We, the comrades of
Unit 1012: The VFFDP, wishes Christopher Newsom a birthday remembrance on
September 21 every year. Let us remembered how he lived on this earth.
For this year’s
birthday remembrance for Christopher, we will present this article on Channon
Christian’s father, Gary:
From rage to restoration,
murder victim's father finds faith
Published
10:15 am CDT, Sunday, September 9, 2018
KNOXVILLE,
Tenn. (AP) — Gary Christian stood in an East Tennessee church pulpit on a sunny
August Sunday, speaking about pain and death and faith and God. It's not a
place — or a point — where the father of murder victim Channon Christian would
have been 18 months ago.
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Gary
Christian poses for a photo at his West Knoxville home on Thursday, August 23,
2018. Christian lived for 11 years filled with rage over the murder of his
21-year-old daughter, Channon.(Photo:
Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)
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For 10
years Christian never talked to the Lord he had loved all his life. He left God
behind after his beautiful, compassionate, smart 21-year-old daughter was
carjacked, tortured, raped, beaten and murdered in January 2007.
Then,
last April, kneeling at his child's grave and surrounded by friends, Christian
asked for God's help.
God had
been waiting. He'd never left.
"He
restored me,"
Christian says.
Now
Christian, 62, gives his testimony to churches and other groups. He's spoken to
some 30,000 people at more than 64 locations. His website,
garychristianseminars.com, lists his schedule and how to contact him to speak.
There's no charge.
His
message is a straight-line story of a man who abandoned his faith after
overwhelming tragedy, who found God again after a decade of anguish and who now
witnesses for Christ.
His
seminars often last more than an hour. He remembers his love for a daughter who
loved dogs, shoes and clothes. He recounts the brutality of her torture and
murder. His testimony incorporates the apostle Peter, Jesus' crucifixion, the
work of missionaries and God's unwavering love. Photos of a happy, radiant
Channon Christian, often with her dad, are shown in an accompanying visual
presentation.
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Gary
Christian speaks at Mt. Carmel Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Oliver Springs
on Aug. 26. (Photo: Saul Young/News Sentinel, )
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On
Sunday, Aug. 12, Christian ended his message at Alcoa's Grace Memorial Church
with an altar call.
"I'm
telling you there's not a dark enough, black enough, cold enough hole for you
to crawl in that our Lord cannot restore you. I am living, breathing, real-life
proof that God will never forsake you for anything."
Gary
Christian took his first step straight into his own dark, cold, hellish hole on
Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007.
That's
when law enforcement told his family Channon's body had been found.
Family
and friends had searched for her two days, even before police got involved.
They began looking after the always reliable University of Tennessee student
didn't get to work or answer her cell phone.
What
happened to Channon Christian and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, 23, was
one of Knoxville's most horrific crimes. The young couple was ambushed and
carjacked the night of Jan. 6, 2007, in a North Knoxville apartment parking
lot. Bound by their attackers, they were taken in Channon's Toyota 4-Runner to
a house on Chipman Street in East Knoxville.
Both were
beaten, tortured and raped. Christopher died first, shot three times. His
burned body was found on railroad tracks near Chipman Street the afternoon of
Jan. 7. Two long days later, Channon's battered body was found in the Chipman
Street house. She'd been hog-tied, wrapped in garbage bags and left to die
stuffed in a trash can.
The
anguish never leaves Gary Christian's voice when he remembers being told his
daughter was murdered.
"That
was my baby," he says.
Officers
were still talking that January Tuesday when he walked out of their parking lot
command center. He got to the lot's far edge, away from anyone, and looked
toward heaven.
He screamed
at God. Then he turned from him.
"I
told him I am done with you. I don't want you in my life. I don't need you in
my life, and I don't trust you with anything."
It was a
dramatic turn, a first step into his hell on earth. Saved at age 8 at a Baptist
church in Henderson, Texas, Christian had grown up in church. If the doors were
open, he was there. He went on mission trips, played drums in a Christian band
and witnessed for Christ. "I loved the Lord,"
he says emphatically.
