that a capital case creates for both sides. He was expected today to do the same for the remaining two suspects to be tried, Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson, who is Cobbins' brother and the alleged ringleader, and Thomas.

Also to be argued today is prosecutors' bid to garner samples of head and pubic hair, as well as saliva samples, from the suspects for additional DNA testing. Cobbins' attorney, Kim Parton, and Thomas' defense team argue their clients gave similar samples soon after the slayings.

Christian and Newsom were heading home from a date when they were accosted by a band of apparent carjackers, according to authorities. The carjacking turned into a kidnapping, with the couple forced to a house on Chipman Street rented by Davidson.

For hours, the young West Knox County couple were beaten, raped and tortured before they were slain.

[tramoore]

Three of the four suspects in the murders and rapes of a young Knox County couple were back in court Friday morning.

Attorneys Thomas Dillard and Stephen Johnson represent George Thomas, one of the defendants charged with the carjacking, rape and murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.

Thomas' attorneys filed a motion for a speedy trial on Thursday. Thomas' trial is currently set for August 11, 2008, and his attorneys argue that if the trial happens on that date, he will be in jail more than a year-and-a-half before his case is tried

According to the motion filed by Thomas' attorneys, no forensic link has been established linking Thomas to the murder scene or the victims. Thus, the attorneys argue they need less time to prepare for trial than counsel for Thomas' co-defendants.

"Frankly, Mr. Thomas is in a different position than his co-defendants," the motion reads. "Despite a substantive battery of forensic serological and DNA tests having been conducted on evidence obtained by law enforcement in this case, the result of all the types of analyses performed is that there is no forensic link between Mr. Thomas and the scene of the alleged offenses or the victims themselves."

On Friday, Judge Richard Baumgartner set a date to hear the motion on April 3rd.

Lemaricus Davidson and Letalvis Cobbins were also in court Friday to hear the prosectution withdraw its motion requesting further DNA and hair samples. However, the Attorney General's office plans to ask for search warrants to obtain the evidence.

Prosecutors say previous hair samples were only taken from the defendants heads, and they want hair samples from the defendants' genital areas in order to make their case linking the men to the crimes.

Thomas, Davidson and Cobbins will all be back in court on April 3rd for a motions hearing.

Representation for Cobbins is still not resolved. The court asked Bruce Poston to represent Cobbins as co-council, but he may have a conflict of interest. Apparently one of Poston's other clients in the Knox County jail has talked to Cobbins regarding the case. Poston told the court he has not talked to that client or Cobbins regarding their conversations.

Judge Baumgartner plans to make a decision on Poston's potential conflict of interest next week.

The federal case against a fifth suspect in this case is expected to start April 7th. Eric Boyd is charged with accessory after the fact for allegedly helping Davidson to elude police.

[Jeff1857]

Four suspects in the kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of a Knoxville couple will appear in court together next month.

Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were murdered in January 2007.

Attorneys for suspects George Thomas, Letalvis Cobbins, and Lemaricus Davidson agreed Thursday to reset their clients' motions hearings for May 15th. Vanessa Coleman's hearing was already set for May 15th.

All four suspects face the death penalty if convicted.

Another man, Eric Boyd, is charged with being an accessory to the carjacking that led to the couple's death, but he is not charged in the couple's death.

Boyd's trial is scheduled to start in U.S. District Court Monday.

[tramoore]

Dozens of potential jurors have been pre-qualified and will move to regular jury selection Wednesday in the federal court case of a man accused of being an accessory in a fatal carjacking of a Knoxville couple a year ago.

By early afternoon, 53 were approved to move to the next round of jury selection. Thirteen more were excused, but none admitted any racial bias that would affect their decision-making in the trial involving white victims and black suspects.

Ten more remained to be questioned individually this afternoon in the trial of Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd, who is charged with helping Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson hide following the January 2007 fatal carjacking University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23.

Davidson and three others, including his brother, are charged in Knox County Criminal Court with kidnapping the couple after what began as a carjacking and then beating, torturing and raping the pair before the two were slain.

A tense moment developed earlier today during juror questioning after Boyd repeatedly glanced and smiled at the Christian family.

At one point he appeared to mouth "bring it on," according to the Christian family and court security personnel.

