MAN BEHEADS PAL OVER WIFE’S NUDE PHOTOS
NO-ONE knows for sure why Chris Newsom and his lover Channon Christian were the target of such sickening violence.
Gang leader and ex-con Lemaricus Davidson certainly had no motive for the extreme pain and suffering he and his cronies inflicted on the pair.
For a while, many thought Chris and Channon’s murders had been a hate crime. After all, a young, white, all-American couple had been slaughtered by a group of black men.
But the truth is even more disturbing – they killed purely for the FUN of it.
Chris, 23, was a carpenter with a promising future. He was also a decent baseball player with many friends and a loving family.
Channon, two years his junior, was a student and cheerleader at the University of Tennessee, working two jobs while living at home with her parents.
They’d been dating for around a month and were on their way to a party in Knoxville on the night of January 7, 2007.
Love
And according to friends, they had fallen head over heels in love with each other.
Having just got in Channon’s car together, Chris leaned in for a kiss, presumably dreaming of how they’d end the night together in each other’s arms.
But those dreams were shattered when Davidson and his accomplices – Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Eric Boyd – pounced.
The terrified couple were driven three miles to Davidson’s home on Chipman Street.
They then spent the next few hours being raped, tortured and, finally, executed.
The details of the injuries suffered by Chris and Channon rocked America.
It’s only natural, then, that Channon’s father feels pure, undiluted hatred for the men who committed such depravity to his beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter. When Davidson was handed a death sentence in October 2009, Gary Christian looked him dead in the eye and said: “A parent is never supposed to bury a child.
“No-one should ever have to see the evil that is in my head. Every time I shut my eyes, I see horror.
“I got a letter from an inmate in prison who told me that one of the defendants said Channon had ‘ screamed for her daddy’ during her torture and murder.
“I hate the fact that you were born. I hate the fact that you draw air. You destroyed my world.”
After being driven to Davidson’s house, the gang – aided and abetted by a fifth person, Vanessa Coleman – set to work on Chris and Channon.
Chris was beaten and raped repeatedly in front of his horrified girlfriend. He was then blindfolded, led outside, and shot in the head next to an old railway line.
His body was doused with petrol and then set alight.
Channon’s suffering, though, had only just begun.
She was repeatedly raped for hours on end.
She was brutalised with a chair leg, both internally and externally. And she had bleach poured down her throat.
Then, in a final act of barbarity, she was hogtied, wrapped in bin bags, stuffed inside a bin and left to die.
Channon eventually suffocated, eyes wide, gripped by fear.
Dr Darinka Mileusnic Polchan, who performed autopsies on both bodies, said: “Chris had significant injuries to his genital area and was shot three times with small-calibre bullets.
“One bullet was fired from two to three feet away and entered his body in the neck area between the back of the neck and the shoulder.
“The second shot was to his lower back. The bullet travelled steeply upward, indicating he was bent over when the weapon was fired. This shot severely damaged Chris’s spinal cord.
“The fatal shot was fired with the muzzle of the gun against his head above his right ear.
Severed
“It severed his brain stem, causing instant death.
“He was placed on his back, wrapped in a blanket and set on fire.”
Channon’s injuries are just as hard to stomach.
Dr Mileusnic Polchan revealed: “The membrane that connects Channon’s lip to her gum was torn and she had bruising and abrasions around her mouth.
“These injuries occurred
hours before her death and were caused by an object being forced into her mouth.
“Her genital area suffered tremendous damage. The depth and extent of her injuries suggest they were caused by a blunt object.
“She had bruises on the backs of both arms, bruising on both sides of the top of her head with extensive haemorrhaging, bruises to the front of her legs, deep bruising to her upper back, and carpet burns and scratches to her lower back and upper buttocks.
“She had been wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed inside a large bin.”
Dr Mileusnic Polchan indicated it may have taken as long as 30 minutes to die.
She added: “Because Channon could not breathe with the plastic bag tied tightly over her face, and due to her positioning in the confined space, she suffocated to death.
“The oxygen around her face would have been depleted within 10 to 30 minutes after she was placed in the garbage bin. She would have died three to five minutes later. Death was a blessing.”
When Channon’s abandoned car was discovered by police, they quickly combed it for evidence. They found a fingerprint on the back of an envelope.
It matched that of Davidson, who’d been in out of prison for years for aggravated robbery, carjacking and drug dealing.
With Chris’s body having already been found, Davidson’s home was raided by a SWAT team.
Knoxville Police Department Sergeant Keith Debow told how he entered Davidson’s home and saw the large garbage bin.
At first, he thought Davidson himself might be hiding in it.
He soon discovered it wasn’t Davidson inside, but the corpse of poor Channon.
Sgt Debow said: “When I entered the kitchen, I saw in the far corner a large trash can that was oddly shaped, like it was over-stuffed.
“I looked at my colleague, Lieutenant Fortner, and pointed at the trash can.
“He immediately brought his weapon up.
I stepped forward, brought my weapon up, flipped open the trash can lid and saw the victim.”
By January 11, Davidson had been arrested and taken in for questioning.
He repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
He said he was aware his friends had taken hostages as part of a car-jacking but he had no clue what happened to the victims.
But this sick individual, just 25 at the time of the killings, knew all too well what had happened – because he’d been the one who instigated the entire thing.
Davidson’s DNA was found on Channon’s body and on her jeans. His fingerprints were also found on three of the five plastic bin bags that contained Channon’s body.
Ballistics testing revealed two of the bullets removed from Chris’s body had been fired from Davidson’s gun.
The third bullet was damaged but presumed to be from the same gun.
When the whole sorry mess came to trial, Davidson’s lawyers tried to argue their client had suffered a tough upbringing, with an abusive mother and an absent father.
They claimed he should be shown mercy.
But Davidson had been taken from his biological parents and rehomed with a loving foster family.
He’d gone to a private school, attended church and excelled at sports.
He was bright and well adjusted. Convicted
As judge Richard Baumgartner summed up: “Lemaricus Davidson had an active and prominent role in the commission of the crimes for which he was convicted.
“He did not co-operate with the authorities and took no responsibility for the crimes, preferring to blame others. He showed no remorse.
“Besides kidnapping, robbing, raping and murdering Chris Newsom, Mr Davidson stole his victim’s shoes and wore them until he was arrested.
“After killing Chris, Mr Davidson tried to contact his girlfriend by using Chris’s cellphone.
“After kidnapping, robbing, and raping Channon, Mr Davidson drove her vehicle and gave her clothes to his girlfriend.
“Chris and Channon suffered physically and emotionally before their deaths – and both likely knew that Mr Davidson would murder them.
“There was very little proof that Mr Davidson could be rehabilitated.”
Eric Boyd was convicted in a federal court of accessory to a fatal carjacking and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Letalvis Cobbins and George Thomas were both sentenced to life without parole.
Vanessa Coleman, who was just 18 at the time of the slayings, insisted she was also a victim of the violent, domineering men, but was sentenced to 53 years in prison.