Then, as
a parent, every morning, he prayed. In every prayer, he asked God to watch over
Channon and her older brother Chase.
Then God
failed him.
"All
I asked him to do for my kids was to protect them. And he didn't."
Five
people were charged with the crimes. Three — Lemaricus Davidson, Letalvis
Cobbins and George Thomas — were convicted in state court for the murders and
rapes.
Davidson
was sentenced to death; Cobbins and Thomas got life sentences. Cobbins'
girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman, was convicted as an accessory and is serving a 35-year
sentence.
Knox
County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner presided over the 2009 trials.
But in 2011 Baumgartner pleaded guilty to official misconduct for buying pain
pills from a felon on probation in his court and resigned from office.
When it
was discovered Baumgartner sometimes held court while high, some high-profile
defendants in cases he'd presided over got new trials. Thomas and Coleman were
among them. Each was convicted again.
A fourth
man, Eric Boyd, was convicted in 2008 in federal court of harboring Davidson
after the crimes. He's serving an 18-year prison term. Now Boyd also faces
state charges in the murders. This March a Knox County grand returned a
36-count presentment against him; its charges include murder, kidnapping, rape
and robbery.
What
happened to Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom struck a deep chord in
East Tennessee and beyond. The trials were streamed live on the internet;
people around the world watched.
They
often saw the near tangible anger of Gary Christian. Hands clenched, face red,
eyes hard, he frequently rocked back and forth in the courtroom pew.
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Gary Christian holds a
photograph of his daughter, Channon, during the sentencing of Vanessa Coleman
in 2013. (Photo: J. Miles Cary/News Sentinel)
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That
anger, mixed with deep hate and a desire for vengeance, that was all he felt
for years. He existed in a cold, dark abyss. Even in a crowd, he felt alone.
"I
couldn't depend on nobody; I didn't trust anybody," he said. "Alone had a
lot to do with everything."
About a
year after the initial trials, Christian found a way to keep Channon's memory
alive. He bought a motorcycle and started the Shepherds RC riding club.
Members'
leather vests are adorned with large patches showing a strong female angel. The
club hosts an annual Channon and Chris Memorial Ride to raise money for
charity.
The ride
is one way the families remember their children while helping others. The
Christian family began the Channon Gail Christian Foundation, giving an annual
scholarship to a Farragut High School female graduate who attends UT.
Christopher's parents, Hugh and Mary Newsom, sponsor an annual Halls baseball
tournament in his memory. Christopher played the sport at Halls High.
The
families also pushed for legal changes, including the 2014 Channon Christian
Act. The law puts new restrictions on what criminal defendants and their
attorneys can do if they try to portray a victim negatively to a jury.
For Gary
Christian, Shepherds RC was a constant way for people to remember his child.
"Every time they saw us together, in my mind, it was going to remind
people — those are the Shepherds, they ride for Channon," he says.
The club
advocates self-defense and personal safety. For Christian, it also became a
brotherhood.
"I
wanted to have a group of people that no one who was a member would have to go
hunt for their daughter or their son or a member of their family alone,"
he says. "I wanted somebody watching my back and I wanted to commit to
people that I would watch their backs."
Last
spring, the Shepherds rode Christian back to a place he didn't want to go.
Some club
members asked him to attend their church, Dotson Memorial Baptist in Maryville.
Come to Easter service, they said. It was almost like a dare. He didn't want to
go. But he did, mostly just to shut them all up.
"I
never denied God. I just didn't want to have anything to do with him," he
says.
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Members of the Shepherds
Riding Club gather to remember Channon Christian at Highland West Cemetery on
Jan. 7, 2017. (Photo: BRIANNA PACIORKA/NEWS SENTINEL)
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He knew
Easter service would be about the crucifixion. But the Rev. Jim Cummings first
preached about Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus and whom Jesus restored.
