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Deliberations to Begin Monday in Couple’s Kidnapping, Rape, Slaying

More news stories on Minority-on-White Crime

Jamie Satterfield, Knoxville (Tennessee) News Sentinel, August 23, 2009

{snip}

Davidson County jurors bused to Knox County Criminal Court last week to consider the fate of 26-year-old torture slaying suspect Letalvis Cobbins spent six days hearing testimony, viewing gruesome photographs and listening to hours of attorney arguments and legal instruction.

As the high-profile capital murder trial came to a close late Saturday afternoon, the panel opted to declare today a day of rest, agreeing to begin deliberations Monday.

The panel is one member short, however. A female juror earlier had disclosed a history as a sexual assault victim but insisted that experience would not keep her from fairly trying Cobbins in the January 2007 kidnapping, rape and slaying of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. However, after Friday’s graphic photographic evidence of the rape injuries the couple suffered, the woman bowed out. A black woman, she was replaced by a white male. That leaves six blacks, one Asian and five whites on the panel of 12 plus three white alternates.

Cobbins’ defense team of Scott Green and Kim Parton and prosecutors Takisha Fitzgerald and Leland Price had one last chance Saturday afternoon to argue their respective cases. Despite the unexpected testimony of Cobbins against his defense team’s advice, neither wavered from their original positions on Cobbins’ alleged role. Neither paid much heed to Cobbins’ claim that Christian volunteered oral sex in hopes he would free her.

Price made an oblique reference to it when he told jurors: “He rapes her and leaves her there for his brother, who had his fun. That is not the reaction of somebody that’s not going along with this crime. That’s the reaction of someone who is in it and criminally responsible for it.”

{snip}

Prosecutors have repeatedly pointed out that they can’t prove who did what in a crime spree that spanned more than a day and involved nearly every major felony on Tennessee’s law books—carjacking, kidnapping, rape and murder. Cobbins is the first of four to be tried. Also charged is his brother, Lemaricus Davidson, his girlfriend Vanessa Coleman and his pal, George Thomas.

Fitzgerald and Price contend it doesn’t matter which of the crimes Cobbins personally committed to qualify him as a killer worthy of a death sentence.

“He is criminally responsible for every single thing that happened,” Price said.

{snip}

[Editor’s Note: Additional stories on the Christian/Newsom murders are listed here. In particular, see Nicholas Stix’s early account here.]

Original article

(Posted on August 24, 2009)

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Comments

1 — Anonymous wrote at 6:01 PM on August 24:

Six blacks is more than enough for jury nullification. I fear for the stability of the city of Knoxville if these demons are acquitted.

2 — Tim Mc Hugh wrote at 6:10 PM on August 24:

“A jury of six blacks, one Asian and five Whites…”Whew! Remind me never to go on trial, or if I do, not to stick around to see the result. Six Blacks, One Asian and Five Whites… Reminds me of the Leo Durocher line about baseball, “Never let the five guys who hate you get together with the four that are undecided..”

3 — Anonymous wrote at 7:05 PM on August 24:

Always supposing they get convicted, a death sentence as it is now carried out is far too good for these inhuman monsters. Twelve to fifteen years in a nice, climate-controlled cell, kept beyond the reach of other inmates by orders of protective custody, and at the end a painless slide into oblivion that we call the “final mercy” when we ease our pets into the great beyond. Yep, far from the way their victims spent their last few hours and met their end.

4 — N. J. MOE wrote at 7:44 PM on August 24:

Wanna bet this doesn’t make the nightly news ?

5 — q wrote at 7:50 PM on August 24:

Don’t you just love the way a lot of the media have pointed to this case, criticizing what the call the right fringe alleging it was racially motivated? They just don’t like anybody calling black hate crimes for what they are. True justice would be if they or one of their family members suffered the same fate at the hands of black racist thugs.

However, with 6 black jurers these black killers and torturers could very likely get off or at least get convicted on reduced charges.

This is going to be interesting to follow.

