Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom

On the evening of January 6, 2007, Channon Gail Christian, 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., 23, were carjacked in an apartment complex parking lot in Knoxville, Tennessee, while standing near Christian's SUV. Both were forced into the vehicle at gunpoint and taken to a rental house at 2316 Chipman Street. Both victims were raped; Newsom was later taken to nearby railroad tracks, forced to walk barefoot, and shot multiple times, with the fatal shot severing his brain stem. His body was set on fire. Christian was held captive in the house for approximately two days, during which she was repeatedly beaten and raped, including with an object, before her attackers poured bleach down her throat and scrubbed her body to destroy DNA evidence. She was bound, placed inside a residential waste bin in the kitchen, and died of asphyxiation.

Newsom's body was found near railroad tracks on January 7. Christian's abandoned SUV was located by family and friends on January 8 after they obtained cellphone tower information. Fingerprint evidence from an envelope in the vehicle led investigators to Lemaricus Davidson, whose house was found unoccupied with Christian's body inside on January 9. Davidson was arrested on January 11 after a manhunt; Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, and Vanessa Coleman were arrested the same day in Lebanon, Kentucky. Eric Boyd was later linked to the carjacking and was federally indicted in 2007.

A Knox County grand jury indicted Cobbins, Davidson, Thomas, and Coleman on charges including kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Boyd was initially charged federally as an accessory. Following jury trials between 2008 and 2010, Davidson was convicted and sentenced to death; Cobbins and Thomas received life sentences without parole; Coleman was convicted of facilitation and sentenced to 53 years; Boyd was convicted federally and sentenced to 18 years.

All four state convictions were set aside after it emerged that presiding Judge Richard Baumgartner had been impaired by drug addiction during the trials; he later resigned, pleaded guilty to official misconduct, and was disbarred. The Tennessee Supreme Court subsequently reinstated the convictions and sentences for Davidson and Cobbins, while Coleman and Thomas were retried. At retrial, Coleman was convicted of facilitation of aggravated kidnapping, rape, and Christian's murder, and resentenced to 35 years. Thomas was again convicted on all counts and resentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 51 years, later reduced to 50 years in exchange for testimony against Boyd.

In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. He was convicted in August 2019 on nearly all counts, including first-degree murder and rape of both victims, and was sentenced to life plus 90 years.

The case drew national attention and controversy over media coverage, with some commentators arguing the crime was under-reported due to the racial dynamics of the case, while local law enforcement and prosecutors stated there was no evidence of racial motivation. The case led to two Tennessee legislative changes in 2014: the "Chris Newsom Act," eliminating the judicial "13th juror" validation requirement, and the "Channon Christian Act," restricting attempts to disparage victims' character at trial.