Christopher Newsom Case: Defendants, Sentences, and Retrials

The Christopher Newsom murder case is the January 2007 Knoxville, Tennessee, carjacking, rape, and murder of 23-year-old Christopher Newsom and his 21-year-old girlfriend Channon Christian. Five people were prosecuted. Lemaricus Davidson was sentenced to death. Letalvis Cobbins and Eric Boyd are serving life sentences, George Thomas is serving 50 years after a cooperation deal, and Vanessa Coleman is serving 35 years.

What Happened in January 2007

On the evening of Saturday, January 6, 2007, Newsom and Christian planned to meet for dinner and go to a party. Christian arrived at the Washington Ridge Apartments in Knoxville around 8:00 p.m. Newsom was captured on an ATM camera at 8:47 p.m. and dropped a friend at a party near 9:00 p.m. Sometime between roughly 9:10 and 11:00 p.m., the couple was carjacked at gunpoint in the apartment parking lot by a group that included Lemaricus Davidson, his half-brother Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, and Vanessa Coleman.¹

They were driven to Davidson’s house at 2316 Chipman Street, bound, robbed, and subjected to hours of sexual assault.²

In the early morning hours of January 7, Newsom was led from the house, blindfolded and bound with a belt and shoelaces. He was walked barefoot to a set of nearby railroad tracks, shot three times including once in the head, then wrapped in a comforter, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. A resident reported hearing three gunshots near the tracks at approximately 1:45 a.m. His burned remains were found beside the tracks around 12:20 p.m. that day.¹²

The assault on Christian continued at the house. She was beaten and raped repeatedly, eventually bound in a fetal position with a plastic bag over her head, stuffed into garbage bags, and placed in a trash can, where she died of suffocation. Her time of death was estimated between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon, January 7–8.²

How Police Found the Suspects

On the night of January 8, a search party found Christian’s vehicle at Chipman and Glider Streets. A fingerprint on a bank envelope inside the car was matched to Lemaricus Davidson by 2:45 a.m. on January 9. Officers executed a search warrant at Davidson’s Chipman Street house that afternoon and found Christian’s body in the trash can at 1:42 p.m.¹

Davidson was arrested in a vacant Knoxville house on January 11. Cobbins, Thomas, and Coleman were arrested in Lebanon, Kentucky, the same day.¹ A fifth suspect, Eric Boyd, was charged federally as an accessory after the fact for harboring Davidson.³

The Five Defendants and Their Sentences

Lemaricus Davidson

Identified as the ringleader, Davidson went to trial in October 2009. After eight days, the jury convicted him on dozens of counts, including two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, sixteen counts of first-degree felony murder, nine counts of aggravated rape of Channon Christian, and multiple counts of aggravated kidnapping and robbery.¹ The jury imposed two death sentences, ordered to run consecutively. He is the only defendant sentenced to death.⁴

Letalvis Cobbins

Cobbins was tried before a Nashville jury and, on August 26, 2009, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.⁵ He received an additional 100 years for the remaining convictions.²

George Thomas

Thomas was originally convicted in 2009 and sentenced to life without parole. That conviction was thrown out because of the judicial misconduct described below. At a second trial in 2013 before a Davidson County jury, he was found guilty on all 38 counts, including first-degree felony murder, and this time received life with the possibility of parole.⁶ His sentence was later reduced to 50 years in exchange for testifying against Eric Boyd at Boyd’s 2019 state trial.⁷

Vanessa Coleman

Coleman was tried in May 2010 and convicted on all counts related to Christian’s death, though acquitted on the counts tied to Newsom’s murder. She received 53 years. After the misconduct scandal prompted a retrial, a November 2012 jury convicted her on 13 of 17 counts, all involving Christian, and she was resentenced to 35 years.⁸⁹

Eric Boyd

Boyd was first prosecuted only in federal court, where he was convicted of being an accessory after the fact to the carjacking and of misprision of a felony for hiding Davidson. He served an 18-year federal sentence.¹⁰¹¹

In March 2018, a Knox County grand jury charged him with first-degree murder and other offenses tied to the killings. George Thomas, testifying for the prosecution, told the jury that Boyd led Newsom to the SUV, drove him to the railroad tracks, and shot him.¹⁰ In August 2019, a Knox County jury convicted Boyd on two counts of first-degree murder along with kidnapping, robbery, and rape charges. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 90 years.¹²