Then he talked about Christ on the cross.
Two weeks
after Easter, Christian was back at Dotson Memorial. "I got convinced to
go again," he says with a wry smile.
That
Sunday was the day of the Shepherds' club-only ride to remember Channon's April
29 birthday. This year, before the ride, Christian and other Shepherds went to
church.
Cummings'
sermon was different than his Easter message. But Christian felt it directed
right at him. "I couldn't shake what this guy said the first time, and
he's doing it again."
It's
about 24 miles up Pellissippi Parkway from the church to the cemetery. The
whole ride that last April Sunday, Christian says, "the Lord was tearing
me up."
When he
got off his bike at Channon's grave, "I was just so tired. I just couldn't
do it anymore.
"I
went down on my knee, and I asked him, 'Just like you did with Peter, restore
me.' And he did."
When he
got to his feet, he realized the Shepherds around him "were all Christians
. Everybody in the club then, some longer than others, had been praying that
one day I would find my way back.
"I
hadn't done that when I started the club. Never once did I ask a man about his
faith. But all I knew that day, all the ones standing there with me were
Christians."
He knows
now how it happened.
"When
I turned my back on God, he never left me. He never stopped loving me. He never
stopped protecting me. He never left my side. And I didn't even know it."
God's
grace gave Gary Christian a mission.
Witness
for the Lord.
But to
talk of restoration, he must speak of death, loss and anger.
Lori
Christian helps schedule her husband's seminars and goes with him when he
speaks. They've been married almost two years. He credits her with showing him
it was OK to smile and laugh again.
Lori
Christian once asked her husband if he was certain he wanted to relive the pain
time after time.
"He
said, 'I told the Lord that I would spread his word to every corner of the
world that I could when he restored me. And if one person is saved or one
person rededicated their life, it's all worth it,'" she says.
Channon
Christian would be 33 if she were alive. Gary Christian thinks she would be
happy with what he's doing.
"When
I think of Channon, she was an example of what I ought to be. I know Channon is
happy for me now. I think Channon would not have wanted me to be the man I was.
I think she would want me to be the man I'm trying to be.
"I
think she would want me to stand up for people that aren't as fortunate as
others. I think she would want me to tell people about Christ."
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://www.mrt.com/news/crime/article/From-rage-to-restoration-murder-victim-s-father-13216027.php
Dad says
Channon Christian's killer deserves same fate as Billy Ray Irick
KNOXVILLE,
Tenn. (WATE) - Lemaricus Davidson has been on death row aince October 30, 2009,
and Gary Christian has been waiting for the day he's executed.
"I
hope that they will get Davidson to that point as soon as possible,"
said Christian.
Davidson was
given two death sentences for the murders of Channon Christian and Chris
Newsom. The Knox County couple was carjacked, raped, tortured and murdered in
January 2007.
While
Davidson is still on death row, Christian says he hopes the family of seven-year-old
Paula Dyer will get their justice Thursday with the scheduled execution of her
rapist and killer Billy Ray Irick.
"What
he did, he got what he deserved and it's time," said
Christian. "I hope that everything goes off
without any intervention."
Petitions
have been signed and appeals have been filed in attempt to stop Irick's
execution.
Those opposed
describe the lethal injection protocol as unethical and inhumane. Christian
says he disagrees.
"I've
got some pictures I'll show them of what pain is," said
Christian. "Laying on a cot and some chemicals
going in your arm, if that's too painful, what would they say to me about what
was done to Channon?"
Christian
says while he hopes Irick's execution brings peace to Paula's family, it may
not bring closure for them, just like Davidson's may not for him.
"There's
certain things that will bring closure too, but there's families' loss. Nothing
will bring closure to that," said Christian.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/dad-says-channon-christian-s-killer-deserves-same-fate-as-billy-ray-irick/1355645126
..... ….. https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/1674334669355159
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