Carjack/slaying trial, Day 3: Witness' immunity claim in question



By Jamie Satterfield
Published Wednesday, August 19, 2009

KNOXVILLE - An attorney for a man who admitted providing torture slaying suspect Letalvis Cobbins a ride out of town after the killings said this morning that her client was not offered immunity as he claimed.

"He never testified" before a federal grand jury, attorney Laura Metcalf told Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner about Vincent Wernimont.

"So there was no (immunity) agreement?" Baumgartner asked.

"No," Metcalf replied.

"That's not what he said on the stand yesterday," Baumgartner said. "He got up here and said he was given immunity by federal prosecutors."

The judge ordered an inquiry Tuesday into the immunity issue after Wernimont said he had claimed his right against self-incrimination before a federal grand jury considering the carjacking allegations in the January 2007 slayings of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

Wernimont said he hired a lawyer, married his girlfriend and struck a deal to keep from being charged as an accessory.

Metcalf, who was not on the state's witness list, couldn't be sent to the witness stand to tell jurors probing Cobbins' fate about the discrepancy in Wernimont's testimony.

State prosecutor Takisha Fitzgerald called Wernimont back to the stand this morning instead.

He said he now knew no deal had been offered him.

"You are aware you are subject to be prosecuted?" Fitzgerald asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"Have you been prosecuted?" defense attorney Scott Green quickly countered.

"No," Werimont said.

"If you are prosecuted ... you're going back to the penitentiary. You know that, right?" Green noted.

Wernimont, an admitted drug dealer, is on parole for shooting a man.

He was one of a long list of witnesses who testified Tuesday about help they rendered Cobbins and other suspects in eluding arrest.

Carjack/slaying trial, Day 4: 'They were crazy man': suspect defends inaction



By Jamie Satterfield
Published Thursday, August 20, 2009

KNOXVILLE - Fear of his brother wasn't the only thing slaying suspect Letalvis Cobbins cited for his actions in the January 2007 crimes.

In a statement played to jurors in Knox County Criminal Court this morning, Cobbins gave a list of concerns he said kept him from acting to stop the crimes against Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

"It was so much stuff that went through my head," Cobbins, 26, told Knoxville Police Department Investigator Steve Still.

"Why did you not try to stop him?" Still asked Cobbins about brother and accused ringleader Lemaricus Davidson.

"They were crazy man," Cobbins said of Davidson and Eric Boyd.

Cobbins is being tried this week in the slayings of the Knoxville couple. He contends it was Davidson and Boyd who abducted the couple at gunpoint in the Washington Ridge apartment complex, Boyd who led Newsom, 23, to his death and Davidson who stuffed Christian, 21, in a trash can to die.

Defenders Scott Green and Kim Parton are trying to convince jurors that Cobbins had no role in the killing plans or the killings themselves. He now admits orally raping Christian but insists he is only guilty of the lesser crime of facilitation to commit the murders and not the slayings themselves.

Boyd, 37, has been convicted of federal accessory to carjacking in the case but has not been charged in the killings. Still awaiting trial in the slayings are Davidson, 28, Cobbins' girlfriend Vanessa Coleman, 21, and Cobbins' pal George Thomas, 26.

In his statement to Still, Cobbins conceded he knew Davidson had evil on his mind before the fatal carjacking.

"He was already making suggestions like he wanted to go - he never said he was going to go and do it," Cobbins said, though he didn't elaborate.

As for fear - Cobbins claims he was scared of his brother - his statement is a bit ambiguous about how afraid he was of Davidson.

"Since we was little, we always fought," he told Still. "We fight like we ain't no kin."

"Did you think he was capable of hurting you if he got mad?" Still asked.

"If he got mad enough, hell, yeah," Cobbins said.

But he had other fears, according the statement.

He was worried about being blamed in the killings. He said he was concerned about Coleman and Thomas. He didn't want to "snitch on" his brother.

"Even though I knew he was in the wrong, I felt like ... why get involved?" He said.

And he was particularly worried about the death penalty he now faces.

"I seen on the news these folks were some rich white folks," Cobbins said.

A legal fight broke out this morning between Green and prosecutor Takisha Fitzgerald when both tried to use Still's decades of police experience to shore up their respective cases.

Green started the effort by asking Still for an opinion.

