FRESH NEWS IN AN OLD KNOXVILLE MURDER CASE: Tennessee Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Lemaricus Davidson.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for the main suspect in the 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in Knoxville.

Lemaricus Davidson sought to overturn his convictions on counts including first degree murder and two death sentences. . . .

Christian and Newsom went missing in January 2007 in North Knoxville. Newsom’s burned body was found the next day by the railroad tracks near Davidson’s home. He had been brutally raped and shot three times. Later, Christian’s vehicle as found down the street and police found a bank envelope in her back seat with Davidson’s fingerprint.

Police then searched Davidson’s house and found Christian’s body in a garbage can in the kitchen, beaten, raped and suffocated to death.

Davidson was found guilty in October 2009 of multiple counts of first degree felony murder, first degree premeditated murder, especially aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape, facilitation of aggravated rape, and theft of property. He was then given two death sentences. The Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and sentences last year.

A very ugly case that got comparatively little national attention.