[swheaton]

People really are social degenerates...

[Bunnny]

I am sick after reading this. I don't understand the pleasure one gets out of sick acts like this. I don't get it. These are human beings for gods sake.

I am so sorry for their families. Knowing what happend must be haunting. I would be sedated forever if this happend to my child. Just kill me, too.

[Lana-Banana]

Why waste injections on gutter dwellers?

The punishment should fit the crime

[Lana-Banana]

Originally Posted by redsin7 ↗

Imagine that......Blacks

Hey asshole !

[Flaka]

Originally Posted by rvc219 ↗

general population... they'll get what they deserve

This is one of the biggest myths ever. Believe it or not, not all murderers and rapists get what they deserve in prison. Many are kept alive as long as they pay people, provide food and drugs to certain inmates. My ex was in prison with a guy that had raped and killed a woman and her ten year old. Dude had stuck a floor lamp up the victims privates. He was actually protected and respected in prison . All I'm saying is don't believe the hype that rapists and killers get dealt with in prison cuz it isn't always true.

[LiquidSky]

Originally Posted by Flaka ↗

This is one of the biggest myths ever. Believe it or not, not all murderers and rapists get what they deserve in prison. Many are kept alive as long as they pay people, provide food and drugs to certain inmates. My ex was in prison with a guy that had raped and killed a woman and her ten year old. Dude had stuck a floor lamp up the victims privates. He was actually protected and respected in prison . All I'm saying is don't believe the hype that rapists and killers get dealt with in prison cuz it isn't always true.

That's so fucked up.

And you're exactly right. TV prison and real prison aren't the same.

[Eternally Solo]

There has been so many updates & new information since the OP. Due to the fact there are a lot of parties involved, I will submit each one in their own individual post.
______________________________

THE JUDGE

Judge Richard Baumgartner was sworn in on August 18, 1992. He quickly began making legal history.

He pushed to allow cameras in the court room for the first time in Tennessee. He founded a drug court program that would prove a model in the state. He presided over the case of Knox County’s only accused serial killer, Thomas Dee “Zoo Man” Huskey. Baumgartner was also in command of the case of accused black widow Raynella Dossett Leath; as well as the case of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

His work ethic on the bench drew praise, as did his legal decision-making. He twice won re-election. “He was brilliant, that’s the sad part,” stated by Meredith Driskell, a courtroom security officer.

Rumors of Baumgartner’s lifestyle off the bench began to bubble up in the mid-2000s.

The judge had a long-term addiction to alcohol. According to a Tennessee Bureau investigator in a TBI investigation report (see attached), “Dr. Conley advised that Baumgartner suffers from pancreatic related to alcohol abuse.

In May 2006, Baumgartner began getting prescriptions for hydrocodone for the pain associated with the condition. His drinking was causing flare-ups in his pancreatic.

In late, 2007, he was briefly hospitalized as a result. His intake of prescription painkillers began to grow, as did the number of doctors from whom he received them.

He confessed his addiction to painkillers to his doctor in July 2008. He refused his doctor’s suggestion to take medical leave.

In the fall of 2008, Baumgartner underwent surgery on his foot. Shortly after, something was noticeably wrong. “He became visibly worse to the point that he could not function properly or carry on a conversation at times”, stated Jennifer Judy, a court administrative assistant.

His doctor visits grew, and he began sending court staff to pick up prescriptions at pharmacies.

In 2009, he even started stealing painkillers from a court clerk with chronic medical condition. Baumgartner was getting pills via legal prescriptions; and legally through Deena Castleman, a graduate of his drug court program.

Their relationship became sexual, but she eventually became exhausted by his pill demands. She introduced him to Christopher Gibson, a pill dealer.

If he seemed out of sorts, Baumgartner would blame his pancreatitis and foot woes. Castleman regularly racked up arrests, but never spent much time in jail.

A neighbor of Castleman, Erin McClain stated, “I knew he was getting her out of trouble. He had to be. Regular people don’t get out of trouble because they have friends.”

Baumgartner was demanding of any painkillers his staff had. Security officer Meredith Driskell claimed, “I couldn’t’ get out of bed some days. He was killing me. It was carrying that badge and walking in that courtroom and knowing what I knew and knowing I played a part in it. “

Driskell phoned Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz but didn’t disclose Baumgartner’s pill demands. “She has been treated very badly by him … She talked a lot about the abuse. No on attempted to draw my attention to the (pill) problem. No one wants to say anything”.

Gibson began using his relationship with Baumgartner as a threat against his ex-wife Darlene Gray. She began to use her cellphone to snap secret shots of the two. She gave the photo to attorney Russell Greene, who had just finished up serving as co-counsel for Vanessa Coleman in the Christian-Newsom case.

In September 2010, Gray’s house was burglarized. She suspected Gibson and told KPD everything about the relationship between him and Baumgartner.

As TBI agents secretly sought to ensnare Gibson use an informant, Baumgartner remained on the bench. Then on January 21, 2011, TBI agents informed him he was the target of a probe.

He agreed to resign and pleaded guilty to a single count of official misconduct for buying pills from Gibson.

The murder convictions in the Christian-Newsom case were tossed out and retrials were ordered the following December.

Senior Judge Walter Kurtz was assigned to the re-trials. He retired after the completion of the cases..

Judge Baumgartner died January 23, 2018, at age 70. His obit is located HERE.