"The fact he didn't want to snitch on his brother, that's an act of cowardice isn't it?" Green asked.

"Yes, sir, it is," Still answered.

But when Fitzgerald tried to draw an opinion from Still that Cobbins' statement that he had no idea a carjacking was going to take place was unbelievable, Green cried foul.

"That's pure speculation," Green yelled.

"He opened the door, Your Honor," an equally loud Fitzgerald countered.

Fitzgerald did manage to slide in a zinger despite Judge Richard Baumgartner's attempt to stop the opinion-based questions by both sides.

"Could the other reason (Cobbins lied) be because he's a murderer?" She asked.

"That is my belief," Still answered.

Green objected but it was too late. Fitzgerald had made her point with jurors who were brought from Davidson County to hear the first-degree murder trial and are being sequestered at a local hotel.

Jamie Satterfield's Thursday Twitter stream from the Cobbins' trial courtroom

Updated Thursday, August 20, 2009

Read dispatches by News Sentinel reporter Jamie Satterfield direct from the courtroom, as she covers the trial of Letalvis Cobbins in the torture/slaying of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.

Follow Satterfield on twitter at http://twitter.com/jamiescoop.

Satterfield's tweets from 6 p.m. and before.

# Day 4 is a wrap and amazingly the state probably will rest its case 2morrow bot not b4 grisly autopsy stuff #c-n - 41 minutes ago from txt

Cuttings from mattress in Davidson's room had Channon's DNA, none on Cobbins' mattress #c-n - about 1 hour ago from txt

Ouch - know answer b4 u ask. Green - this certain tests degrades DNA, right? TBI - no actually preserves DNA #c-n - about 1 hour ago from txt

Uh-oh defense raises C-word: "contamination" let's see where this is going #c-n - about 1 hour ago from txt

Creepy but cool - TBI uses substance to make semen glow #c-n - about 1 hour ago from txt

Green pointing out Coleman, Cobbins might have had sex on that floral bedding days b4 carjacking to explain DNA #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

He's using the science of sperm to try to put hours of distance between oral rape of Channon and other rapes, death #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Now I get where Green is going with this icky sperm count discussion! #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Doesn't mean they don't suspect Boyd but points out just whose DNA was all over place - Cobbins #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Prosecution seems to be honing in on key issues - finally - pointed out no DNA matches of Boyd for instance #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Floral fabric, strips of which used to bind Channon, shows DNA of Channon, Coleman, Cobbins #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Rectal swab of Chris shows semen but no sperm, couldn't make DNA match #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Channon's mom gripping her hands as DNA expert clinically talks about swabs from Channon's body #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Swab from Channon's mouth consistent with Cobbins' DNA #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Even brothers have distinct DNA profiles, Agent Millsaps says #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Ok time to just lay it out there - it is deep-freezer cold in this courtroom, jurors wearing coats. KUB kickbacks? #c-n - about 2 hours ago from txt

Blood on Channon's jeans is Channon's #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

Both Davidson's and Cobbins' DNA on Channon's jeans #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

Cobbins DNA on Channon's camisole #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

Green - "we don't contest that's Mr. Cobbins' DNA" oh, now you tell us! #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

Cobbins DNA on Channon's sweater #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

Thirty minutes of scientific gobbly-gook later, we're down to DNA in this case #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

Bleach, she says, can cause DNA profile to degrade #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

DNA expert Jennifer Millsaps on stand #c-n - about 3 hours ago from txt

State could rest its case by tomorrow at this rate #c-n - about 4 hours ago from txt

Green points out can't know how bleach got on camisole #c-n - about 4 hours ago from txt

Channon's white camisole positive for bleach on stains now known to be semen #c-n - about 4 hours ago from txt

Another cool CSI-type takes stand. He tests trace evidence. #c-n - about 4 hours ago from txt

Green now showing jurors Boyd's robbery convictions and t-shirt he wore says "f--- the alphabet boys" (FBI ATF DEA) #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

If tattoos imitate life - Davidson had one that says "pain is life" #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Green suggests might be pics of Newsom's rape on Boyd's cell phone. Judge calls him to bench so we can't hear #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Danger for Cobbins? Jurors can't consider lesser charges in rape/kidnap so they might pop him with heftier charge #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Confused? So is Cobbins. "It's just a lot of law I don't understand." #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

He is however asking jury to only find him guilty of facilitation of murders, not murders themselves #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

What Cobbins has pleaded to is rape, facilitation of especially ag kidnapping and facilitation of theft not murders #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Cobbins says pleas are in his best interest #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Judge says Cobbins is giving away right to appeal crimes to which he is admitting #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Judge tells Cobbins - "you don't have to do this" and could let jury decide all of it #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Judge is explaining the risks Cobbins is taking by pleading guilty to some crimes but not others #c-n - about 5 hours ago from txt

Cobbins statement is proving biggest hurdle for defense since he denies a rape he now admits #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

Former Sheriff Tim Hutchison is on tody's witness list. Talk about blast from past! #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

In the you-go-girl department, TK just scored punch by getting Still to say he thinks Cobbins is killer #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

Fitzgerald and Green fighting. Judge calls them up to bench for a cool down but TK is gesturing madly! #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

Dang it! Forgot hair update! Actually Cobbins sporting same boring braids hanging down sans any up-do #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

Cobbins says he didn't want to "snitch on" his brother #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

He saw evil but ... "I ain't ask no questions," Cobbins says #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

Was Cobbins scared of his brother? "We fight like we ain't kin," he tells investigator. #c-n - about 7 hours ago from txt

"Did u think these 2 people's lives were in danger?" Still asks. "I did but I didn't," Cobbins says. Huh? #c-n - about 8 hours ago from txt

"I didn't touch the girl," Cobbins tells detective in third interview #c-n - about 8 hours ago from txt

Highlights 2 investigative styles both of which proved effective #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

KPD's Steve Still took Cobbins statement after KCSO. He was decidely more lowkey than bulldog sheriff #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

Fitzgerald - did Cobbins seem scared? Officer - no. Score 1 for prosecution #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

Security guy says he saw Cobbins, Davidson at complex weekend Chris, Channon abducted #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

Washington Ridge security officer testifying for first time #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

Davidson used binoculars to keep watch for police. Guess that gave him good view of armored car cops drove up in #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

Crime scene guy Gerald Smith telling jurors stuff found in vacant house where Davidson arrested. #c-n - about 9 hours ago from txt

Day four of torture slaying trial. Trial going faster than estimated. Medical examiner could testify today. #c-n - about 11 hours ago from txt

Guns found after Christian and Newsom carjack/slayings don't match up

By Jamie Satterfield
Published Thursday, August 20, 2009

They can link the guns to the brothers, but prosecutors cannot say either weapon was used to kill Christopher Newsom.

Knoxville Police Department firearms expert Patty Resig testified in Knox County Criminal Court Wednesday that she test-fired two .22-caliber revolvers recovered by authorities in the days following the January 2007 torture slayings of Newsom and his girlfriend, Channon Christian.

Neither proved a definitive match with bullets retrieved from Newsom's body during an autopsy. A dark-colored revolver linked to suspect and accused ringleader Lemaricus Davidson showed the most promise as the slaying weapon, with striations on the bullets showing some characteristics of having been fired from that gun, she said.

A silver revolver linked via testimony earlier this week to suspect Letalvis Cobbins, who is Davidson's brother, held less promise as a match, she testified.

Read the transcript of Letalvis Cobbins' interrogation. Listen to the interrogation: Part one, Part two, Part three.

Wednesday marked the third day in Cobbins' capital murder trial. He is the first of four, including his brother, girlfriend Vanessa Coleman and friend George Thomas, to be tried. A fifth suspect, Eric Boyd, has been convicted as an accessory to carjacking but remains uncharged in the slayings.

Newsom was shot execution-style in the head and shot another two times, including once in the back, before his body was set afire near railroad tracks in the area of a Chipman Street house leased by Davidson in which the couple were held hostage after being carjacked. Newsom, who also was raped, died within hours of the kidnapping. Christian was held captive for several more hours and sexually assaulted before she was choked, hog-tied and stuffed into a trash can. She suffocated to death inside.

Cobbins admits raping Christian but insists the crime spree that led to the couple's deaths was launched and carried out by Davidson and Boyd. His defense team contends Cobbins was too frightened of his older, more violent brother to try to stop the attacks.

