Panel denies parole for Vanessa Coleman in 2007 torture slayings of Knox County couple
All seven members of the Tennessee Board of Parole voted Tuesday to deny parole to the lone woman convicted in the 2007 torture slayings of Knox County couple Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
After an hourlong hearing Tuesday, the board unanimously decided it was too soon to consider Vanessa Coleman’s bid — her second in six years — for parole. She will not get another chance at parole for 10 years, the board ruled.
“I’m pleased,” said Christian’s father, Gary Christian, after the hearing. “Vanessa Coleman has been lying from day one. She never stopped. She’s gotten worse … She’s wanting a second chance. Channon and Chris either one are never going to get a second chance.”
Newsom’s father, Hugh Newsom, thanked those who wrote letters to the parole board or signed a petition to keep her behind bars.
“We appreciate those people who stepped up and voiced their concern, and we appreciate the community of Knoxville that’s stood with us,” Hugh Newsom said.
Newsom and Christian were standing in a parking lot of a North Knoxville apartment complex in January 2007 when a group of armed men confronted them, pushed them inside Christian’s SUV, bound, gagged and blindfolded them, and forced them inside Lemaricus Davidson’s Chipman Street house.
Newsom’s burned, bullet-riddled body was found alongside nearby railroad tracks the next day. Christian’s battered body was found inside a trash can in Davidson’s kitchen two days later.
Davidson is now on death row, convicted as a ringleader in the fatal attacks. His brother, Letalvis Cobbins, and Cobbins’ pal, George Thomas, were also convicted in both slayings. Cobbins is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. Thomas initially received life without parole but was later given a plea deal to testify against a fifth suspect - Eric Boyd. Thomas is now serving a 50-year sentence. Boyd, too, was convicted and ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Coleman was initially treated as a witness in the case after she confessed she was inside — and, at times, alone — with Christian before she was stuffed alive inside the trash can and left to die. But state authorities later indicted her along with Davidson, Thomas and Cobbins, who was her boyfriend at the time, in the slayings.
She ultimately was acquitted of the crimes against Newsom and deemed a facilitator in the crimes against Christian. She was sentenced to 35 years. She’s served roughly 12 years. Tuesday marked her second parole hearing since her convictions. The board turned her down the first time in 2014.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/cri ... 487174002/