Christian's father, Gary Christian, became visibly upset and left the courtroom with a friend. He cooled off and returned a short time later.

Throughout these proceedings and others, Boyd has engaged the families of the victims, often staring at them.

On Monday, it was the savagery of the crime, not the color of skin, that proved a stumbling block to quickly seating a jury.

Not one of 35 potential jurors polled in U.S. District Court admitted any racial bias that would affect their ability to serve.

However, all but one remembered the crime itself.

"It certainly was a haunting story to read about, not one you forget," said a woman who made it through Monday's pre-qualification phase of the unusual jury selection process being employed in the case against Boyd.

Boyd is not charged in those slayings or the carjacking that preceded those crimes. But Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Jennings and Tracy Stone must prove Davidson was involved in those crimes in order to prove Boyd served as an accessory.

The case has proven to be a racial powder keg, drawing protests from white supremacists decrying what they contend is a dearth of national media attention to a black-on-white crime and spurring dialogue between ordinary citizens on whether the slayings should have been rated hate crimes.

That racial tension has been coupled with a last-minute claim by Boyd's defense attorney, Phil Lomonaco, that Boyd was being unfairly singled out for federal prosecution because he was black, while Davidson's white girlfriend, whom Lomonaco also accused of helping Davidson hide, escaped punishment.

The resulting furor prompted Varlan to craft a unique jury selection process in which potential jurors are being individually polled on possible prejudices resulting from either racial bias or media coverage of the slayings.

It proved a slow process. After more than eight hours, only 35 of a pool of 80 potential jurors had been questioned. Of those, six were booted from the panel after confessing concerns about their ability to be impartial.

None mentioned racism as a cause. Three had personal ties. One man said he grew up with Jennings and would tend to tilt in the veteran prosecutor's favor. Another man attended both middle school and UT with Christian. A woman was related to a close friend of the Newsom family.

The remaining three jurors deemed themselves too upset over the horrific nature of the slayings to be fair.

"I have deep convictions about something like that," a man later excused from the pool said.

"I was born and raised in East Tennessee. People killing innocent people, I feel deep down they are guilty. I guess that's just the way I was raised. I know we've got some people in prison today … come to find out they're not guilty, and I hate that."

"But you generally believe people arrested are guilty?" Lomonaco asked.

"Yes, sir, especially in this situation," he responded. "It's hard to separate your emotion from it."

The only mention of race relations came from a man who insisted he could fairly judge Boyd but would disapprove of Boyd dating a white woman.

"I don't believe in interracial marriage or anything of that nature," he said.

He remains in the jury pool.

Jury selection will continue today. Once all potential jurors have been polled about their prejudices, the more customary jury selection process will begin. In that phase, potential panelists will be quizzed on a wide variety of subjects as lawyers on both sides seek to seat jurors favorable to their cases and weed out those who aren't.

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

[Jeff1857]

Xavier Jenkins is "100-percent sure" he saw Nicole Mathis' white Sunbird parked behind Channon Christian's sport-utility vehicle outside a house on Chipman Street on the night of Christian's kidnapping.

Mathis testified today that her cousin, Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd, had borrowed her car a day or two before and still had possession of it on that January 2007 weekend, when Jenkins says he saw it.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Jennings and Tracy Stone cannot link Boyd to the carjacking that preceded the slaying of Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, but today's surprise testimony could link Boyd to their torture and killings.

Boyd is charged with being an accessory to the carjacking by helping hide out Lamaricus "Slim" Davidson, the alleged ringleader in the killings that occurred at the home he rented on Chipman Street. Boyd also is accused of failing to report what he knew about those slayings to police.

Jenkins worked at a business next door to the Chipman Street house and has no ties to anyone involved in the case.

Testimony from Mathis came after she said she spent months lying to authorities because of pressure from her family.

Boyd's defense attorney, Phil Lomonaco, had told jurors in opening statements Wednesday that Mathis had driven Boyd to visit Davidson on Sunday, Jan. 7, but that while there Boyd never saw Christian or Newsom.

On the witness stand today, Mathis denied ever going to the Chipman Street house or knowing Davidson.

If jurors believe Mathis, it puts a major hole in Lomonaco's defense and today's testimony raises the specter that Boyd was at the house while Christian and Newsom were being victimized.

Among other testimony today, Christian's best friend, Kara Sowards, described the night her friend went missing.

