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KNOXVILLE (WATE) - LeMaricus Davidson pleaded guilty Wednesday to robbing a Pizza Hut a day after the Christian-Newsom murders, in which he faces a second trial. Davidson, who had a felony record, could receive eight years for the robbery. He pleaded to charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and possession of gun. He will serve his term concurrent with whatever sentence he's expected to receive for the slayings of Channon Christian and her boyfriend, Chris Newsom.The couple was carjacked on January 7, 2007, taken to Davidson's rental house, tortured and killed, according to investigators. Davidson is again facing the death penalty in the case. He and three defendants were...

It's official. Death is no longer a possible fate for three of four defendants in the January 20007 torture slayings of a Knox County couple. Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price has filed notice of an intention to seek the death penalty as punishment in the deaths of Channon Christian, 21, and boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, only against alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson. Price this month notified attorneys for Davidson's brother, Letalvis Cobbins, and Cobbins' friend, George Thomas, that he will push for a fate in their cases no more than life without possibility of parole. Because Cobbins' girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman,...

A Knox County jury delivered the death sentence this afternoon to the ringleader in the torture slayings of a young Knoxville couple following a carjacking. The same panel of seven men and five women who convicted Lemaricus Davidson, 28, in the 2007 attack on University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, decided his fate. Davidson was found guilty of more than 30 counts, including felony murder and premeditated murder of each victim. The jury had a choice of a life sentence mandating a minimum of 51 years in prison, life without parole with no...

KNOXVILLE - A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death by lethal injection for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom. “The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said. The victims' families gasped at the verdict, but Davidson showed no reaction. Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner admonished those in the courtroom to control any outburst. “The murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,” the foreman said, reading from the verdict form....

KNOXVILLE - A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death by lethal injection for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom. “The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee man convicted of kidnapping, rape and murder charges in the fatal carjacking of a couple on a date has been sentenced to death. The defendant, 28-year-old Lemaricus Davidson, showed no reaction Friday as jurors announced the death sentences for the murders of 21-year-old college student Channon Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom. Davidson was found guilty of abducting the couple in Knoxville during a 2007 carjacking by several armed men.

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- New charges have been filed against a man connected to the carjacking, rapes and murders of a young Knoxville couple earlier this year. Eric Boyd is now charged with being an accessory to a carjacking that resulted in death. Boyd was previously charged with being an accessory after the fact. The new indictment accuses Boyd of knowing about the deaths of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom before aiding one of the suspected killers and not reporting the murders. The couple was murdered in early January. A woman and three men, Vanessa Coleman, Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins and...