UPDATE 2: Lamaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman, and Eric Boyd
LETALVIS COBBINS TRIAL BEGINS WITH GRISLY TESTIMONY
by Jamie Satterfield, Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel
KNOXVILLE – 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.
Prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price spent today plotting the movements of the couple in the hours before their abduction and frantic efforts by family and friends to find them after their disappeared from Washington Ridge Apartments off Washington Pike on Jan. 6, 2007.
They made quick work of 11 witnesses, primarily because Cobbins’ defense team did little to challenge the testimony. That’s because they aren’t challenging his involvement, only whether his role merits murder convictions and a death sentence.
Cobbins is a coward and a rapist, but he’s no killer, his defense attorney told jurors this morning.
“You’re not going to like Letalvis Cobbins,” attorney Scott Green said in opening statements. “You shouldn’t.”
Fitzgerald told jurors Cobbins, 26, brother Lemaricus Davidson, 28, pal George Thomas, 26, and an uncharged fourth suspect, Eric Boyd, 37, carjacked the couple and decided to rape Christian but had to get rid of Newsom, 23, first.
Newsom, she said, was bound, gagged and raped with some sort of object before he was led to his death near railroad tracks behind Davidson’s Chipman Street house.
For the next several hours, she said, Christian, 21, was sexually savaged, raped orally, anally and vaginally. Fitzgerald said DNA evidence links Davidson and Cobbins to those rapes.
“Five (DNA) strikes for Davidson, three strikes for Cobbins,” she said, referring to semen stains on Christian’s clothing and sperm on her body.
But Green countered that Davidson was a violent and manipulative “big brother” who plotted and carried out the crimes
with Boyd, who so far has only been convicted in federal court as an accessory.
Green conceded Cobbins forced Christian to perform oral sex but said it was Davidson who ripped her lower body with the savagery of sexual assault.
Earlier today, Cobbins pleaded guilty to facilitation of murder. If Green and co-counsel Kim Parton can convince jurors Cobbins did not plan the crimes or participate in the murders, Cobbins would still go to prison but could escape the death penalty.
Should Cobbins’ defenders fail at securing facilitation convictions, they then must mount an effort to save his life in the penalty phase of trial. To do so, they must convince jurors that factors mitigating his responsibility – terrible childhood, undue influence from his brother, psychological issues – outweigh aggravating factors presented by the state. Those aggravating factors include the sheer brutality of the crimes, Cobbins’ prior history of carjacking, and failed attempts to rehabilitate him.
Davidson’s girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, 21, also has been charged with first-degree murder and is facing the death penalty.
This was an evil crime committed by five evil sons of bitches, on two innocent people who could very easily been two of any of us. I guess that’s why the horrible things that Lamaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman, and Eric Boyd perpetrated on Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian make me so angry. I know that if it had been my wife and I in the place of those two young people, we would have stood the same chance they did against that group of violent thugs and ex-cons. And that’s why I hope each one of them receives the only sentence that makes any sense in this case. Death.
For all you trial buffs out there, you can follow the Letalvis Cobbins on the WVLT Volunteer TV website, where they a streaming video of the entire trial in real time. Just click here to be redirected to the WVLT homepage.
The pictures, from top to bottom, are:
1. Letalvis Cobbins and his attorneys
2. Photograph of the recovery of Christopher Newsom’s body.
3. Channon Christian’s father Gary Christian (boy, how about that look on his face?)
4. The trash can in which Channon Christian’s body was discovered, and the trash bag her clothes were found in.
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that picture of the father speaks a thousand words, Let him dole out the punishments
Honestly, does it get any worse than this ? Does it !?!
Again, I pose the same question to the anti-death penalty crowd. Can you defend this ? Can you honestly say that these fucking subhumans do not deserve to die ? They are the poster children for the death penalty….the epitome of absolute evil.
This one is so hard to stomach, it really is. Can you imagine being the parents of these two victims and knowing what they had to endure ?
Jesus christ…
I was thinking the same thing, as far as being one of the parents. I’ve said to my husband before that if something of this nature happened to one of my children, I am not sure I could go on living. I feel that way every time I see a story of a child being abducted and killed, but even this, with these kids being adults, is so sickening, so heartwrenching, so unimaginable…makes me want to go hug my kids a little tighter than usual.
