This is just unconscionable. I’ve kept you up to date for years on the Christian-Newsom murder case, which received scant national media attention, but touched countless Americans across the country who have not forgotten the crimes.

The latest? After four years of agonizing trials, the families of the young murder victims must go through hell again.

All thanks to a reckless, drug-abusing judge:

Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood has granted the motion for new trials for all four of the defendants convicted in the murders of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom.

The judge announced his decision just after 1 pm Thursday. The trials of the four defendants were presided over by former Judge Richard Baumgartner, who was removed from the bench after admitting he had a drug addiction.

The file of the TBI investigation outlined evidence that Baumgartner was likely impaired while presiding over those trials.

The evidence included Baumgartner’s abuse of hydrocodone, oxycodone, and oxycontin.

Baumgartner illegally obtained drugs from addicts, some of them had been in his courtroom.

Judge Blackwood was visibly upset as he talked about the decision he was about to make.

Baumgartner was disbarred in October.

What a hellish, hellish mess he has made.

I lasted blogged in December about the Christian-Newsom murder trials in Knoxville.

Justice is coming slowly, but it is coming. Today, a jury announced another guilty verdict in the trial of defendant Vanessa Coleman. Via VolunteerTV:

Jurors ruled that Vanessa Coleman is guilty on four counts of facilitation of first degree felony murder of Channon Christian, guilty of one count of facilitation of premeditated first degree murder of Christian, two counts of facilitation of especially aggravated rape of Christian, nine counts of facilitation of aggravated rape of Christian, and one count of facilitation of theft of property belonging to Christian.

Jurors ruled that Coleman is not guilty of any charges related to the crimes against Christopher Newsom.

None of the charges Coleman was convicted of carry the death penalty.

Keeping you up to date on the ongoing trials in the case of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, the young couple brutally murdered in a racially-charged case in Knoxville, TN in 2007. My archives on the case are here. Yesterday, a jury found defendant George Thomas criminally responsible for the January 2007 slayings of the Knox County couple. They found him guilty of 38 counts involving first-degree murder, felony murder, robbery, kidnapping and rape. Today, they decide his punishment in the death penalty case.

Via Knoxville Sentinel-News:

Thomas is the third of four defendants convicted in the case. Ringleader Lemaricus Davidson was sentenced to death after his October trial. Davidson’s brother, Letalvis Cobbins, escaped death after his August trial and instead was sentenced to life without parole.

Unlike Davidson and Cobbins, who faced a mountain of forensic evidence, the case against Thomas seemed in jeopardy at the outset. Prosecutors had no DNA, no fingerprints and no eyewitnesses. Thomas had conceded he was inside Davidson’s Chipman Street house where the couple was held captive but insisted he did nothing more than smoke marijuana and bide time until he could leave.

Dillard and Johnson contended Thomas’ presence and failure to act was not enough to meet the legal requirements of the criminal responsibility law, which allows a defendant to be rendered equally guilty of crimes committed by another if he or she benefited from the crimes and either aided or attempted to aid the perpetrators.

Even Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner seemed skeptical of the strength of the state’s case, reserving judgment — even now — on a defense bid to have the case tossed out for legal insufficiency of the evidence.

But Christian’s father, Gary Christian, said he, wife Deena Christian, and Newsom’s parents, Hugh and Mary Newsom, left the courtroom Monday after closing arguments confident that Thomas would be convicted.

“I think Leland Price and Takisha Fitzgerald … are brilliant,” he said after Tuesday’s verdicts. “I don’t think any of us … were confused about the outcome. We knew he was guilty. He knew he was guilty. This jury obviously knew he was guilty.”

“We’re very grateful to this jury,” Deena Christian said. “We just hope they can bring it home (in the penalty phase).”

The Christian-Newsom murder case has never received much national media attention, but it touched countless Americans across the country who have not forgotten. Here’s the latest development. Keep the victims’ families in your prayers:

The man accused of being the ringleader of a carjacking that turned into the rapes and murders of a Tennessee couple was convicted of the most serious charges and now faces the death penalty.

The jury, which deliberated a little more than 8 hours before returning the verdict against Lemaricus Davidson, 28, Tuesday was hearing evidence Wednesday on whether to sentence him to death.

Davidson was tried on 38 counts, including premeditated murder, felony murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft in the 2007 deaths of University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23.

The only not guilty findings were on three counts relating to the rape of Newsom, and Davidson was found guilty of the lesser crime of facilitation on those counts.

Davidson showed no emotion as he heard the jury’s verdict. Newsom’s family followed the readings closely but showed little reaction, while Christian’s father rocked back and forth and occasionally pumped his fist as guilty verdicts were announced.

Hi Michelle,

…I hope and pray that Lemaricus Davidson (the ringleader) gets found guilty and gets the death penalty at his trial later this year. What a disgrace…

Three more trials to go. What agony for the families of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

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

The verdicts were announced before a packed crowd, including the Christian and Newsom families, in Knox County Criminal Court.

