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Thursday, April 17, 2008

First Conviction in Knoxville Double Homicide

Last week, the trial of Eric Boyd for accessory to murder began in Knoxville, Tennessee, the first in a series of four more cases to be brought to trial for the deaths of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a young couple attending University of Tennessee, who were carjacked, abducted, tortured, raped, and murdered.

Today, Boyd was found guilty of that crime, and will be sentenced in August, facing up to 22 years in prison for his role in the deaths of the couple.

"Justice was served today, but it doesn't take the hurt away from losing a great son," [Hugh] Newsom said as he broke down into tears.

For Gary Christian, the bill is far from paid.

"One down, four to go," he said. "But we've got more to do on the one, too. That ain't the last Eric Boyd has heard from us."

These two fathers, first linked by the budding romance between children Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian and now forever bound by the deaths of the young couple in a carjacking turned torture killing,spoke out Wednesday afternoon outside U.S. District Court, where a jury had just deemed Eric Dewayne "E" Boyd guilty of helping hide out one of their children's alleged killers.


Jurors deliberated from 9:35 am until 1:43 pm, with one break in deliberations to ask for clarification of wording in the charges, before returning with the guilty verdict.

While the families, prosecutors, and investigators celebrate the first victory, they know that there are still four more trials to undergo. There was a great deal of information that came out during this trial, details of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Christian and Newsom, but perhaps the most important question remains unanswered, asked by Newsom's mother, Mary; "Why did they just not let them go, if all they wanted was the car, why did they not just let the kids go?"

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