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Updated: 5:02 AM Dec 4, 2009
George Thomas double murder trial, day 3
Jurors were forced to leave the courtroom Thursday, following a heated exchange during testimony in George Thomas' double murder trial.
Posted: 5:52 AM Dec 3, 2009 |
Channon Christian & Christopher Newsom share a special moment.
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UPDATED 5:06 p.m.: KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Jurors were forced to leave the courtroom Thursday, following a heated exchange during testimony in George Thomas' double murder trial. Thomas is accused of carjacking, kidnapping, raping and killing Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, in January 2007.
Thomas is the third defendant to go to trial for the killings. Letalvis Cobbins was sentenced to life without parole for his role in the killings, and his half-brother Lemaricus Davidson was given four death sentences.
A witness testified Thursday that she saw Thomas near the Chipman Street house around the time of crime.
Prosecutors called Ethel Lynn Freeman to testify because of where she says she saw George Thomas and when, but the defense attacked her claims, igniting a shouting match between attorneys.
"He's gone on and on about the stuff she's left out," prosecutor Takisha Fitzgerald said, "and I think it's relevant that she has testified consistently, your honor."
It was a battle prosecutors won, letting them stress what Freeman's said she witnessed.
"I knew George Thomas," Freeman testified. "Absolutely sure it was George Thomas."
Freeman testified she saw Thomas walking alone on Chipman Street the day Newsom's body was found burned along nearby railroad tracks.
Transcripts in hand, Defense attorney Thomas Dillard attacked Freeman's credibility, showing her testimony has changed in various trials. Dillard drilled Freeman on how she also previously identified Christian and Newsom at a gas station begging for money, despite bank representatives' testimony indicating that the couple had cash when they were killed.
"The bottom line is, you made a mistake," Dillard said.
"I wouldn't say I made a mistake, no," Freeman responded.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"I didn't know Channon and Chris."
Jurors also asked questions about Freeman's supposed sighting of the couple, but they didn't ask her about Thomas at all.
Prosecutors walked a fine line in an attempt to discredit Freeman's statements about the Christian and Newsom without discrediting the part of her testimony that supports their case.
Other witnesses also put Thomas at the Chipman Street home the weekend of the murders.
Thomas' ex-girlfriend Stacy Lawson also took the stand.
She described Thomas as a passive pot-smoker who didn't bother to do anything, even when she said one of Thomas' co-defendants put a rifle in her face.
"Was that kind of his demeanor?" Dillard asked.
"To be passive? Yes," Lawson replied.
Prosecutors are trying prove that Thomas is criminally responsible for the deaths of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, but the defense has argued that Thomas kept out of things that were none of his business.
"In all your conversations with George Thomas about what went on down there, do you ever remember him saying he participated at all in anything that went on down there?" Dillard asked Lawson.
"No," she replied.
"You know that, don't you?"
"Yes."
Lawson testified that she caught Thomas checking a news Web site about the couple's murder, which apparently occurred, prosecutors say, after he went back to hide out in Kentucky.
"What was your reaction (to Thomas' alleged involvement)?" prosecutor Leland Price asked Lawson.
"I was shocked," she testified. "I thought, 'Who have I put myself around?' "
Daphne Sutton, Davidson's ex-girlfriend, testified that she saw Thomas at the Chimpan Street house the weekend of the murders.
Sutton said now-convicted killer Lemaricus Davidson blocked her from the kitchen where Christian's body was later found, stuffed in a trashcan. Thomas, she said, just sat in the living room.
"He didn't talk to you?" Dillard queried.
"No," Sutton answered.
"He didn't prevent you from going anywhere?"
"No."
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- George Thomas' double murder trial continues today. He's the third of four defendants to stand trial for the January 2007 carjacking, kidnapping, rape and murder of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23.
You can watch the entire trial streaming live at VolunteerTV.com.
Get up-to-the-minute trial updates from Mike McCarthy by following @WVLT on Twitter.com.
2:15pm---As expected. Daphne's testimony shows Thomas at the Chipman Street house the night before the fatal crime spree and the day Newsom's body was found about 100 yards away along railroad tracks. Sutton now pointing out what's out of place in the video walk-through of the Chipman Street house.
1:30pm---After a series of her friends testify, Daphne Sutton takes the stand to testify against Thomas. Sutton's past testimony puts Davidson at the Chipman Street house the weekend of the crimes, and the day Newsom's body was found.
12:00pm--Court breaks for lunch. Defense continued casting doubt on whether or not Freeman really saw Thomas on Chipman Street Sunday morning by questioning about whether or not she saw the couple at the Exxon on Cherry Street Saturday night begging for money for gas. Freeman maintained she knows Thomas because he helped her move and had seen him other times; however, she didn't know the couple, but thinks she saw them still. Defense basically trying to discredit Freeman because of the fact that Christian and Newsom both had money in the banks when they were killed so they would have no need to ask for money.
10:50am--Defense attacks Freeman's credibly by pointing out how many times her story has changed about her actions on Jan 6, 2007. Freeman testified before a grand jury she did nothing that day, and now says she went by Chipman Street that night. Defense pushing her story changed, by saying during Davidson's trial she stopped at the Exxon on Cherry street and saw Christian and Newsom there. Defense asked if she's just as sure she saw George Thomas on Chipman Sunday morning? She said she knew George Thomas and was sure it was him, but she didn't know Christian and Newsom.
10:30am--Freeman testified she saw Thomas walking on Chipman Street Sunday morning, about the time Newsom's body was found. She said she didn't talk to him. Defense will cross-examine Freeman after a break.
10:15am--Freeman identifies curtains she gave Davidson. Those curtains were used to bind Christian. Freeman said when she talked to Davidson early Sunday morning "he didn't sound like himself...like he was vigorously doing something." Freeman lived at Washington Ridge Apartments, where police believe Christian and Newsom were carjacked January 6, 2007. Freeman testified expected Davidson at her apartment that night to bring her money for furniture.
10:00am--Defense trying to show Thomas is a passive, pot smoker. Lawson testified Thomas didn't even doing anything when Davidson pointed a rifle in her face, and smoked "blunts" (marijuana wrapped in a cigar). Defense also stresses in numerous jailhouse calls to Lawson, Thomas never admitted to being involved in the crimes. Ethel Lynn Freeman is next on the stand.
9:45am--Lawson said she didn't talk with Thomas until January 10, when he told her to come to a friend's house in KY. Thomas wouldn't say how he, Cobbins, and Vanessa Coleman got back to KY. When she learned Davidson and Cobbins were prime suspects in the Christian/Newsom murders on a news website she was "shocked" and worried about who she had been around.
9:25am--Lawson testified she made three trips from Lebanon Kentucky to Knoxville prior to the fatal crime-spree. She said she left Knoxville before the crimes. Lawson also said she'd been dating Thomas about a year when the crimes occurred.
9:08am--George Thomas' ex-girlfriend, Stacy Lawson, takes the stand. Attorneys say she's feeling nauseous this morning. Judge said to let him know if the court needs to break.