Jurors will now shift into a penalty phase before Baumgartner in which they will consider evidence about whether he should be executed.

Cobbins was dry-eyed looking at family as the verdicts were read to a silent courtroom. His family was weeping and was hustled out of the courtroom by security as the judge recessed for the day.

The Christian and Newsom families showed no reaction during the reading of the verdicts, but were crying and patting each other on the back at the conclusion.

The panel from Davidson County 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, 26, taking the stand in his own defense.

Cobbins was convicted of first-degree murder of both Christian, 21, and Newsom, 23, in the January 2007 kidnapping.

The jury found Cobbins guilty in all rapes of Christian, and not guilty in the rape of Newsom.

Longtime readers will remember Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, the young couple brutally murdered in a racially-charged case in Knoxville, TN in 2007. My archives on the case are here.

The trial of the first defendant Letalvis Cobbins began yesterday. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports:

Earlier this afternoon, jurors in the January 2007 slaying of a Knox County couple ended their day with testimony about the grisly discovering of one victim’s body that had been burned beyond recognition.

Norfolk Southern engineer J.D. Ford told jurors he saw the body of Christopher Newsom, 23, lying near railroad tracks in the vicinity of the Chipman Street house where Newsom and girlfriend Channon Christian, 21, were taken after they were carjacked and kidnapped.

A photograph displayed movie-sized on a projection screen in Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner’s courtroom showed Newsom’s body burned from head to toe. His face was unrecognizable.

State arson investigator Robert Watson said an accelerant – likely gasoline – had been poured directly on Newsom’s body and ignited.

Authorities say Newsom was raped, bound, gagged and led to the railroad tracks, where he was shot execution-style.

Christian, they say, was kept alive inside the Chipman Street house for several more hours, repeatedly raped and then stuffed inside a trash can. She suffocated to death.

Today marked the first day of trial for suspect Letalvis Cobbins, the first of four defendants to be tried.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner today granted a request to drop the speedy trial for one of four suspects in the torture-slayings of a Knoxville couple more than a year ago.

Attorneys for George “Detroit” Thomas said they dropped the request after receiving new information from prosecutors last week.

Among the information were 260 pages of interviews by federal agents.

Thomas is charged in the January 2007 slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23. Prosecutors say the couple was carjacked and robbed and then taken to a Chipman Street residence where both were beaten, raped and slain.

Thomas originally was to be the last of the four to be tried, but his attorneys pressed for a speedy trial.

Baumgartner granted that request, and Thomas’ trial was to begin Aug. 11.

He now will be tried last, with a trial date set for Aug. 10, 2009.

Investigators say Newsom was shot and his body burned. Christian’s abuse lasted hours longer and she eventually was hog-tied and stuffed into a trash can where she suffocated.

Others charged with the brutal slayings are Letalvis Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson and Cobbins’ girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman.

All four face the death penalty if convicted.

Some 700 people had been tapped as potential jurors in the case.

The judge in the case had earlier ruled that prosecutors can use Thomas’s jailhouse conversations as incriminating evidence in the trial.

Maybe when the Washington Post’s massive staff gets through with its 12-part series on Chandra Levy’s murder, they can spare a reporter or two to cover the ongoing horror in Knoxville.

Many of you will recall the terrible murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, which I covered here extensively last year.

The first trial for the first suspected has ended with the first guilty verdict:

The first trial ends with the first guilty verdict in connection with the deaths of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.

The only one of the five suspects not charged with murder, Eric DeWayne Boyd is guilty of being an accessory, according to the jury.

The jury has spoken, convicting Eric Boyd of two counts.

After five hours of deliberation, they found Boyd guilty of being an accessory after the fact, and concealing a felon, agreeing with the prosecution that he helped hide murder suspect Lemaricus Davidson from police, while failing to report his crimes.

This battle is over, but the victim’s families know the war will be long.

The victims’ families celebrate the word they’ve been waiting to hear for more than a year: Guilty.

Eric Boyd’s conviction today is the first, but family members pray it won’t be the last.

Channon Christian’s father Gary Christian says, “One down, four to go, baby. We got more to go on this one too. Eric boyd’s gonna hear from us.”

What Eric Boyd heard from the jury today will likely mean 15 years in federal prison, after sentencing August 12th.

Next year may bring four more trials, death penalty cases against the four accused murderers.

Even on this day, Chris Newsom’s mother is thinking about that.

Mary Newsom says, “They really, really tortured them beyond a normal killing, so whatever the others get, that’s what they deserve.”

Knoxville Police Sgt. Tim Snodderly says, “This is just a small part of what we’ve got going on. This is just a first step, and we’re extremely happy with the verdict we got today. We’ve got a long way to go but this is a little bit of justice for the family.”

Video of the Newsom and Christian families’ reactions here.

An interview with the jury foreman here.

