To: unclewest who wrote (482028 ) 4/11/2012 9:44:05 PM From: goldworldnet Respond to Channon Gail Christian , 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom, Jr. , 23, were a couple from Knoxville , Tennessee . They were both raped , tortured and murdered after being kidnapped early on the morning of January 7, 2007. Their vehicle had been carjacked . [1] [2] Five suspects were arrested and charged in the case. The grand jury indicted four of the suspects on counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft. Three of those arrested, Letalvis D. Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson and George Thomas, have been convicted on multiple charges including several counts of felony murder. After a jury trial Lemaricus Davidson was sentenced to death by lethal injection and Letalvis Cobbins and George Thomas were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Vanessa Coleman has been convicted of facilitating the crimes and sentenced to 53 years in prison, and Eric Dewayne Boyd has been convicted of federal charges as accessory after the fact to carjacking and sentenced to 18 years in prison. [3] news media was criticized for allegedly ignoring the story because the victims were white and the suspects black . [4] [5] Representing the families of the victims and the People, the Tennessee AG filed an appeal in January 2012 trying to block the four retrials. In early March 2012, a Court of Criminal Appeals put a hold on the retrials. An appeals court will decide if there will be retrials. Convicted co-conspirator Vanessa Coleman's retrial is not being contested by the AG. She was given 53 years by the later-disbarred judge.en.wikipedia.org