PixiesMom…
I’m a pretty non-emotional person, especially for a female. I don’t cry often, or let myself get out of control…but this story…my god. It’s hard for me to even type anything about it without wanting to reach through my computer screen and bring so much hurt upon these pieces of shit.
I didn’t have kids when this happened. I do now. A small son, and another bun in the oven…but when this did happen, the husband and I did do one thing. We armed ourselves, and that is that.
Funny- I had the same thought when my son was born. I told my husband one gun in the house was not enough- I want a hand gun.
We just got an AR-15, and we have a few more. You know actually I was a bit reluctant to admit that because I thought someone would feel the need to remind me that guns and children don’t mix. But RESPONSIBLE gun owners know differently, and realize the risk daily.
We take precautions, and we make sure are children are safe. Besides which I would much rather be armed if someone decides to break in. Every parent needs to make that decision on their own, and no it isn’t easy. But I imagine it wouldn’t be easy getting raped and murdered in your own home either all the while wishing….”damn, I wish I had a gun”.
Anyone who wants to “remind” you that guns and children don’t mix maybe ought to be “reminded” themselves there ARE bad and evil people out there who WILL victimize anyone they can, but they WON’T be doing it to you or yours!
I don’t automatically become afraid when someone with young kids says they have guns in their home, unless they do or say something that tells me they aren’t being intelligent and responsible about it. Here’s why:
I was raised around guns. My father also grew up around them and had them since before I was born, he spent some time as an auxiliary police officer when I was an infant. So not only was he raised by my grandparents to respect firearms, but he also had professional training too. He did something that is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL for anyone who has kids and guns, he kept them securely locked away and out of my reach until I was old enough to be taught to respect a gun and handle it properly. I first learned to shoot at six years old. He drummed it into my head before I was ever allowed to touch any gun, they are NOT toys and should never be thought of as such. He made sure I knew to get away quickly if I ever saw anyone else playing around with a gun, long before there were any TV ads telling kids that. Then he showed me what guns can do, and allowed me to learn about them while at the same time making sure I was not afraid. Looking back on that time now, as an adult, I see that he did a terrific job teaching me something very valuable that has always stayed with me. I wish he was still here to see me using his favorite gun, a Colt Python .357 Magnum. I love that gun, I know it well and can put it to good use because of what he taught me.
Kids CAN be raised around guns and still be safe and sane. Maelstrom, I hope you don’t let anyone scare you away from the proper and respectful use of firearms just because you have (or will soon have) two young children in your home. Teach them the right way, at the right time and make sure they respect the power of a gun and they’ll be just fine.
They’ll be just fine and SAFE.
I am against the death penalty, but only because the appeals process and long incarceration that precedes execution is so expensive to society. In any case, we’re all going to die, many of us very slowly and painfully unlike those who are executed in prison. A decade or two in prison followed by a painless death is too kind. These monsters deserve to suffer horribly.
This is one of the most gut-wrenching and awful stories I have ever read. I cried for an hour, and I wasn’t half-way through yet.
This was one of those stories…that makes a person want to die, if only to remove themselves from a world where something like this could actually happen.
It is, without a doubt, one of the most horrible tales of human evil that I have ever encountered, and I’m having a hard time remembering any others.
And to the three people who voted that they don’t deserve hell, I can only imagine that it’s simply because you wish them a fate far worse.
I had o look back and after seeing the pictures of the 5 black folks, I remembered the case well.
It should be considered a HATE CRIME – I can not see any reason why this couple was targeted except for the fact that they were white….
Cobbins looks like a decent person all dressed up….
Because the victims are not available to speak, I think the suspects should appear in court looking they way they did when they were arrested / in heir mug shots. Maybe then the jury will feel some of the horror of being with these criminals (oops suspects)
Fred if you research the hate crimes legislation you will find that whites are a non protected class as far as that goes.
Agree with Maelstrom. What is not fair, IF these POS get the death penalty they will be executed constitutional, fair, and humane. Totally not eye for an eye.
Somewhere,
I know I know.
Though, personally I gotta tell ya…torturing these sacks of shit for weeks on end isn’t “cruel and unusual” for me. And I’m a contitutionalist. Go figure.
Well I’m a contortionist. I can stretch my ass to take a howitzer.