Sowards told jurors that Christian and Newsom were supposed to join her and a group of their closest friends at a house in Halls to celebrate Jamie Hampton's birthday, but that the couple never showed.

"We started getting mad because they never showed up," Sowards testified. "We thought they just weren't coming."

Sowards said her anger soon turned to worry when Christian's mother called to say Christian did not show up to work the following day.

Christian's father, Gary Christian, contacted a cellular phone company and asked them to track his daughter's cell phone. Sowards said the company determined that the phone had last been used somewhere in the vicinity of Chipman Street, which is off Cherry Street in Northeast Knoxville.

Gary Christian organized a grid search of that neighborhood.

Sowards said they found Christian's Toyota 4-Runner around 2 a.m. at the intersection of Chipman and Glider Avenue.

Several of Christian's belongings were missing.

Authorities determined Christian's sport-utility vehicle had been commandeered, and she and Newsom were taken to the Chipman Street house leased by Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson.

Both would wind up dead, and Davidson and three others, including his brother, were charged in Knox County Criminal Court with a slew of crimes including first-degree murder, kidnapping and rape. All four face the death penalty.

Boyd gave a videotaped statement to Knoxville Police Department Investigators Patty Tipton and Greg McKnight soon after his arrest. That videotape will be a key bit of evidence for both sides, if Wednesday's opening statements in the U.S. District Court trial are any indication.

"You will realize once you hear that statement that he's confessed to the two charges in this indictment," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings told jurors Wednesday afternoon.

"Mr. Boyd made a statement and you need to listen to that statement," defense attorney Phil Lomonaco countered. "He said, 'I told (Davidson) to turn himself in. … When he told me what happened, I didn't want anything to do with him. That's when I left.' "

After more than two days of an unusual jury selection process designed to weed out jurors unduly influenced by either media coverage of the high-profile slayings or racial bias in what has gained notoriety as a black-on-white crime, a group of 16 people, including four alternates, was sworn in Wednesday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan's courtroom deputy, Julie Norwood.

The panel includes four men and 12 women. One woman is black. The remaining 15 people are white.

Boyd was implicated in the slayings by Davidson and his alleged cohorts but is not charged. Statements by the accused are all that tie him to the carjacking and slayings, but state law requires evidence backing up those statements before an indictment can be obtained.

However, Jennings and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Stone still must link Davidson to both the carjacking and the slayings in order to prove Boyd is guilty of being an accessory to a fatal carjacking.

Because of that, Jennings on Wednesday had to unveil details of the slayings that authorities so far have kept under wraps. The courtroom was packed with friends and family of Christian and Newsom as Jennings detailed the horrors the young couple endured.

Newsom was slain first but not before he was repeatedly raped.

"These people … tie him up, gag him, wrap him in cloth material … shot him in the back, shot him in the neck, one of those shots which would have left him paralyzed, and then shot a killshot to his head," Jennings said. "Then, his body was doused with gasoline and set afire."

His body was found hours later alongside nearby railroad tracks.

"What was happening to Channon Christian?" Jennings asked. "She was being gang-raped. You will hear how brutally and savagely she was treated. How long could this have gone on? For hours."

At some point, Christian's attackers bound her and stashed her inside a trash can, he said.

"The evidence will be when Channon Christian went into that trash can, bound, for hours ... she was alive," Jennings said.

Christian remained alive until sometime in the evening of Jan. 7, a Sunday, Jennings said.

"Mercifully, Channon Christian died Sunday evening," he said.

Her body was not discovered until Jan. 9.

Boyd is accused of helping Davidson hide out from Jan. 10 until Jan. 11, providing him food and a cell phone, staying with him inside a vacant house the pair broke into and begging people for cash and a car so both he and Davidson could flee.

Lomonaco told jurors that Boyd had no idea when he was aiding Davidson that his pot-smoking friend was involved in a fatal carjacking. Once Davidson confessed his alleged crimes, Lomonaco said Boyd left Davidson behind in the vacant house on Reynolds Street under the guise of getting him food.

Boyd did not alert police, Lomonaco conceded, but was stopped by police a short time later anyway. He immediately told them where to find Davidson, the attorney said.

"The police, after they let (Boyd) go, thanked him," Lomonaco said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Can they upgrade the charges?