6 — Charles B. Tiffany wrote at 8:09 PM on August 24:

Free the man. He could use his 82 IQ to bring his special insight into psycho-sexual race relations. He would make a fine poster child for post-apocolyptic America. He is an example of all the wonderful things cultural diversity has brought us.
Tennessee averages 12 years for execution. I hope by then . our racist country will relent and return his rehabilated rear end to his loved ones and of course those he wants to teach the values of intense racial integration, as long as they are unarmed and tied up.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida

7 — Randolph Carter wrote at 8:11 PM on August 24:

With six blacks on the jury this could get interesting. I’d like to think with the mountain of evidence and given the horrific nature of the murders that “jury nullification” will not take place, but you never know.

If the defendants are not convicted in this case, I predict this will become a watershed event in American history.

8 — Tom S wrote at 8:36 PM on August 24:

It’s been going on 3 YEARS since this murder took place, and they’re just NOW going to trial. Back in the day, we would be comming up on the 3rd anniversary of those animals being hung in the town square. Our fore fathers are truely rolling in their graves. Oh and by the way, from what I’ve read, NEITHER of the White victims parents think race had anything to do with their childrens death. I think that those kids growing up with such racially naive parents played a HUGE part in their eventual fate.

9 — Tom S wrote at 8:51 PM on August 24:

It’s been almost 3 YEARS since this happened, and these thugs -opps- ‘yufs’ are just NOW going to trial!! Back in the day, we would’ve been celebrating the 3rd anniversary of these animals being hung in the town square. Our forefathers are truely rolling in their graves. Oh and by the way, from what I’ve read, the parents of these two White kids don’t think that race had ANYTHING to do with the crime. I think that those kids growing up with racially naive parents played a HUGE part in their deaths.

10 — Mack wrote at 11:48 PM on August 24:

If these men are not executed or at least locked away for life I suspect that there will be a climb in the number of whites that avoid black people. The malls, movie theaters and restaurents will simply do less business because so many more whites will not risk physical proximity with black people.
That’s not really very fair because most blacks are not like these killers, but here in northeastern Pennsylvania whites will simply not stay near blacks at all; only at the workplace will things not change, because people have to earn a paycheck.
What these killers did to those two young people makes me ill. I believe that the races have to live together, but this crime was impossibly cruel and senseless.
Our neighbors are through with anyone who is not white and will not even open their door if a caller is not a white person, even a child. Somedays I wake up and can’t honestly blame them when they told us this.

11 — Harumphty Dumpty wrote at 12:37 AM on August 25:

There are new stories every day now on the several trials for this crime at the same newspaper as above:

knoxnews.com

You can post to their articles, but it’s a bit of a struggle. To put it mildly. And they preview your first post.

The jury for one defendant is presently deliberating, and the jury for the presumed ringleader is about to be selected.

When the trials are in session, you can watch them on streaming video at

http://www.wbir.com/

12 — Hank wrote at 2:48 AM on August 25:


After hearing only a few of the details of these crimes, “Demonic” is the only accurate description of the perpetrators and their acts.
After careful, reasonable deliberation over what constitute proper punishment, it is clear what must happen:

The guilty should be brought before a live TV audience, where the details of their crimes are read. Photos will be shown of the dead. All the gruesome details of the crime should be revealed.

Then, the guilty should tied to wooden stakes on top of large piles of wood. The victims families then have the option of setting the wood aflame and watching as these demons are burnt slowly alive and sent to Hell, where they came from.

13 — Fall Of The Tyrants wrote at 2:54 AM on August 25:

Funny how 60 black kids not allowed to use a swimming pool or the travesty of a professor “actin’ a fool” and getting arrested severely overshadows this in the media.

14 — Anonymous wrote at 3:19 AM on August 25:

Egregious and wanton sinners as these should be executed within the court house following their convictions. Mercy shown would be contempt of righteousness. These criminals are worthy of swift death.

In so doing they’ll appear before a “higher court” for final judgment. May these wicked and defiled degenerates receive the full penalty for their deeds.

15 — Commando wrote at 5:07 AM on August 25:

This kind of crime is an everyday event is S Africa. Quite run-of-the-mill. Only difference is that here the cops won’t lift a finger to solve the murders, and the black criminals will be viewed as heroes. The race card will pop immediately - you know - they did it coz they were oppressed against during Apartheid, etc etc.