They should all be executed in a slow and painful fashion and it wouldn’t hurt if afterwards their heads were impaled in sticks outside the courthouse and left three for a few years.
Let’s not forget, Kudos to the parents of Christian and Newsom who would not accept a lesser plea. They did not want to go to court and have to hear these horrible things but they would not sell their children’s justice. They went forward. God Bless those parents!!
I consider myself somewhat jaded, but for some reason, this case has affected me tremendously. Since the first time i heard of it i was sick to my stomache thinking about what these two went through just because some POS were bored and too fuckin stupid to go get a job or do something productive. as far as i’m concerned anyone who was INVOLVED(that includes even the people who stood by and did nothing) in this crime should be put to death. They don’t deserve appeals either, IMO, just sentence them and stick the needle in- all in the same day. why waste tax money on housing and feeding these dregs? they don’t deserve to share my air…
cases like this make me wish we practiced hammurabi law… an eye for an eye :) i would love for these men to have to be raped and tortured like how they did chris and channon, only to be murdered when its done. atleast if these POS were dead, it wouldn’t be a loss, in fact, it could be a great thing. FERTILIZER!!
Lamaricus, Letalvis, George, Eric and Vanessa – you are wastes of sperm, air and life. you are pathetic and should be ashamed of yourselves, esp. Vanessa… how can a “woman” stand by while her guy friends rape another woman? depraved… your parents should be soo proud….
as for chris and channons family… stay strong and have faith… i doubt the jurors will let these pos live…
Fertilizer…that’s good! I like the way you think!
Buuuut…they should be ground up for dog food first. Let a nice, decent shelter mutt who is worth so much more than these foul creatures fill up his belly with some fresh meat, THEN shit them out on the ground to feed a plant or three that will actually have some value!
The father… you can tell that he truly knows hate now.
I just can’t wait to hear the defense choir singing, “Their childhood was so horrible! They were abused! They’re retarded! Their mother didn’t give them Capitan Crunch!” Then some goddamn little old Lutheran church lady will hang the jury and prevent them from getting the death penalty crying, “Jesus would have forgiven them all!” And then these piles of dog shit will proceed to the penetentiary, where frankly they all should have been locked up within fifteen minutes of their 12th birthday, because anybody with a functioning brain could have seen where they were headed by the time they gave up their Pampers.
Like having a “bad childhood” excuses them from killing people. BS!!! cant rehabilitate “bad childhood” because you cant go back in time and get better parents! THESE PEOPLE NEED TO WAKE THE HELL UP AND START SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS! eye for an EYE!
“To do so, they must convince jurors that factors mitigating his responsibility – terrible childhood, undue influence from his brother, psychological issues – outweigh aggravating factors presented by the state.”
I am so sick of excuses like this I could vomit. IMO I think Everyone involved deserves death. I think they knew from the get-go that they were gonna do what they did and these people were not going to live afterwards. I mean they took them to their house, not blindfolded, showed their faces and (ugh) bodies in great detail to the victims…..they KNEW they were gonna kill them afterwards. Every single one of them.
The only thing that sucks is that even if they all get the DP they will all go out peaceful and doped up, not in physical and emotional agony and terror. That is so unfair……It makes me sad to think of Channon, knowing they already killed her BF, her heart breaking at the same time knowing that she’s next. No one knew where she was except her then-dead BF and she was alone going through all that knowing she was going to die for sure. Chokes me up :-(
This is the worst crime I have ever read/heard about. It makes me sick to the stomach. I agree that it was a racial attack, there’s no other motive there in my opinion. But the death penalty isn’t what they should get. They tortured this young couple to death and all they get is to die peacefully? That’s a disgrace. They should be locked in a small room for the rest of their lives and the key thrown away. Nobody visiting them and not allowed to see anyone.
Fucking scum.
John,
I totally agree that lethal injection is far too kind for these…these…jesus god, what do I call them ? Scumfucks ? Ok, yes, that works. Scumfucks.
At the minimum, these fuckers should be skinned alive slowly, over a period of days perhaps weeks and then burned alive. Or, let the family stone their asses to death. I don’t care either way, and I don’t give a shit if they all die in their sleep tonight.
The point is that they need to be eradicated. Society demands it, and perhaps the punishment should truly fit the crime in this instance. There are those rare cases where the punishment SHOULD fit the crime regardless of how “brutal” that might be.