[tramoore]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- New details both outside and inside federal court as the trial for Eric DeWayne Boyd enters week two.

As week two begins, the prosecution in Eric Boyd's trial appears close to wrapping up its case. But victim Channon Christian's father, Gary, is taking exception to something a prosecution witness said late Friday.

Lemaricus Davison's girlfriend, Daphne Sutton, testified that Davidson told her the alleged killers forced Channon to shoot Chris Newsom.

"Do you think that if they would have put a gun in her hand, that one of two things would have happened, she'd still be here to talk to us, or she'd have took one of them with her."

But it's Boyd's words that jurors will remember from this day.

Prosecutors played an hour and a half video tape of Boyd being interviewed by police, just days after the January 2007 murders.

He admits he was in the Chipman Street home on Sunday, the day prosecutors say Channon was being held there.

Still, he says he did not know she was there. HE claims he just dropped by to smoke some weed with Davidson.

But Boyd says Davidson came to him later. For the next two days, Boyd says Davidson told him about the crimes, blaming his brother, Letalvius Cobbins.

Boyd claims Davidson told him the carjacking began when Chris Newsom was kissing Channon in her SUV. He says Davidson claims Cobbins and George Thomas raped Channon.

But Boyd says Davidson admits he choked Channon at one point.

Boyd's lawyers say he's the one who eventually led police to Davidson. But prosecutors say Boyd knew Davidson committed a crime, and still helped hide him for days.

Ultimately the jury will decide who to believe..
Posted on: April 16, 2008, 01:40:49 PMKNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The first trial ends with the first guilty verdict in connection with the deaths of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.

The only one of the five suspects not charged with murder, Eric DeWayne Boyd is guilty of being an accessory, according to the jury.

The jury has spoken, convicting Eric Boyd of two counts.

After five hours of deliberation, they found Boyd guilty of being an accessory after the fact, and concealing a felon, agreeing with the prosecution that he helped hide murder suspect Lemaricus Davidson from police, while failing to report his crimes.

This battle is over, but the victim's families know the war will be long.

The victims' families celebrate the word they've been waiting to hear for more than a year: Guilty.

Eric Boyd's conviction today is the first, but family members pray it won't be the last.

Channon Christian's father Gary Christian says, "One down, four to go, baby. We got more to go on this one too. Eric boyd's gonna hear from us."

What Eric Boyd heard from the jury today will likely mean 15 years in federal prison, after sentencing August 12th.

Next year may bring four more trials, death penalty cases against the four accused murderers.

Even on this day, Chris Newsom's mother is thinking about that.

Mary Newsom says, "They really, really tortured them beyond a normal killing, so whatever the others get, that's what they deserve."

Knoxville Police Sgt. Tim Snodderly says, "This is just a small part of what we've got going on. This is just a first step, and we're extremely happy with the verdict we got today. We've got a long way to go but this is a little bit of justice for the family."

These families say they heard Eric Boyd's brother on television last night, saying he feels their pain. But the words mean nothing to those who lost loved ones.

Deana Christian, Channon's mother says, "Let them lose one of theirs, and then go through the hell we went through, and then maybe they can say something."

Gary Christian says, "Channon's sitting on our shoulders."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I hope the families get justice 4 times over with the coming trials.
Posted on: April 18, 2008, 09:13:59 AMGeorge "Detroit" Thomas got his new trial date this morning: Aug. 11.

His will be the first in a series of death-penalty cases against the four people accused in the January 2007 slayings of 21-year-old Channon Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom.

Thomas petitioned the court for a speedy trial, a request granted by Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner last month, and the trial was set this morning.

Thomas' lawyers, Tom Dillard and Steve Johnson, aren't asking for the trial to be moved out of Knox County, so they will at least attempt to seat a jury here.

Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins; his girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman; his brother, Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson; and Thomas are accused in the carjacking abduction of Christian and Newsom, who were taken to a house on Chipman Street, off Cherry Street in northeast Knoxville, where both were raped and tortured before they were slain.

District Attorney Leland Price last year announced the state's preferred trial lineup: Cobbins first, then Coleman, then Davidson, and finally Thomas.