The Judge Who Forced Retrials

The first four defendants were all tried before Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, who was addicted to prescription painkillers during the proceedings. He was buying oxycodone, hydrocodone, Xanax, and Valium from people he had previously sentenced, and was in a sexual relationship with a graduate of his drug court program, meeting her in his chambers during breaks. He also falsified her drug test results.¹³

In March 2011, Baumgartner pleaded guilty to one count of official misconduct and resigned. He received a diversionary sentence.¹³ The Tennessee Supreme Court disbarred him by agreement in October 2011.¹⁴

In December 2011, Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood granted the four convicted defendants new trials.¹⁵ Prosecutors appealed. In May 2012, the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated the blanket order, holding that a judge’s off-bench misconduct does not automatically require new trials, and sent the cases back for individual review of whether Baumgartner’s behavior actually affected each proceeding.¹⁶ Thomas and Coleman were retried and convicted again. Davidson’s death sentences and Cobbins’s life-without-parole sentence survived appellate review.

Was the Crime a Hate Crime?

Because the victims were white and the defendants Black, white supremacist groups in April 2007 alleged a media blackout and claimed the killings were racially motivated. The claim was amplified online and by some commentators, including Michelle Malkin on Fox News in May 2007, and country singer Charlie Daniels in an open letter. Both cited unconfirmed reports that the victims had been sexually mutilated, including that Newsom was castrated and that Christian’s breasts were removed. The Southern Poverty Law Center documented that those mutilation claims were false. Hugh Newsom, Christopher’s father, said law enforcement told him no body parts were missing and called the claims a distortion.¹⁷

Investigators rejected the racial motive theory. Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen stated there was “no evidence to support the notion that this was a race-based crime.” John Gill, special counsel to the Knox County District Attorney, said evidence showed the suspects had socialized with white people and that there was no indication of racial animus. Gary Christian, Channon’s father, said he did not believe the crime was racially motivated.³

Where the Case Stands Now

Lemaricus Davidson remains on death row. In December 2025, Knox County Senior Judge Don Ash denied four motions Davidson had filed seeking to overturn his conviction, including a second petition for post-conviction relief and petitions for coram nobis relief. Ash ruled that Tennessee law permits only one post-conviction hearing and that the coram nobis filings were untimely. No execution date has been set.⁴¹⁸

Letalvis Cobbins is serving life without parole. George Thomas is serving the reduced 50-year sentence he received for testifying against Boyd. Vanessa Coleman is serving 35 years with a projected release in 2036; she was unanimously denied parole in December 2020, with her next review set for 2030.⁸ Eric Boyd is serving two consecutive life sentences plus 90 years after the Tennessee Supreme Court denied his final appeal in March 2022.¹⁹

1
FindLaw. State of Tennessee v. Lemaricus Devall Davidson
2
Tennessee Courts. State v. Lemaricus Davidson, CCA Opinion
3
NBC News. Slayings Highlight Media Double Standard, Some Say
4
WATE. Judge Denies Lemaricus Davidson’s Appeal in Christian-Newsom Murder Case
5
Tennessee Death Penalty. Jury Gives Cobbins Life Without Parole
6
WUOT. George Thomas Found Guilty Again in Christian-Newsom Murders
7
Tennessee Bar Association. Tennessee Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Knox County Torture Slayings
8
WVLT. Vanessa Coleman Up for Parole in Channon Christian Murder
9
Tennessee Bar Association. Vanessa Coleman Sentenced to 35 Years
10
Tennessee Courts. State of Tennessee v. Eric Boyd, CCA Opinion
11
Knoxville News Sentinel. Archives of Horror: Christian-Newsom Killings
12
Tennessee Bar Association. Boyd Found Guilty of First-Degree Murder
13
The Columbus Dispatch. In-Depth: Judge’s Pill Addiction
14
Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. Baumgartner Disbarment
15
Knoxville News Sentinel. Timeline of Key Events in Christian-Newsom Case
16
Tennessee Courts. Supreme Court Issues Order in Case Involving Former Judge’s Misconduct
17
Southern Poverty Law Center. Killing of Knoxville Couple Exploited to Attack Blacks
18
WVLT. Judge Denies Requests From Knoxville Man Sentenced to Death in Christian-Newsom Murders
19
Tennessee Lookout. Tennessee Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Knox County Torture Slayings