- To the parents and family of Channon and Christopher, you have my utmost respect and admiration. Your children will not be forgotten, and I hope every single one of these bastards responsible for their murder is smoked but good.
That is all.
I agree with every single thing you just said in this post…
The only reason I am frusterated with the DP is that the worst of the worst end up getting their own cell, protected from GP for like three to six DECADES while they file appeal after appeal. The whole time they breathe, laugh, watch TV, write letters, work out, whatever they do they have denied from their victims.
I would be all about the DP when they are put with the GP till their time is up…….
Smiley,
I agree totally. And you know what, fuck the appeals process. If guilt can be established beyond any doubt, and I think it certainly can in this case, then we walk these fuckers straight from the courtroom to their death. Same day. Let the victims family watch..hell, let them participate if they so wish, and be done with it.
And let’s make it a little more painful than a simple needle prick to the arm.
Of course NONE of this would ever fly, but it’s an idea. :)
I agree with you, even better…as soon as the dna evidence points to someone, no trial, just kill him.
It’s hard to believe that such evil lives amongst us. How could anyone see the look on that father’s face and not support the death penalty? It sure prevents repeat offenders.
I know, the Father’s face says it all. Give him a an hour with these fuckers with a knife and a baseball bat….that’s more justice then they’ll ever really get…..disgusting
I never used to support the death penalty, being a ‘civilised and enlightened’ European but PYSIH has convinced me of the error of my ways. Hope they die soon!
The only argument I truly accept right now, is that the death penalty can only be used when a death has occurred. I despise rape and child rape, but I think that line has to be drawn.
These monsters are neither black nor human. Their phenotype is pure monster, regardless of whatever noble or ignoble creature spawned them.
Agreed – People should be executed only if they have shown they strongly believe in the death sentence themselves i.e. murderers.
let the punishment fit the crime. Gang rape in prison anyone?
let the punishment fit the crime.
If you Google “lethal injection gone bad” you will see it’s not always the case that its a painless death, we can only hope. I also agree death is far to easy on criminals and some how we worry more about how the filth that murdered and tortured two children should die painlessly, we need to bring back the electric chair or possibly death by stoning, hell if I was the father I would be willing to do it with my bare hands.
Well, I did Google “lethal injection gone bad” and only got two results, one of which was your post!
So I searched for other phrases relating to lethal injections that didn’t go smoothly and got some interesting results:
“It would look as though he were completely comfortable and lying still,” said death penalty opponent Dr. Edward Brunner from Northwestern University Medical School. “The sleep drug could wear off and he could be completely aware of what’s going on … He could be awake, but paralyzed and suffocating.”
Awwww…poor baby!
“When serial killer John Wayne Gacy was executed in 1994, he needed two rounds of injections.
‘He got a much easier death than any of his victims,’ said William Kunkle, former Cook County, Ill. prosecutor. ‘In my opinion, he got an easier death than he deserved.’ ”
I agree! Too bad he couldn’t have been killed another 500 times or so!
“Last Wednesday, the name of Angel Diaz was added to a long list of persons whose executions have been botched in recent American history. As widely reported in the press, it took Florida thirty-four minutes to kill him, twice the usual time. The needles that carried the lethal chemicals were mistakenly inserted completely through their intended targets–the veins in Diaz’s arm–into the flesh of his arms. Thus, instead of being unconscious within the usual three or four minutes after the administration of the first chemical in the execution protocol, Diaz ‘appeared to be moving twenty-four minutes after the first injection, grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and appearing to mouth words.’ ”
Oh, that poor, poor man…*sob*
Let me direct everyone to his Wiki page so we can all see why he deserves our pity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81ngel_Nieves_D%C3%ADaz
I read the Angel Diaz thing. He should have been deported (unfortunately, Puerto Rico is a US Territory, so that wouldn’t have worked).
I don’t want to come across as racist because I’m not, but if anyone looks at the most wanted lists for the FBI or any of the states, at least 75% are of Hispanic descent…why should we house them in our prisons, we have enough of our own criminals. They should have tracking devices installed under their skin (lo-jack their asses) and then they should be deported.
I’m a spiritual Christian, not a religious one meaning I don’t susbrcribe to the self-righteous, fake piety, sanctimonious, “you must forgive everyone!” pretend Christians.