All had 2008 trial dates until Price filed notice against each suspect of the state's intent to seek the death penalty. That move prompted immediate bids for trial delays from Cobbins, Coleman and Davidson, all of whom then had only one defense attorney each. The law requires defendants in death-penalty cases to have a second attorney skilled in capital-case work.

Thomas argued he already had two attorneys, since Johnson was working on the case as a member of Dillard's firm although he wasn't yet being paid by taxpayers, and he invoked his right to a speedy trial.

Dillard contended that the state sought tactical advantage in its proposed trial lineup. Prosecutors have conceded they have no DNA evidence linking Thomas to the crimes. Coleman gave authorities a detailed statement that puts her at the crime scene, and there is DNA evidence linking Cobbins and Davidson to the rapes.

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

[Jeff1857]

Hope every remaining one of them ends up on the row. 

[Michael]

Cobbins' attorney wants lethal injection taken off the table


Woven into a large pile of defense motions are quite a few new developments in the first of four high profile capital murder cases.

Letalvis Cobbins is scheduled to go to trial January 26, 2009. However, Judge Richard Baumgartner will have to rule on several motions before the trial even begins.

Cobbins is one of four suspects scheduled to go to trial in 2009. All the defendants are accused of raping, kidnapping and killing Channon Christian and Chris Newsom in January 2007.

Cobbins' defense attorney Kim Parton submitted several motions to Judge Baumgartner just in time for the October 10th deadline. The content includes asking for lethal injections to be declared unconstitutional and asking for DNA evidence to be tossed out.

Parton says Tennessee's law on lethal injection has been undefined since 2007 when Governor Phil Bredesen asked for the execution process to be studied.

A protocol committee later recommended Tennessee go to the one drug lethal injection protocol. However, the Tennessee Commissioner of Corrections rejected the recommendation.

Parton's motion says "Thus with an extensive record showing that Tennessee exhaustively evaluated it's lethal injection protocol, but then declined to enact recommended changes." She says this leaves "the door open for compelling Eighth Amendment challenges to Tennessee's lethal injection protocol."

She then asked the court to issue an order declaring Tennessee's lethal injection protocol unconstitutional.

In a separate motion, Parton moves to suppress the search of Lemaricus Davidson's residence on January 9, 2007 at 2316 Chipman Street.

Channon Christian's body was found inside the house rented by Davidson on January 9. Davidson is Cobbins' half brother and he is also charged with Christian's and Newsom's rapes and murders.

She says, "the original search warrant for the Davidson residence, during which search the body of Channon Christian was found, was made upon affidavit that was unsigned and unsworn." Parton goes on to explain in the motion that the search should be deemed illegal and all evidence found on Christian's body and in the Chipman street house should be suppressed.

However, copies of the search warrant and the affidavit in support of search warrant were signed by Judge Chuck Cerney on January 9, 2007.

Parton also filed a motion asking for her client's DNA results to be thrown out because his DNA was collected on March 13, 2008 and compared to evidence found on Christian's body and in the house.

The Johnia Berry DNA Collection Law went into effect on January 1, 2008.

In the motion to suppress search of Cobbins' person, Parton writes, "the DNA collection statute, which allows DNA samples to be taken from a person charged with certain felonies under T.C.A. section 40-35-321(e)(1), is inapplicable to this case, as the statute applies only to persons accused and arrested after January 1, 2008, and Mr. Cobbins was charged in 2007."

During Eric Boyd's federal trial in April, TBI Forensics Scientist Jennifer Millsaps said DNA evidence found on the items of clothing found in at 2316 Chipman Street, as well as on Christian's body implicated suspects Letalvis Cobbins and Lemaricus Davidson in sexual assaults on Christian before her death.

Boyd was sentenced to 18 years in prison for helping Davidson hide from police and not going to police with information about the carjacking.

Parton is also taking aim at statements made by Cobbins to police. She says her client was improperly subjected to custodial interrogation and his statements were involuntary. Cobbins' defense attorney wants the statements suppressed.

Cobbins will be the first to go to trial on January 26, 2009.

Vanessa Coleman is the only woman charged in connection to the couple's murders. She is scheduled to go to trial on April 13, 2009.

Davidson was set to go to trial on July 6, 2009.

George Thomas goes to trial August 10, 2009.

Police believe all four defendants were living at 2316 Chipman Street at the time of the murders.

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=67338&catid=2