16 — Anonymous wrote at 6:40 AM on August 25:

“…from what I’ve read, the parents of these two White kids don’t think that race had ANYTHING to do with the crime.”

Having moved to Knoxville from the Los Angeles area, I have found that is a major problem. Most East Tennesseeans truly are naive to what’s really out there in the rest of the world. They embrace the small, but growing population of legal and illegal Hispanics, proclaiming that more diversity is a good thing. They do big stories in the newspaper about the African refugees moving here, about Knoxvillians going to Africa and adopting babies and bringing them back here.

In my time here in Knoxville, I have heard over and over, especially from younger whites, that Knoxville is “too white” and “boring”. They want the “flava” of minorities. I try to explain that THAT is the very reason I moved here and to explain the hell that is LA, of Southern California and in most big cities where “diversity” reigns supreme, but it’s like talking to a brick wall.

17 — mikefromwichita wrote at 8:12 AM on August 25:

“That’s not really very fair because most blacks are not like these killers, “


Ah friend but they are- the social system which breeds and protects these animals exists only because blacks as a whole do nothing to civilise themselves.

18 — Taurus689 wrote at 10:22 AM on August 25:

16 — Anonymous wrote at 6:40 AM on August 25:
“…from what I’ve read, the parents of these two White kids don’t think that race had ANYTHING to do with the crime.”

“Having moved to Knoxville from the Los Angeles area, I have found that is a major problem. Most East Tennesseeans truly are naive to what’s really out there in the rest of the world. They embrace the small, but growing population of legal and illegal Hispanics, proclaiming that more diversity is a good thing. They do big stories in the newspaper about the African refugees moving here, about Knoxvillians going to Africa and adopting babies and bringing them back here.

In my time here in Knoxville, I have heard over and over, especially from younger whites, that Knoxville is “too white” and “boring”. They want the “flava” of minorities. I try to explain that THAT is the very reason I moved here and to explain the hell that is LA, of Southern California and in most big cities where “diversity” reigns supreme, but it’s like talking to a brick wall. ”

Anonymous,
Sorry to see that you have moved from the fire back to the frying pan and that you’ll soon find yourself back in the fire.
I agree that these younger idiot Whites don’t gat it but we must remember that they’ve been indoctrinated into believing that they, as Whites, are the products of inherently evil people and that they’re the inheritors of privilege acquired by their forebears through the exploitation of people “of color”.
The left has cleverly managed to convince White youth that the transgressions of SOME in the past to whom most WHite people living today have no kinship, immediately covers them with a blanket of universal White guilt.
A friend of a friend who is a teacher in a New Jersey district that is almost totally White said that he had doubts about the district when he first began to work there due to it being “so White”. I suggested to him that he talk to some teachers in other districts that are either half Black or totally Black and compare their discipline situation with that of his school.
You’ll never hear a Black student complaining that his school is too Black. Youth “of color” are encouraged to be proud of what they are whereas our Whites kids, for all pratical purposes, are encouraged to feel guilty and become self loathing.

They don’t understand that too many White/ Black diversity encounters end badly or worse for the White.


19 — Buffalogal wrote at 12:22 PM on August 25:

I have been watching the live video frm the courtroom. Cobbins is GUILTY on most counts! Shannon’s father just sat and rocked and you could see the strain in his neck. I could not imagine being in his shoes.

20 — Anonymous wrote at 2:02 PM on August 25:

Yesterday, August 24, Cobbins was convicted of first degree murder but not hate crime. His partner, Eric Boyd was convicted of murder earlier this year. 2 down, 3 to go.

21 — DiMaggio wrote at 2:02 PM on August 25:

“I believe that the races have to live together, but this crime was impossibly cruel and senseless.”