Yeah, Scripture recommends to forgive those who have transgressed against you not in an effort to accept cruel, degrading actions/behavoir perpetrated towards you and continue to let it happen to you over and over, but to eventually let go of the hate, anger and sorrow that is damaging to a good person’s psyche and spirituality. It’s a hindrance to happiness, joy and serenity in one’s life.
I would have to say that I’m more inclined to hang with the ArchAngels, ya know, those who smite the wicked in the Lord’s name. So for these most evil, vile demons in fleshbag suits they deserve to slowly burn at the stake. Their agony should be as intense as the agony they inflicted on their two beautiful, innocent victims, Christopher and Channon.
Burning them to crispy critters is a foreshadowing, a small taste of what is waiting for them as they spend an eternity in Hell.
I say, their justified punishment, condemnation of being burned alive couldn’t happen to a “nicer” bunch of…humanoid shit.
I’m sure you are aware how rare your ‘christian view’ is when it comes to things like this. You’re the kind of Christian I could buy a beer for. :)
Thanks! I would love to share a beer with you preferably an amber or an ale! :)
I don’t know how “rare” I am, but there are occasions when I call out other self-proclaimed Christians regarding their apathy, their lack of righteous fury directed towards evil acts, concentrated evil in the world and I kindly suggest they get busy striving to make a difference, to assist any and all innocents who are being mercilessly abused.
Jesus hates evil. And so do I. Scripture is overflowing with many examples of evil, not only the overt, contemptuous, horrifying evil committed by these pieces of offal up above but the insidious, covert type of evil that can totally wreck, destroy good people.
Going to the local chuch on Sunday, chillin with the fellowship does not a true Christian make. Much more involved than that. ALL good, conscientious, loving and compassionate people should stand up to evil. Defy it, denounce it, and make it (them) pay for the misery and suffering they cause.
I have to say I’d like to buy you a beer too. I’m sure there are regulars here who have read some of my angry posts detailing how I’d like to “smite” the “evildoers” (the name “Dnepropetrovsk” ring a bell, haha!) and usually said smiting involves incapacitating drugs, flaying and gibbeting and all sorts of disturbing stuff, but hey…I’m angry, right? Vengeful, too!
(Did I mention I’m also an atheist?) *snork*
I think we’d have a blast together! :-D
Atheist here as well…I was starting to think I might be the only one here.
Problem is too many people think they are a Christian by going to church all the time. That is not true and I have been taught that many times. Christianity like any religion is spiritual and that is what it should be. One reason why the Eastern Orthodox Church is growing because they emphasize spirituality.
Without going into specifics, someone I know who claims to be Christian said this of a rape victim: that she could have just said “no.”
I know good and true Christians. I know that not everyone who calls themselves Christian truly lives the values. But that’s the example that always sticks in my mind.
In a smarter day, this cluster of animals would have been taken to a town square, had their tongues cut out and their genitals removed, then they’d have been drawn and quartered – not just for the purpose of “deterrence”, but as a genuine punishment. One that begins, barely, to touch on the horror they inflicted for no other reason than their own entertainment. I really don’t lose sleep worrying about the rights and the “suffering” of butchering, raping animals like – the fact that our society has spent time figuring out how to “painlessly” dispose of sadistic maniacs like these is just insane. When we show that we’re incapable of meeting evil like this with the kind of response it deserves, the animals will have no fear.
It’s such a cool thing to read something someone else says that seems as if it was plucked from my very own brain! I love that!
I recently was reading a true crime anthology (illustrated). As recently as 1937, France still had public executions via guillotine. Not such a bad idea. I’m unsure where along the way we decided that executions for inhuman scum should be “humane.”
Also, the hubby and I were discussing this very topic (the perceived need for humane executions) one day and between us we came up with a workable solution. Let a certain percentage of the “worst of the worst” have their death sentence commuted in exchange for becoming “eye for an eye” executioners for the others. The executioners would still have life sentences with no possibility of parole. But they would become instruments of justice, Saints of Killers. And the pieces of excrement in this article could look forward to a speedy dispatching of the same sort that they gave their victims. Everybody wins.
And show on television and call it Real American Gladiator. I would watch that.
I don’t care what the motive this crime was. Hate crime or not. This crime is really heinous. All of them deserve to rot in Hell along side with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and 9/11 Terrorists. Talk about sick and worthless right there!