That has prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price trying to show Cobbins was a partner-in-crime with his brother, and a shiny silver revolver looked like just the ticket earlier this week.

Gun in hand

Thomas' friend, Stacy Lawson, was the witness the prosecutors hoped to use to put that gun in Cobbins' hands. She said she saw Cobbins cleaning that silver revolver in the bathroom of the Chipman Street house three weeks before the killings.

"He said his brother gave him a choice of two guns" - the silver revolver or a darker one, Lawson said.

Cobbins' attorney, Scott Green, balked at her testimony on Tuesday.

"At best, she has seen Mr. Cobbins with that firearm weeks before," Green said.

Judge Richard Baumgartner told Green he invited the testimony.

"What you have made a great issue here is that Mr. Cobbins was a follower and his brother was the bad apple," the judge said.

So when Lawson testified in front of jurors, Green elicited testimony that no one saw Cobbins with that gun after he returned to Lebanon, Ky., before coming back to Knoxville in the days before the slayings.

And there is plenty about that silver gun kept hidden from jurors Wednesday.

Gun out of sight

With jurors out of the courtroom, Price told Baumgartner there is a witness who would testify that a day after a search of a Lebanon, Ky., house where Cobbins was arrested turned up no guns, Coleman showed up.

At the time, Cobbins was in jail. Authorities had let Coleman go free.

Coleman asked to go into the bedroom where she and Cobbins had slept before their arrest, Price said.

"She stayed a few minutes and left," he said.

The witness called police. The house was searched again and that silver revolver was found in the bedroom, Price said.

Green again balked at the proposed testimony.

"How is that relevant to Mr. Cobbins?" he asked.

This time, the judge agreed.

"There's no evidence this gun is in any way linked to any shooting in this case," he said. "There's no evidence this weapon was used at any other time at any other event in the course of this crime. All the state wants to do - and I don't fault them for it - is anytime you can put the words Cobbins and gun in the same sentence, you want to do that."

Jurors did learn Wednesday that drug dealer and convicted felon Vincent Wernimont did not - as he claimed - get an immunity deal from prosecution for his admitted role as an accessory after the fact. The parolee hasn't been charged for providing Cobbins a ride out of town in return for cocaine, however.

Carjack/slaying trial, Day 5: Prosecution rests, jury could deliberate Saturday



By Jamie Satterfield
Updated Friday, August 21, 2009

KNOXVILLE - A judge said this afternoon that he expects the fate of torture-slaying suspect Letalvis Cobbins to be in hands of a jury by late Saturday.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner turned aside a bid by defense attorney Scott Green to have the case thrown out for lack of evidence.

"Mr. Green, I believe these are jury questions," Baumgartner said of the issues raised by Green about the strength of the state's case.

Prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price rested their case shortly after lunch.

Green said he and attorney Kim Parton have one witness to present today and possibly two others in the morning. Closing arguments will follow.

Cobbins hasn't said whether he'll testify. This afternoon, he first told the judge he won't testify. But then he later said he wants to "sleep on" the decision and will tell the judge his intent Saturday morning.

Baumgartner also ruled this afternoon that a first-degree murder charge against Cobbins will go to a jury.

In the fifth day of the trial, Baumgartner rejected arguments defense attorneys Green and Parton to toss out some of the charges, including murder.

The attorneys are to begin calling defense witnesses this afternoon.

In testimony earlier today jurors heard and saw grisly evidence of the kidnapping, rape and killing of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in January 2007.

Christian died with her eyes open. Newsom died with his covered.

Knox County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan told jurors this morning that Newsom, 23, was "outnumbered" by more than one attacker and overpowered.

"It was very elaborate," she said of the injuries, bindings and transporting that were all a part of Newsom's death.

"It's hard to imagine one person could do all of this," she testified.

She said Newsom was raped, likely with an object. He, within hours, would have been killed, she said.

The doctor estimated Newsom's death came within a couple of hours of his abduction. She could not pinpoint the exact time.

She also could not say exactly in what order the crimes were committed against Newsom.

She said in addition to the rape, his ankles were bound with his own belt. His wrists were tied behind his back. He was gagged with his own socks, blindfolded and a sweatshirt placed over his head.

