TN - Chris Newsom, 23, & Channon Christian, 21, murdered, Knoxville, 6 Jan 2007 #12

[steelergirl]

http://twitter.com/jamiescoop

Hugh - "I'd live on streets" destitute for chance tell Chris he loves him #cntrial
half a minute ago from txt

 

[jnTexas]

Omg, I am not able to keep it together this morning. I want to hug these people as tight as I can.

I am so with you. I just want to reach thru my laptop screen and wipe the tears and just hug them all.

 

[SuziQ]

I predict the mitigating testimony is going to sound so lame to the jury after hearing the impact statements.

 

[PrairieWind]

Boytwnmom, I would agree with you. The jury seems to have decided that GT MUST have participated in the crimes. With the testimony of the ME about the crimes requiring multiple people to commit, I think its more than reasonable for teh jury to have assumed that GT was an active participant. Gonna be very difficult for the judge to throw out the conviction now.

 

[PrairieWind]

Families are addlibing big time from their "approved" statements. Good for them! No one should tell them what they can and can't say about their own damned kids.

I think it planned. They had to be very careful in the other trials, because they really wanted death sentences. But I think they dont care so much if GT gets life or death, so they are just going to use this opportunity to get their story out.

 

[steelergirl]

http://twitter.com/jamiescoop

Hugh - as u celebrate Christmas, remember "empty space" at Christian, Newsom tables #cntrial
1 minute ago from txt

 

[jnTexas]

State rest, taken a quick break, and then comes the BS.

 

[SuziQ]

JC, what's with this dude???!!! He's walking with a spring in his step!

 

[PrairieWind]

Hugh Newsom's testimony is always gut-wrenching. Excellent to end with him. I have been impressed with TK and Price's use of witnesses and their timing. Always spacing witnesses so that they will end the day, or break for lunch with the jury soaking on some very important or emotional testimony before the defense could cross-examine, etc.

 

[jnTexas]

Hugh Newsom's testimony is always gut-wrenching. Excellent to end with him. I have been impressed with TK and Price's use of witnesses and their timing. Always spacing witnesses so that they will end the day, or break for lunch with the jury soaking on some very important or emotional testimony before the defense could cross-examine, etc.

If I were on the jury I don't think I could eat lunch after those statements. I would be an emotional mess. I bet they all go home after this trial and hug their children.

 

[Muffet]

http://twitter.com/jamiescoop

Hugh - "I'd live on streets" destitute for chance tell Chris he loves him #cntrial
half a minute ago from txt

That's the one that sends me from weeping to sobbing.

 

[PrairieWind]

That's the one that sends me from weeping to sobbing.

Yes, I remember in the Davison trial he said that he would give up everything he owned to have an hour with Chris to tell him he loved him and goodbye.

 

[Muffet]

Y Martinez said one male juror and "seven" or "several" women jurors were crying by the end of Mr Newsom's statement.

That man's goodness and pure heart just incites the soul to wail against the subhuman beasts who brutalized him and his son.

 

[yolorado]

Boytwnmom, I would agree with you. The jury seems to have decided that GT MUST have participated in the crimes. With the testimony of the ME about the crimes requiring multiple people to commit, I think its more than reasonable for teh jury to have assumed that GT was an active participant. Gonna be very difficult for the judge to throw out the conviction now.

This seems crucial. These kids were overpowered by multiple perps and rendered helpless from the beginning. There was no indication that they were able to fight back in any shape or form. That indicates to me the strong probability of multiple kidnappers for each victim, and I doubt that Vanessa went on that ride which would leave us with LC, LD, GT and E. Plus with at least two perps taking Chris out by various perp versions (probably more according to the junk yard guy), that leaves 1-2 perps at the house where they keep Channon kidnapped. To me, keeping someone restrained until your crime partners can get back to rape her some more IS active participation in a felony...if nothing more, and I don't think we should necessarily buy into the defense's just minding my own business scenario. These people were in a house for hours or days where rape and murder occurred in very close quarters. Each one of these people could have raped or murdered. Lack of DNA doesn't necessarily mean anything if rape was done by an object or if the cleaning done after the crime took care of it for a particular perp.

 

[Muffet]

I look at it as the MERE presence at a crime and MERELY knowing the perp can't make the defendant criminally responsible. Here the jury, the finder of fact, found the facts supportive of the inference that he was criminally responsible. Here we had extended presence over many hours during a heinous crime, participation in enjoying the fruits of that crime, apparent "comfort" with the criminals and their acts, etc. and perhaps even a conclusion that it was not reasonable to believe a person present through all of this was not actually invovled. I see all of that as leading a reasonable juror to conclude that the defendant's conduct went well beyond mere presense and acquaintance and entered the realm of criminal responsibility. I don't think it would be proper for the judge to overrule that determination as I don't think he can make a case for the proposition that there was no reading of the facts under which the defendant could be found criminally responsible. But I guess we will have to wait and see.

ITA. The law says the jury is allowed to draw their own inferences, and that's what they did. I don't think he'll overturn it, either.

If they give him the DP, maybe... otherwise, I'm guessing he'll leave it to the appeals court.

 

[yolorado]

That's the one that sends me from weeping to sobbing.

There's a very quiet but very noble elegance to Mr. Newsome. He said how much he'd lost financially. Then, he said forcefully that he wasn't soliciting donations. Then he said that financial losses mattered not at all...that he'd give up everything and go live on the street for one more hour with Chris. I think of "like father like son," and I have a feeling that the world would have been a far better place if Chris had been able to live out his life! Then, I cry too.

 

[jnTexas]

Aunt LaTonia Eason is on the stand

 

[SuziQ]

http://twitter.com/jamiescoop

Thomas aunt on stand. She is married mom of 4

 

[yolorado]

GT's dad didn't have a job. His mom worked 3 nearly full-time jobs. (Yikes, how would you have time to even see your kids?) Ok, here goes Dad under the bus. Allen/Willie was a bad roll model. Girls, don't grow up to marry bad role models!!

 

[jnTexas]

So according to Auntie LaTonia, george's father Allen was not around very often he was in and out of jail. So that would mean the negative influence of the father was not very often.

I'm so tired of hearing how bad their childhoods were. THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO MURDER, RAPE, AND TORCHER TWO YOUNG PEOPLE.