I read about this crime a long time ago. It’s unfortunate that it has provided such fodder for white supremacist groups and the like.
I tend to agree that were the races switched around, Al Sharpton would have been all over this case. Unfortunately, the only special interest groups that white people have are Nazis and the KKK, neither of which speaks for me, I can tell you. I do think it would have been a golden opportunity for Sharpton to have denounced violence in general regardless of race. instead, as far as I know, he hasn’t made a peep about it. He’s too busy making sure the Dunbar rape suspects are being treated fairly.
The thing that many of these people who complain about media bias when it comes to interracial violence (and I’m not saying they’re wrong) don’t get is that had the two victims in this case been black as well as the perpetrators, this case would probably have gotten next to no press. Blame the media. Blame the suits who decide what sells. After all, that’s all they care about: $$$$$$$$$$.
Stories about rape and torture and mutilation in general do not “appeal” to the general public. They’re too grim. People like a good mystery, they like scandal, they like unusual circumstances. A random act of senseless violence isn’t something most people care to hear about. I think it has as much to do with that as the race of the victims and perpetrators.
Hang them hig h so the world can see justice done, today will not be none too soon.
This was one of the most horrific cases I have ever heard about. The terror and abuse that Channon & Christopher suffered was horrific and brutal. Real justice would be to allow the family to decide their fate and then see all five of these perpetrators to suffer long and hard deaths. I hope all five of them die because there is no reason that they should be allowed to go on living and breathing, and acting as if they are the victims when the real victims are laying buried in their graves.
To Channon and Christopher’s family and friends…..I am so sorry for all that you have had to endure and that you lost two beautiful people from your lives. I hope they can rest in peace and that you all will eventually find peace.
I completely agree, If the victims were Black and the perpetrators White this would be a huge deal. Anyone who doesn’t see that is extremely naive. What a fucked up world we live in.
Well, I happen to live in Knoxville, and have heard about this case since it first came to light on the New Year. The two victims were in a decent part of town when they were abducted; I personally lived about two blocks from there off of Washington Pike in early 2000 and never had any issues. My uncle still lives about two blocks as the crow flies from the Chipman address, which is about two miles away from Washington Pike, where the girl was found and the boy was murdered. The Chipman address is in a crappy area. He could actually see the crime techs on the railroad tracks that morning from his front porch as they were attending to the boy. After it was discovered what had happened to them, one of my uncles friends related a very similar story that had happened to him. He lived in the vicinity of where the couple were abducted. He said that late one night weeks before this ‘carjacking’, a girl had came to his door asking for a ride home. He had seen this girl around before, and they probably had drug dealers in common or something is my guess, so he got up and went outside to his car to give her a lift home. Once they pulled out of the parking lot of his apartments, he noticed a car pull out behind them with their headlights off. He said the lights were turned on after a couple of blocks and the car continued to tail them but stayed back a ways. Lo and behold, the address that she was taking this guy to was the Chipman street house. As he pulled up in front of the house, he noticed shadowy figures at the side of the house and behind some bushes too. He figured that there were at least three people that he could see. It became pretty clear to this guy what was getting ready to happen to him, so he told the girl to get out in front of the house. She insisted that he pull into her driveway to let her out. He refused, and she became verbally combative at that point. By this time, the car that had been tailing them was now directly behind him. The intention had been to pin his car in the driveway, and I can only assume kill him. He told her in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of his car, and began trying to push her out of the car. After he started to accelerate forward, she finally got out of the car, and he took off like a bat out of hell watching his rear view the whole time. My point is this. That was what they, the perpetrators, do for a living. They rob, rape, murder, and steal to get by. That was all that the would’ve ever done until they were caught. The one that has already been convicted, only to life not death which is a load of BS, had committed a similar car jacking a few years before that. College age girls, carjacked by this thug. Thankfully, he was quickly caught before he could rape or kill them and sent to prison. Of course, he was out early for all that good behavior that he did when he actively assisted in the murder and rape of the Knoxville couple. Their history is that of attacking and overpowering white people. These attacks were motivated by race. The attackers were not in their own area when they chose to do this, which is largely black, and they have a history of doing this exclusively to white people. A very similar thing happened in Wichita a few years ago. Google “Wichita Massacre” to see another media blackout. Sharpton and his ilk need to step up and address the violence that permeate this thug culture and start holding his people responsible when things like this happen. It isn’t racism, it’s statistics.