She said he was shot in the upper back shoulder, near his neck, in his lower back and in his head. She said the gunshot to the head was carried out execution style with the gun up against the sweatshirt that covered his head.

She said Christian, 21, was attacked over several hours and would have been alive from the time of her abduction on a Saturday night through as late as Sunday night or even Monday morning.

She said that it would appear Christian was raped orally several hours before her death.

Cobbins, 26, has admitted orally raping her Christian.

Rape linked to his brother, alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson, 28, occurred, the medical examiner said, within a few hours of her death.

That would mean that Christian was still being assaulted as late as Sunday afternoon.

The medical examiner also revealed Christian was not, as she said, merely raped, she was savaged.

Showing a graphic photograph of Christian's genital region, the doctor explained that Christian suffered blunt trauma that caused so much blood to collect in her genital region, "I could scoop it out."

Although the doctor could not say with certainty what exactly caused the blunt-force trauma, she said it may well have involved the kicking and punching of Christian's vaginal area.

The gruesome testimony upset family and friends of Christian and Newsom, but jurors showed little reaction.

One male juror visibly flinched at the rape injuries suffered by Newsom. A female juror gasped when the first photograph of a hog-tied Christian was shown. But those have been the only reactions so far by this panel of Davidson County jurors.

Doctor testifies about extent of couple's injuries; 1 killer 'unlikely'



By Jamie Satterfield
Published Saturday, August 22, 2009

As horrific as the injuries were that Knox County's chief medical examiner saw when she examined the bodies of this young couple, it was the wounds she didn't see that struck her most.

"I've never seen a case with this array of injuries when you didn't have some measure of resistance," Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan told jurors in Knox County Criminal Court on Friday.

Yet, there was not one bruise on Christopher Newsom's body, not one broken fingernail on Channon Christian's hands to indicate either tried to defend themselves or escape, she said.

"It's just hard to believe a healthy young girl would not have resisted," she said. "I've never seen it … It would be hard to believe … no running away or kicking (by Newsom, whose hands were bound). What has he got to lose?"

The lack of defensive wounds combined with the severity of the injuries, the length of the attacks and the elaborateness of the bindings left this medical examiner with only one conclusion.

"It is hard to imagine one person could do all this," Mileusnic-Polchan told jurors. "It would be highly unlikely to be one person acting alone."

The medical examiner's graphic, chilling testimony detailed what Christian, 21, and Newsom, 23, suffered after their January 2007 kidnapping. Her testimony capped the end of the state's weeklong case against suspect Letalvis Cobbins.

Cobbins is the first of four defendants to be tried. He faces death if convicted. Awaiting trial are his brother and alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson, Cobbins' girlfriend Vanessa Coleman and friend George Thomas. Accused but so far uncharged is Eric Boyd, serving an 18-year prison term for his conviction in federal court to being an accessory to the carjacking that launched the crime spree that claimed the couple's life.

Cobbins contends it was Davidson and Boyd who kidnapped the couple, Boyd who raped and killed Newsom, and Davidson who sexually savaged Christian and stuffed her to die by suffocation inside a trash can in his Chipman Street house. He insists neither he nor Thomas nor Coleman had any idea of what the pair planned. He concedes orally raping Christian and the lesser crimes of facilitating the fatal crime spree by failing to stop it.

Prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price counter that Cobbins was an equal partner-in-crime with big brother Davidson and the others. Cobbins was, Price argued later Friday, "up to his neck" in involvement in the attacks.

That debate between the prosecutors and defenders Scott Green and Kim Parton made Mileusnic-Polchan's opinions - given the legal weight of expert testimony - vital.

That clear in Green's cross-examination when he pushed the doctor on her assertion that each of these slayings could not have been the work of one person.

She pushed back.

The showdown

It had all the markings of a classic clash of legal titans.

A Croatian by birth and U.S. citizen by choice, the slightly built doctor has never been accused of timidity among the defense bar. She delivers testimony with an air of authority. Her accent is strong, and she talks fast. She speaks directly to the jury. She rarely hesitates in her answers, and she isn't afraid to argue, even when she draws a gentle rebuke from a judge.

Green is a former prosecutor. He still adopts the style he learned, first as a protegee of Sevier County's capital murder king Al Schmutzer Jr. and second as Knox County prosecution chief Randy Nichols' go-to guy. His voice booms. He uses questions like tools, a scalpel when carving out a point for his side or a hammer when smashing through a wall of resistance.