[Eternally Solo]

There has been so many updates & new information since the OP. Due to the fact there are a lot of parties involved, I will submit each one in their own individual post.
______________________________

THE VICTIMS

On January 7, 2007, Roy Thurman, an employee of a nearby railroad, saw smoke by the railroad track. Newsom’s body was found by railroad tracks located near the Chipman Street address. The body had been tied with a belt around his ankles, and a shoelace secured his left wrist, which was then positioned behind his back. Mr. Newsom’s head and face had been wrapped with what appeared to be a sweatshirt. Another shoe lace had been tied around his head and mouth to hold a sock gag in his mouth. There was a bullet wound visible on the right side of his head.

Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan testified that Chris, 23, was shot and would have been dead when his body was set on fire. Newsom was either forced to walk barefoot or partially dragged with his ankles bound to the scene of his death.

The medical examiner confirmed that Chris’ face and head had been wrapped in a sweatshirt, and a grey and white sock was in his mouth with a shoelace wrapped around the sock and the back of the neck. The autopsy later revealed that Chris had been shot three times, once on the right side of the head, once on the right side of the neck, and once in the back. Further, Chris had been sodomized and was not wearing pants.

On January 9, 2007, entry was made to the Chipman Street house via a search warrant, and five minutes later, Channon Christian’s body was found in a trash can with trash bags, and material with a floral print. Daphne Sutton, who had resided with Davidson at this address, would later testify that the floral print material was from a comforter that had been on Davidson’s air mattress in the Chipman Street house.

During the autopsy of Channon, the medical examiner found that Channon had been repeatedly and violently raped, both vaginally and orally, and had been violently sodomized. The perpetrators had used bleach in her mouth and vaginal area in an attempt to destroy evidence. Nevertheless, DNA analysis revealed the presence of spermazoa and sperm fragments in Channon’s mouth, vagina, and on various items of her clothing. Lemaricus Davidson and Letalvis Cobbins were later determined to be the contributors of that DNA. The medical examiner further determined that Channon Christian was alive when placed in the trash can, but was tied in such a way that she could not breath and could not get out of the trash can. The cause of death was positional asphyxiation.

Thanks to legislation lobbying from the families of the victims, two new laws were introduced in 2014 as a result of the case:

• The Chris Newsom Act was introduced to eliminate the need for a judge's signature on a jury verdict after the delivery of a unanimous verdict. This thus eliminates the '13th juror' rule, which stipulates that a judge must validate a jury's verdict. Had such a law been in place during the case, the retrials would have been avoided.

• The Channon Christian Act restricts attorneys and defendants in attempting to portray a victim in a negative light, such as making allegations about their behavior. During the trial, Davidson had alleged that his victims had come to his house to buy drugs. According to Christian's mother, her family felt great pain as a result of listening to defense attorneys question Christian's character during multiple trials. Meanwhile, due to laws protecting the accused, the jury was not allowed to be informed of Davidson's previous carjacking conviction.
.

On October 22, 2008, the Chipman Street home was demolished. A memorial for Channon & Chris was constructed on the land.

CHRIS’ OBIT | CHANNON’S OBIT

[Eternally Solo]

ERIC BOYD

FEDERAL TRIAL & VERDICT

On April 16, 2008, Eric Boyd was found guilty in federal court of being an accessory to a fatal carjacking and of failing to report the location of a known fugitive. Boyd was the first to go to trial, the only suspect not charged with murder.

He was sentenced to a maximum of 18 years in federal prison. He is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Yazoo City, a low-security federal prison in Yazoo County, Mississippi.

STATE TRIAL & VERDICT

On March 20, 2018, eleven years after the murders, a Knox County grand jury returned a thirty-six-count indictment charging Eric DeWayne Boyd with first-degree felony murder, first-degree premeditated murder, especially aggravated robbery, especially aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated rape in the murders. Boyd was transported from a Federal Correctional Institution in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and booked into the Knox County Jail, where he was held on a $1 million bond.

Boyd finally went to trial on the state charges in August 2019. Unlike the other trials, owing to a long passage of time between the murders and this trial, the jury was empaneled in Knoxville and not sequestered.

Co-defendant George Thomas testified as a witness in the Boyd trial. In exchange for his testimony, Thomas was allowed to have his first-degree murder convictions reduced to second-degree murder, his aggravated rape convictions reduced to aggravated assault, and his sentence reduced from life in prison with the possibility of parole to 50 years (two 25-year terms with the opportunity to reduce his sentence by up to 15 percent based on good behavior during incarceration).

On August 13, 2019, a jury found Boyd guilty on nearly all charges, including premeditated first-degree murder and rape against both victims. He was also convicted on charges of carjacking, robbery, and kidnapping. Boyd was found guilty of lesser charges on two counts. Instead of finding him guilty of especially aggravated armed robbery, the jury found Boyd guilty of aggravated armed robbery.

The judge immediately sentenced Boyd to life in prison as this was automatic for a murder conviction. He was also sentenced to another 90 years for other crimes, including especially aggravated kidnapping, robbery and rape.

PRESIDING JUDGES

Boyd's request for a new trial was denied by Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee in 2019.

In 2021, Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Timothy L. Easter also denied Boyd a new trial. In March 2022, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied Boyd another appeal of his convictions.

ACTIVE TENNESSE SENTENCES

[icehole]

lethal injection? that's too soft
torture them first