The races were designed by God or whatever forces created the Natural Universe to live SEPARATED. The races do not have to live together, they MUST live apart for the sake of all the races. These crimes are symptoms of an integrated society. The murders, rapes, and societal evils brought upon us by racial integration far outweigh any of the supposed benefits we reap. Is rap music really worth this? Is John Coltrane really that much more important then Mozart? What are we getting out of this bargain that isn’t negated by the destruction of our schools, the economic drag of the welfare state, the scientific progress stymied by affirmative action, the senseless and unending violence, the degradation of our culture into a nonstop-thug-life-gansta rap video? I argue that we simply must live apart, integration is a failure by every measure available.

22 — Harumphty Dumpty wrote at 2:17 PM on August 25:

The verdict: guilty of first degree murder!

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/aug/25/torture-slaying-trial-day-8-jurors-resume-delibera/?comments_id=952918

I just posted the following at that link, which is at the paper the above amren article is from:

Hooray!!!

Now, aren’t decades of isolation on death row a much tougher life than being in the general prison population?

If so, then it’s very important he gets the death penalty. In the general population he’d be able to continue raping.

The fact that the jury came to a verdict on such a complexity of charges so quickly gives me hope they’ll also impose the death penalty.

I’m so glad I was dead wrong (I so hope that will turn out to be the apt metaphor) about this jury so far, and I hope I continue to be wrong (I still doubt they will impose the death penalty, but now I have hope that I’ll be wrong again).

I feel like some great load has been lifted with this verdict.

23 — Anonymous wrote at 2:40 PM on August 25:

I think that those kids growing up with such racially naive parents played a HUGE part in their eventual fate.

Hold on a minute there. Like many victims of black criminals, these two kids were not racists, nor were their parents. But in this case, their ignorance of racial issues did not contribute to their demise. The kids were literally kidnapped out of one neighborhood and taken into the house of the killers in a different neighborhood.

Had these two kids been hanging around with them, or been in the neighborhood to buy drugs, I would consider it as tragic as a bear whisperer getting eaten by a bear. But when perpetrators enter another neighborhood, carjack someone, then take them back to their own neighborhood, that makes Christian and Newsom victims in every sense of the word.

24 — Clytemnestra wrote at 5:46 PM on August 25:

“…from what I’ve read, the parents of these two White kids don’t think that race had ANYTHING to do with the crime.”

Please! Do you really think they believe that? Because I don’t. There is no doubt in my mind that the parents of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian - particularly Gary Christian, who looks like he is going to keel over from a heart attack any day, now - were coerced by the Knoxville authorities into saying that for public consumption. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were threatened with reprisals that would involve letting those felons off on much lighter sentences or walk out free.

There is a reason why Eric Boyd (who I suspect was the master mind behind this)got off with little more than a smack on the wrist and that it is taking more than two years for Letalvis Cobbins to face his trial. I am sure that there was some considerable arm twisting and outright blackmail and punishment (Eric Boyd) to make the Christians and the Newsoms compliant with the Knoxville authorities’ “Nothing to see here, White Folks, just drive on!” agenda.

Gary Christian knows the score. He may have censored himself, but you can read the truth all over his face and the palpable grief and rage and sense of betrayal emanating from every pore in his body. And so do we, thanks to that wonderful, God-given invention called the Internet. So, you Knoxville Ninnies, you can’t cover up the truth. We know it’s a hate crime no matter how much you bully the victims’ families and sweep it under the rug!

25 — François wrote at 6:05 PM on August 25:

I wonder what Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright think about all this. Or what Handsome Barack would say about it…

If we see another O.J. Simpson-style acquital for those guys, I think we are going to see demonstrations, maybe riots.

26 — Tom S wrote at 6:11 PM on August 25:

Anonymous at 2:40 wrote:Hold on a minute there. Like many victims of black criminals, these two kids were not racists, nor were their parents. But in this case, their ignorance of racial issues did not contribute to their demise. The kids were literally kidnapped out of one neighborhood and taken into the house of the killers in a different neighborhood.
You COMPLETELY missed my point so let me explain it to you. If their parents had taught them to be aware of blacks WERE EVER they see them, those thugs would’ve never got within 100 ft. of their car. It doesn’t matter what neighborhood I’m in, if I see blacks around [especially THUGGISH looking blacks like these] I keep my eye on them. And as far as the kids and their parents not being racist, what does THAT have to do with anything! Only White racists deserve to be brutally murdered? Maybe if more Whites were “racist”, alot of them would still be alive today. Back during segregation, it was very rare for Whites to be assauted\murdered by blacks, now it’s an hourly event!