On Friday, Green needed to do both with Mileusnic-Polchan's cross-examination, cutting slices of opinion minimizing Cobbins' alleged role and bashing the notion that Christian and Newsom could not have died without his help.

She refused to budge, however.

"You can't say Letalvis Cobbins caused any injuries suffered by (the couple)," Green pressed.

"A forensic pathologist is never called to court to point a finger at a (particular) defendant," she countered. "A forensic pathologist comes to court to speak for the victims. I'm not here to tell you who did what. I'm here to tell you how they suffered, and (these attacks) took a long time."

The suffering

Using gruesome photographs displayed on a movie-size screen, Mileusnic-Polchan detailed that suffering in a courtroom packed with relatives and friends of the slain couple.

Newsom, she said, was raped both by an object and at least one person. DNA tests were inconclusive as to identity. The sexual assault would have occurred soon after the kidnapping and, at most, a couple of hours before his death, she said.

His hands were tied behind his back. His ankles eventually were bound with a belt. Socks were stuffed in his mouth. A bandana was tied around his eyes. A sweatshirt was placed over his head and tied with his own shoelaces around his neck. He was shot three times - once in the lower back, once in the upper back shoulder near his neck, and once execution-style to the side of his head. His body was then set on fire.

Mileusnic-Polchan said Christian was kept alive for more than 12 hours and perhaps as long as a full day. The attack on her took place over time, she said.

Early on in the attack, she was orally raped, causing a membrane in her mouth to be torn, the doctor testified. She was raped vaginally and anally - more than once - over the course of her captivity, Mileusnic-Polchan said. At some point a few hours before her death, someone attacked her genital region, likely kicking her and perhaps even striking that area with an object, she said.

"This was no simple rape," she said.

Christian was hog-tied and her lower body stuffed inside five different large black trash bags. A small white plastic grocery bag was wrapped around her face, and she was pushed down into a trash can. The medical examiner said she suffocated to death. Her eyes were still partially open when she died.

Carjack/slaying trial, Day 6: Now it's up to the jury



By Jamie Satterfield
Updated Saturday, August 22, 2009

KNOXVILLE — Jurors in the torture-slaying trial of Letalvis Cobbins will begin deliberating Monday, after a judge dismissed them this afternoon from six long days of trial that included testimony today from the defendant himself.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner deemed it "wise" that the Davidson County panel elected to take Sunday off. Jurors are sequestered and staying in a Knoxville area hotel. The judge urged the panel to relax Sunday but cautioned them not to begin thinking about Cobbins' guilt or innocence until Monday.

"The case is yours once you come back Monday," he said.

The day began with testimony from Cobbins, followed by closing arguments from the defense and prosecution.

Cobbins testified this morning that he didn’t rape Channon Christian.

She, he said, offered herself.

“She asked me if I let her go,” he said. “She said I’ll do anything. She even offered to have sex. She gave me oral sex.”

At that statement, Christian’s father stood up in the courtroom but his wife pulled him back down.

Cobbins concedes he didn’t help Christian escape. He didn’t explain why though he claims his brother threatened to shoot him at some point.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Takisha Fitzgerald, Cobbins said, “Looking back on it, it was probably against her will because of the situation she was in.”

Cobbins took the witness stand in his first-degree murder trial, despite objections from his lawyers.

Defense attorneys Scott Green and Kim Parton told Baumgartner this morning they wanted to withdraw as counsel if their client insisted on taking the stand.

Baumgartner denied their request.

“It is against my strong advice,” Green said.

Cobbins had wavered about testifying since prosecutors rested their case on Friday.

He and three others are charged with the first-degree murders of Christian and Christopher Newsom after a January 2007 carjacking.

They’re also charged with kidnapping, raping and torturing the Knox County couple who were on a date.

Meanwhile, testimony on Friday came from the Knox County medical examiner who outlined the horrific injuries of the young couple.

She testified that as she examined their bodies, it was the wounds she didn’t see that struck her most.

“I’ve never seen a case with this array of injuries when you didn’t have some measure of resistance,” Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan told jurors.

Yet, there was not one bruise on Newsom’s body, not one broken fingernail on Christian’s hands to indicate either tried to defend themselves or escape, she said.

