Jurors reject new trials ruling in Christian-Newsom murders

by Lewis Loflin

The misconduct and drug addiction of ex-Knox County Judge Richard Baumgartner during the trials caused Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood to grant new trials for Davidson and the other three defendants convicted in the 2007 racial killings of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom by five feral blacks. Now their families will relive the nightmare again where five feral blacks gang-raped and murdered their children.

The judge who presided over all the trials, Richard Baumgartner, resigned in March 2011 and pleaded guilty to official misconduct. He admitted he'd become an addict who bought drugs from a felon under his jurisdiction. In December 2011, Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood granted new trials finding that Baumgartner was impaired during the original trials.

The trials went viral on the internet due to the refusal of the press to cover this (and many other stories for that matter) because the victims were white and the killers black no matter how hideous the crime. The young couple was car-jacked, gang-raped, and tortured before being executed. This was going on at the same time the press was in a feeding frenzy over the false rape accusations against white lacrosse players at Duke by a black whore and Imus was destroyed over some harmless comments on black women on the Rutgers basketball team.

Note that a number of blacks contacted me while I tracked this story on my website. I can tell everyone they were as horrified as anyone. The problem was the racist' press and not the many decent black people out there that are left living in terror-filled communities because society refuses to deal with this violent and sizable element infesting black communities.

While the Duke lacrosse players were lynched in the press, those protesting the lack of coverage of this latest racial killing were attacked as racists by the same press. Many were demanding hate crime charges also be filed against the killers, police refused to even consider it after racial motives came up during the trials. Recent testimony by Attorney General Holder made it clear hate crimes protections don't extend to white victims (unless they are Jews or homosexuals), but only to "historical" victims.

This writer and the Bristol Herald Courier had a blowup when I accused them of not following the Christian/Newsom story even when it was in nearby Knoxville because of race while they reported on Duke and the shooting at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville. That latter story got massive coverage because the killer was white and could be falsely linked to "right-wing" talk radio. They like most of the left-wing press wanted the "whites are racists and gun nuts" view and not the everyday violent attacks on whites by minorities. Political correctness racism and censorship runs rampant in the press.


Cobbins was eventually found guilty of Christian's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on August 26, 2009. Davidson was found guilty of murdering Christian and Newsom and sentenced to the death penalty on October 30, 2009. Thomas was found guilty of murdering Christian and Newsom and sentenced to life in prison without parole on December 10, 2009. Coleman was convicted of lesser charges of facilitating Christian's murder, kidnapping rape and theft on May 13, 2010 and sentenced in July to 53 years in prison.

Another man, Eric Boyd, was convicted in federal court in October 2008 as an accessory after the jury agreed that he helped Davidson hide following the murders. Boyd was sentenced to 18 years in prison and a federal appeals court upheld his conviction in 2011. So says WATE News 6 December 7, 2011.

The TBI report indicates Baumgartner was high during at least three of the four trials. The Jurors said,"He never once appeared intoxicated," Neeley added. "I'm not saying it's impossible. He could have been, but he was nothing but professional to each one of us. He seemed like he took it seriously. Everything ran like there were no mistakes. I don't think any mistakes were made," said Robin Gold. "I kind of feel like a fool that was going on and I had no idea," Cindy Goltry said. "It does not warrant a retrial," Daniel Neeley said.

"We were behind the scenes for this and we are the ones who can tell the public and whoever is listening that in all appearances nothing was done wrong, job wise, his home life must have been a wreck and he was breaking the law but he was doing the job during the trial," said Chris Baber.

The six jurors and two alternates say the evidence and not the judge were what convicted Davidson to the death penalty. "When we actually had to sign our name to that paper, to sentence him to death, that's the first time I saw 12 people cry," said foreman Greg Wise. "It was so sad to come to the conclusion that he deserved death, that he had gone so wrong in his life that he deserved death," said another juror.

WATE 6 News is reporting that according to the Tennessee Department of Treasury Judge Baumgartner has been receiving his pension of $4,900 a month or $58,800 a year. The cost to taxpayers of all four trials was more than $1 million including defense attorney fees as well as the cost to sequester the jurors.

The above are edited extracts from several reports from WATE News 6 in Knoxville Dec 07, 2011.