A heinous crime that was reported locally but not nationally.
Via WBIR:
More than 11 years after the murder of a young Knox County couple, a fifth person has now been charged with killing them.
On Jan. 7, 2007, while out on a date, Chris Newsom and Channon Christian were carjacked and taken to a small home that once stood on Chipman Street in North Knoxville. They were tortured, raped and eventually murdered.
Christian was a 21-year-old West Knoxville resident and a senior majoring in sociology at the University of Tennessee.
Newsom was a 23-year-old Halls resident, a former high school baseball stand-out and a carpenter.
Four people were tried and convicted for charges related to the murders — Lemaricus Davidson, his brother Latalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman.
Davidson received the death penalty. Cobbins is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Thomas ultimately got life with a chance at parole, and Coleman, convicted of facilitation in Christian’s murder, kidnapping and rape, was sentenced to 53 years in prison.
Davidson’s friend, Eric D. Boyd, was convicted in federal court of being an accessory after the fact. He’s serving an 18-year prison sentence and is set to be released from federal prison in 2022.
Investigators and family members have always thought Boyd was more involved in the murders, but at the time, Knox County prosecutors said they lacked the evidence to pursue a murder charge against Boyd.
A new indictment appears to indicate that’s changed.
On March 20, a Knox County grand jury returned a 36-count indictment charging Boyd with first-degree felony murder, first-degree premeditated murder, especially aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated rape in the murders.