“It’s just hard to believe a healthy young girl would not have resisted,” she said. “I’ve never seen it … It would be hard to believe … no running away or kicking (by Newsom, whose hands were bound). What has he got to lose?”

The lack of defensive wounds combined with the severity of the injuries, the length of the attacks and the elaborateness of the bindings left this medical examiner with only one conclusion.

“It is hard to imagine one person could do all this,” Mileusnic-Polchan told jurors. “It would be highly unlikely to be one person acting alone.”

The medical examiner’s graphic, chilling testimony detailed what Christian, 21, and Newsom, 23, suffered after their January 2007 kidnapping. Her testimony capped the end of the state’s weeklong case against suspect Cobbins.

Cobbins is the first of four defendants to be tried. He faces death if convicted. Awaiting trial are his brother and alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson, 28, Cobbins’ girlfriend Vanessa Coleman, 21, and friend George Thomas, 26. Accused but so far uncharged is Eric Boyd, 37, serving an 18-year prison term for his conviction in federal court to being an accessory to the carjacking that launched the crime spree that claimed the couple’s life.

Cobbins contends it was Davidson and Boyd who kidnapped the couple, Boyd who raped and killed Newsom, and Davidson who sexually savaged Christian and stuffed her to die by suffocation inside a trash can in his Chipman Street house. He insists neither he nor Thomas nor Coleman had any idea of what the pair planned. He concedes orally raping Christian and the lesser crimes of facilitating the fatal crime spree by failing to stop it.

Prosecutors Fitzgerald and Leland Price counter that Cobbins was an equal partner-in-crime with big brother Davidson and the others. Cobbins was, Price argued later Friday, “up to his neck” in involvement in the attacks.

Torture-slaying trial, Day 7: Jurors begin deliberating



By News Sentinel staff
Updated Monday, August 24, 2009

KNOXVILLE - Jurors in the torture-slaying trial of Letalvis Cobbins this morning began deliberating a slew of complex charges as well as the weight of six days of sometimes gruesome testimony.

The sequestered panel brought in from Davidson County took Sunday off before beginning deliberations today in Knox County Criminal Court, a move Judge Richard Baumgartner candidly endorsed.

Testimony wrapped up Saturday with Cobbins, 26, taking the stand in his own defense.

Cobbins is accused of taking part in the January 2007 kidnapping, rape and slaying of Channon Christian, 21,and Christopher Newsom, 23. The young couple were carjacked while outside a Washington Pike apartment complex and then taken to a Chipman Street house where Cobbins' brother Lemaricus Davidson lived.

Newsom was shot to death and left along railroad tracks near the house. Christian was left to suffocate to death in a trash can inside the home.

Cobbins has admitted raping Christian inside the house, although he testified Saturday that she offered him the oral sex if he could help ensure her freedom. Christian and Newsom did not know Cobbins, Davidson or their co-defendants, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, who await trial.

If jurors convict Cobbins of first-degree murder, they will shift into a penalty phase in which they will consider evidence about whether he should be executed. Prosecutors will try to show his crimes are so heinous he deserves death, while defense attorneys will try to counter with mitigating facts.

Sixteen people were impaneled last week at the trial's start. A woman juror, however, bowed out after Friday's graphic photographic evidence of the couple's rape injuries. Fifteen jurors remain, but only 12 will take part as deliberations begin today.

Torture-slayings trial, Day 8: Cobbins guilty; jurors to consider death penalty



By Jamie Satterfield
Updated Tuesday, August 25, 2009

KNOXVILLE — Jurors this morning convicted Letalvis Cobbins of first-degree murder in the torture-slayings of Knox County couple Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

The verdicts, after being reviewed by Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, were announced before a packed courtroom.

Jurors on Wednesday will begin a penalty phase in which they will consider evidence about whether Cobbins, 26, of Kentucky, should be executed for the January 2007 kidnapping and murders.

The jury concluded that Cobbins had responsibility in all the crimes committed against Christian, 21, including first-degree murder. That conviction carries the death penalty.

The same panel, however, convicted him of the lesser charge of facilitating the murder of Newsom and acquitted him of charges involving the rape of Newsom, 23.

“I can’t even tell you what all those guilty verdicts were that he read,” Gary Christian said.