Interesting story, E Diddy. However, I don’t think these guys targeted only whites. A black woman from the same area reported these guys trying to break in on her, leaving damage to her door. Her boyfriend shot at them and they took off. Cops blew her off after they investigated it, but then got real interested after the murders and came back to talk to her. She was interviewed by a tv station shorty after the crimes and was pretty insistant that her fate would have been that of Channon and Chris’s had they got in to her. Perhaps the perps targeted more whites than blacks due to the areas they “shopped” in. They weren’t likely to have options of expensive vehicles in the same poor black neighborhoods they were from. Further, people in their neighborhood and other black neighborhoods were more likely to be armed. Not that any of this matters. The facts are that while we all have a depraved sin nature, these guys (and girl) gave in to a depravity that most of us can’t even conceive. They unleashed their hate, desire for power, control and perverted lusts on two vulnerable strangers that they knew nothing about. They had no compassion for human suffering or value for human life. I have stated the obvious question that all parents are bewildered with and grieved to the core by… How can those kids’ parents stand it? They know hate, anger, bitterness, loss, and a deep unforgiveness that many of us will fear but never experience (I pray). To know in detail and have pictures of your child’s tortured body, physically and sexually, and to imagine the agony and absolute paralyzing fear that they endured… We can never fully put ourselves in their shoes. One thing is for certain, however, I do not wish punishment to the perps at the hands of any of the parents. As just as that may seem at first it only lowers them to the level of the criminals. It was the perps own hate and anger that brought them to do what they did. On a last note, while I have compassion on anyone whose childhood was not cherished by loving adults, I am aggitated that this is used as a defense. I myself am the survivor of a childhood of physical abuse and neglect from parents. I endured sexual abuse by several family members as well. Despite that, I have never raped or killed anyone. I have pity on those perps as the children who went unloved, however, the adults who commited these crimes knew right from wrong. They also knew the possible consequences of their actions. Which brings me to the topic of the death penalty. I think our country has gone soft and as a result we have overcrowded jails. If we started doing away with these criminals in accordance to their crimes I believe we’d have less active criminals. No one wants to go to jail but the fact of the matter is you can have a whole life there. It is it’s own society. After a time, people become so accustomed to it that they no longer know or even care to know what life on the outside is like. The fear that is necessary to keep citizens using their self control just isn’t there. However, if we cut out all this silly appeal business that cheapens our justice system and just started frying some folks perhaps people tempted to rob, rape and kill would stop and think it over first. In final, I don’t hope harm on the perps in jail, but rather that they get their heart right with God. I believe the familes would find more peace in true remorse coming from these guys than for what they have done to be returned to them. Forgiveness would likely still be far off but it is much harder to forgive someone who isn’t saying they are sorry. I hope that they families can come to a point of forgiveness, not for the perps, but for their own sake. Unforgiveness only harms the one who holds onto it and these families have been harmed quite enough. I can’t imagine facing such a task though as to forgive the ones who not only took the life of your child but did it in a way that sickens total strangers and impales the hearts of all parents, communities and even our state. These familes need prayer. Without God, they will never have peace.
Brilliant post sotelotw. I’ve said from day one that this was NOT a hate crime but a crime of opportunity, but certain elements of white society want to make it more than it is because it serves their agenda. We all know who that is – The Aryans, the white supremacists and the basic KKK Klucker groups. Like Mulch says, this clowns were scumbags who would have taken advantage of the first “suckers” that came along, and your story about the black couple just confirms that.
Most of us also feel that people who use a bad childhood for an excuse when they get caught doing something especially heinous are full of shit. I have my issues from my childhood too, as do you and millions of others, and only a small percentage, probably the same percentage as people who had so called “normal” childhoods, commit crimes like this. How refreshing it would be if guys like this actually accepted responsibility for their actions when they get caught – yeah, right, that’ll be the day.
Why are people so fast to play the race card? They “people” are shitbags. Pure and simple. Tey rape, murder, rob and steal anyone who they think has something worth anything. White, balck green or pink. It doesn’t matter to them.
They deserve to die. Not because they are black but becasue they are shitbags.