27 — Anonymous wrote at 9:18 PM on August 25:

If I were to lose my child in the way that the Christians and Newsomes lost theirs, my only remaining goal in life would be to exact vengeance by whatever means necessary. If it had to be done in the courtroom at the risk of my being killed by the police so be it but those animals need to die.
There is a campaign to slaughter Whites. Why else would they have been subjected to such atrocities and with the assistance of women. Why didn’t they just take their vehicle and their money and have done with it? THey wanted to subject a White woman to unspeakable degradation and have her White man witness it before he was sadistically murdered. Remember the Missy McLaughlin murder when the so called women helped the so called men to rape her and commit other atrocities.
Eve Carson, Lauren Burk, Anne Pressley, the Wichita Five, the Zebra Victims and so many others too numerous and in many cases too anonymous (except to those who loved them) to list must be avenged.


28 — Anonymous wrote at 10:11 PM on August 25:

If their parents had taught them to be aware of blacks WERE EVER they see them, those thugs would’ve never got within 100 ft. of their car.

Yes, I am aware that this is what you were saying. But I think even had Christian and Newsom been the most racially aware couple in Tennessee, they still would not have stood much of a chance. I myself am well aware of the danger of blacks, but sometimes have no choice but to be around them. The only weapon I carry is a taser/stun gun, which is no match against a carjacker with a gun. On several occasions I have had blacks approach my car suddenly, and ask for money. In all of my cases, I lucked out, in that the person did not resort to violence. But if one of them had pulled a gun, I would have been out of luck. Only a gun of my own and a quick draw could save me in such a situation. I think Christian and Newsom’s situation was similar.

29 — D. Andrews wrote at 11:25 PM on August 25:

i agree fully with tom s. no. 26. being born in 1952 i can very well remember segregation in the south during the early ‘60’s and how black crime skyrocketed out of control after passage of the civil rights act of 1964 and integration of our schools. black on white crime here in the south was rare and when it did occur it was dealt with swiftly and with all due process.

i am infuriated every time i hear of this horror. to think that if it hadn’t been for the internet hardly anyone outside tennessee would even be aware of it.

i worked with a white nurse around 10 years ago who was around my age and recalled fondly how nice and ‘white’ knoxville was in addition to being clean and with excellent schools with an ultra low crime rate as a result. privately we discussed how the lack of blacks contributed to the almost idyllic ambience that made this east tenn. city z heaven on earth.

it’s incredible at such a low comparative population blacks can create such a hostile environment out of proportion to their population in an otherwise white paradise.

looks like the defense got their way with a majority black jury. i naively thought the 10 black female jurors in the o.j. trial would do the right thing and convict one of their own. boy was i wrong. i was given a good jolt of racial reality and taught that a good number of blacks still have a score to settle. i suspect i was not the only one who was taught a lesson the day of the verdict.

i don’t predict riots if these goons get off. after all, the m.s.m. covers it up as little as possible so most of america’s whites are not even aware it happened in the first place.

we are losing the race war unless this pattern of anti-white media treatment changes. i’m not holding my breath.

30 — Anonymous wrote at 9:43 AM on August 26:

were coerced by the Knoxville authorities into saying that for public consumption.

The journalists will do it too. They will deliberately phrase their questions in such a way as to get the victim’s families to disavow any racial component to the crime. It’s infuriating to watch, because you know that the journalist is trying to shape public opinion, which is not his job. Those victim’s families might go home and rant about the problem of black crime, but we’ll never get to see that.

31 — Anonymous wrote at 2:44 PM on August 26:

i agree fully with tom s. no. 26. being born in 1952 i can very well remember segregation in the south during the early ‘60’s and how black crime skyrocketed out of control after passage of the civil rights act of 1964 and integration of our schools.

I agreed with that portion of Tom S’s comment, but I do not find Christian and Newsom’s ignorance of racial realities to a factor in their death.


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