Truth In Knoxville.

Remember when elements of the liberal media were claiming that “racists” were exaggerating the horrific Christian & Newsom murders? Remember when they said that claims of sexual torture and mutilation were false and invented by “racist websites,? Remember when the left-wing media outlets universally claimed that it was simply a carjacking gone wrong and not racially motivated?


How much, in a prosecutor's view, does a suspect in the fatal carjacking of a Knox County couple deserve death?

Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols is counting the ways - eight of them, to be exact.

Nichols' office on Friday filed a notice of the state's intent to seek the death penalty if Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins, 25, is convicted in the January slayings of University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23.

Cobbins is the first of four suspects in the killings to face trial, the likely explanation for why he is the first to draw a death notice. For now, prosecutors are keeping mum on the possible sentencing fate of Cobbins' alleged conspirators in the fatal carjacking, including alleged ringleader Lemaricus "Slim" Davidson, who is Cobbins' brother.

John Gill, special counsel to Nichols, declined to comment on when, or if, the remaining three suspects will be placed on notice that the state will demand their lives upon conviction.

Cobbins' attorney, Kimberly Parton, could not be reached immediately for comment late Friday afternoon. The death notice automatically will garner her a legal sidekick, slightly increase the amount of money she will be paid by taxpayers to defend the indigent Cobbins and provide some money for the services of expert witnesses and independent forensic testing and investigation.

It also could delay the May 12 trial date currently set for Cobbins.

The state needed only to allege one legal factor for designating the allegations against Cobbins as a capital murder case. Nichols cited eight, however.

The grounds he cited:

# Cobbins was a violent criminal before the carjacking turned kidnapping, rape and slaying, having racked up "one or more felonies" involving "the use of violence to the person," the notice stated.

# Newsom was tortured.

# Christian was tortured.

# Newsom was slain to cover up Cobbins' alleged role in the carjacking, kidnapping, rape and robbery.

# Christian was slain to cover up Cobbins' alleged role in the carjacking, kidnapping, rape and robbery.

# Newsom's slaying came during the commission of crimes against Christian.

# Christian's killing came during and after the commission of crimes against Newsom.

# Cobbins' allegedly "mutilated the body of Chris Newsom after death," the notice stated. Newsom's body was set afire after he was shot to death.

Christian and Newsom had been out on a date when they encountered armed carjackers who wound up taking the couple along with Christian's Toyota 4-Runner. Authorities said the pair were robbed and taken at gunpoint to a house on Chipman Street where Davidson had been living.

The couple was beaten, tortured and repeatedly raped, according to authorities. Newsom was slain first, with Christian held and victimized several more hours before she was strangled and her body discarded in a large trash can inside the house.

Newsom's body, dumped alongside railroad tracks, was found less than 24 hours after the couple was reporting missing. It would be another two days, however, before Christian's body was discovered.

It's not clear why Cobbins is being tried first. Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price announced the trial lineup earlier this year. In any case involving more than one suspect, the order of separate trials is typically a trial strategy in and of itself.

Cobbins' girlfriend - Vanessa Coleman, the lone female suspect in the case - is being tried second. Davidson is third, followed by George "Detroit" Thomas.

Before any of those suspects faces a state court jury, however, a federal jury will get the first glimpse at a case where details have been kept tightly under wraps. That's because an alleged accessory to the carjacking, Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd, is set to stand trial in U.S. District Court in February for allegedly helping hide out Davidson after the slayings.

Federal prosecutors David Jennings and Tracy Stone have said that to convict Boyd as an accessory, they first must prove Davidson's role in the fatal carjacking. Boyd faces a maximum 15-year prison term if convicted as an accessory. He is not accused in the fatal carjacking itself.