"He raped my daughter. He's responsible for her murder. And how many times have I told you that he was going down? He's just started sliding, and tomorrow's going to be the nail in his coffin."

Newsom’s mother, Mary Newsom, said: “We got what we wanted, but we still don’t have Chris back.”

Mary Newsom and her husband, Hugh Newsom, said they hoped that the same Davidson County jury will sentence Cobbins to death, but, “Life without parole would be okay. We just don’t want him back on the street.”

Defense attorneys Scott Green and Kim Parton declined comment as did prosecutors Leland Price and Takisha Fitzgerald.

Surprisingly, just before the verdicts were announced, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office cleared a bench in the courtroom and escorted some half-dozen women and a baby into the courtroom to fill that bench.

They wept as the verdict was announced, and Cobbins repeatedly looked in their direction. However, it’s still not clear what their relationship to Cobbins is as deputies quickly hustled them out of the courtroom and building before the jury had even left.

Cobbins was dry-eyed as the verdicts were read to a silent courtroom.

The jury heard six days of testimony and deliberated about seven and a half hours Monday and about three hours this morning before returning the verdicts.

Testimony wrapped up Saturday with Cobbins taking the stand in his own defense.

The young couple was carjacked while outside a Washington Pike apartment complex and then taken to a Chipman Street house where Cobbins’ brother Lemaricus Davidson lived.

Newsom was shot to death and left along railroad tracks near the house. Christian was left to suffocate to death in a trash can inside the home.

Cobbins has admitted raping Christian inside the house, although he testified Saturday that she offered him the oral sex if he could help ensure her freedom. Christian and Newsom did not know Cobbins, Davidson, 28, or their co-defendants, George Thomas, 26, and Vanessa Coleman, 21, who await trial.

Davidson’s trial is set for Sept. 21 before a Knox County jury.

In the death-penalty phase Wednesday, prosecutors Fitzgerald and Price will try to show Cobbins’ crimes are so heinous he deserves death, while defense attorneys Green and Parton will try to counter with mitigating facts.

Sixteen people were impaneled last week at the trial’s start. A woman juror, however, bowed out after Friday’s graphic photographic evidence of the couple’s rape injuries. Fifteen jurors remain, but only 12 took part in the deliberations.

Links only

https://twitter.com/jamiescoop
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/53041777.html
http://www.wate.com/
http://www.wbir.com/video/breakingvideo.aspx

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_...stopher_Newsom

Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom

Hugh Christopher Newsom, Jr., 23, and Channon Gail Christian, 21, were a couple from Knoxville, Tennessee. According to a Tennessee grand jury, they were both raped and murdered after being kidnapped early on the morning of January 7, 2007. Their vehicle had been carjacked.[1][2] Five suspects have been arrested and charged in the case.[3] The grand jury indicted four of the suspects on counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft, while one final suspect has already been convicted of federal charges as accessory after the fact to carjacking

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http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/53496167.html
Security increased for Cobbins' trial, Christian-Newsom murder case
Over the course of the 2 and a half years since the murders, there has been a lot of publicity around the case, and not just from the media. Other groups have expressed themselves in ways that led to local law enforcement being extra prepared for this trial.
Posted: 6:00 PM Aug 17, 2009

LIVE BLOG: Cobbins' Christian-Newsom murder trial, day 1
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The first trial has begun in the carjacking, rape, and murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Volunteer TV's Mike McCarthy is covering the trial and will update this blog throughout the day. You can also follow Mike's updates on Twitter, just follow @WVLT.
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/53407712.html

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Timeline:


http://www.volunteertv.com/special

TIMELINE: Channon Christian/Christopher Newsom murder trials
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/53003957.html


WARNING: graphic details of the murders


Documents relating to the Christian, Newsom murders in Knoxville

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/au...urders-knoxvi/

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LINKS TO LIVE STREAMING

Gavel-to-Gavel Coverage
http://www.wate.com/global/Category.asp?c=173163

http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/53407712.html

VolunteerTV.com
http://www.knoxnews.com/videos/detai...ugust-17-2009/
Jamie Satterfield talks about the first day of Letalvis Cobbins' trial and scenes from the court room.

http://www.wbir.com/video/breakingvideo.aspx