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Previous:

Horror in Knoxville update: Victims families’ speak
Video: Fox covers the Christian-Newsom murders on BYA
Covering the Christian/Newsom murders
The horror in Knoxville
Race, crime, and media taboos
La Shawn Barber: Media Blackout On Christian-Newsom Murders?
Newsbusters: PC at work?
Rob at Flopping Aces: Rape, Mutilation and Murder
Winona and the Wichita massacre

Continuing to follow the Christian/Newsom murder story, local TV station VLT8 has a new video interview with the family of Chris Newsom. Watch here.

The events of January 8th, 2007 turned the lives of two families upside down…

A young couple, 21-year-old Channon Christian and 23-year-old Christopher Newsom were brutally murdered when five suspects allegedly carjacked, raped and killed them. Volunteer TV spoke with Christopher’s family on Monday who say even four and a half months later…losing their son is still no easier to deal with.

“He just really enjoyed life and that’s what hurts so bad that his life was taken away and he was way too young for that,” Mary Newsom says.

As Chris Newsom’s parents imagine what may have happened one fateful day in January…

“I sit in that chair at night and look over at that picture and I just cry… tears roll down my cheeks… I think of what they did to him… him just laying there burned,” Mary says.

They lean on each other… reading each other’s thoughts… finishing the other’s sentences…

“Both of them suffered… tremendously… they had to… in their last hours of life,” Hugh & Mary Newsom say.

As they support each other… they are also supporting a promise they both made to Chris in death.

“I would be present when any one of those animals made their appearance. I would be there to represent him and I intend to keep that promise,” Hugh says.

Channon Christian’s family also spoke out:

For the first time since their daughter’s murder, the family of Channon Christian is speaking out about their grief.

Police say 22-year-old Channon Christian and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, were carjacked, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered this past January.

That night the couple was having dinner and watching a movie at a friend’s apartment off Washington Pike. It is the last time they were heard from.

Channon’s father, Gary Christian, says he was the last one to speak to his daughter. She called home just after midnight, telling them she was going to be late.

“I said. ‘Alright, be careful, and I love you.’ That’s the last thing she said to me, that she loved me,” he said.

Gary and Dina Christian say life has been a living hell since that last phone call…

…The family has religiously attended every court hearing. Gary says it’s the only thing he can do now to honor his daughter’s memory.

He talked about how tense he gets when the accused killers are brought in. “That’s pure hate. That ain’t tense. I mean, they took our baby girl.”

He refers to the suspects as a pack of “wild animals.”

“It’s no different from hunting back in East Texas, sitting in a deer stand and looking at a pack of wild dogs. They just bring them in one at a time,” he says.

The Christian family says it hopes the prosecutor seeks the death penalty.

John Leo in the NYSun today covers the case, blog coverage, and the politics of news. John remembers the double standards in coverage of the awful Jesse Dirkhising case, which I also covered in 2001.

The Newsom family is requesting prayers.

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Previous:

Video: Fox covers the Christian-Newsom murders on BYA
Covering the Christian/Newsom murders
The horror in Knoxville
Race, crime, and media taboos
La Shawn Barber: Media Blackout On Christian-Newsom Murders?
Newsbusters: PC at work?
Rob at Flopping Aces: Rape, Mutilation and Murder
Winona and the Wichita massacre

Yesterday, we aired our report on the horrifying murders of young Channon Christian and Chris Newsom in Knoxville, Tennessee. Despite a virtual MSM blackout, the case has reverberated with blog readers and videoblog viewers across the country. I’ll continue to follow news developments here and at Hot Air.

This morning, a Knox County judge set trial dates for the murder suspects (hat tip: Clayton J.):

A Knox County judge has set a trial date for the four people suspected of carjacking and killing a Knoxville couple earlier this year.

Letalvis Cobbins, Vanessa Coleman, George Coleman and Lemaricus Davidson each have a trial date set for the middle of next year.

The families of both Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were in court for today’s hearing.

Cobbins will be the first to be tried in a Knox County court, his trial has been set for May 12, 2008. Davidson will be tried on May 19, 2008, and Coleman will be tried on June 16, 2008. George Thomas will be tried on August 11, 2008.

All four are facing more than 40 charges, including first degree murder, kidnapping and rape.

No decision yet on whether the death penalty will be pursued. WVLT-TV has extended coverage. Stay tuned.

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Previous/related:

Race, crime and media taboos
La Shawn Barber: Media Blackout On Christian-Newsom Murders?
Newsbusters: PC at work?
Rob at Flopping Aces: Rape, Mutilation and Murder
Winona and the Wichita massacre

Jack Dunphy examines the underreported murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom and the media’s inner-city crime taboos.

Heather Mac Donald tells the Truth about Black Crime Rates.

John Derbyshire weighs in with Reflections on Race Week.

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Same as it ever was. Here’s a flashback to a column I wrote in 2002 that underscores Dunphy’s point:

Winona and the Wichita Massacre