KNOXVILLE -- Defenders of the alleged ringleader in the torture slayings of a Knox County couple faced their biggest hurdle Thursday -- their client's own mouth.
"Was she over there to buy dope?" U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives Agent Forest "Woody" Webb asked Lemaricus Davidson about slaying victim Channon Christian in a police video shown to jurors.
Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner confers with (from left) defense attorneys Doug A. Trant and David M. Eldridge and Knox County prosecutors Leland Price and TaKisha Fitzgerald in the trial of slaying suspect Lemaricus Davidson.
J. Miles Cary/Knoxville News-Sentinel
Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner confers with (from left) defense attorneys Doug A. Trant and David M. Eldridge and Knox County prosecutors Leland Price and TaKisha Fitzgerald in the trial of slaying suspect Lemaricus Davidson.
"I ain't never seen the girl before in my life," the Memphis native answered during the interrogation shortly after his Jan. 11, 2007, arrest.
Defense attorneys David Eldridge and Doug Trant have been trying this week to sow seeds of doubt about whether Christian, 21, and boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, were victims of a carjacking turned kidnapping, rape and murder by suggesting the couple went to Davidson's Chipman Street neighborhood in search of drugs.
Eldridge also told jurors they would at the end of trial question whether Davidson was even in his own house when the couple went from alleged drug-seekers to victims of the "gang from Kentucky" -- co-defendants Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman.
But on Thursday, prosecutors Leland Price and Takisha Fitzgerald fired back with Davidson's own statement, which proved chockful of contradictions.
Davidson first told Webb and Knoxville Police Department investigator Ryan Flores he was nothing more than a drug dealer.
"Selling dope, that's what I do, sell dope," he said. "I don't kill people though."
He quickly admitted that Cobbins, his brother, and Thomas showed up at his house that fateful weekend with Christian's Toyota 4Runner. He even drove it to go "serve" his drug clientele and "wiped it down" when he was done.
"I knew the car was hot," he said.
He insisted he never saw Christian and Newsom in the vehicle or in his house. That account changed, however, when he learned that Cobbins and Thomas had been nabbed in Kentucky. Flores hinted they were telling tales about Davidson.
"They had both of them in the back seat tied up," Davidson said. "I know the girl was at my house. I know that (Thomas) killed the dude. ... When that girl was in my house, I wasn't there."
Davidson didn't stick with that story long, though.
"I stayed there like five minutes (after Christian was brought into his house)," Davidson said. "I bumped up against her a couple of times, but that's the only contact I had ... She grabbed me though. She touched my arm."
Davidson said Christian told him, "I don't want to die." He said he assured her that she wouldn't.
Knoxville police fingerprint expert Tim Schade linked Davidson's palm prints to those found on three of five bags used to encase Christian's hog-tied body, which was found in a trash can in Davidson's kitchen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment