The Spoils of War

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=64867&provider=top  ful article here -also video and comments re jury and legal case

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=2316%20chipman&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl   you can get a street view of the place using google maps , you put in an address and usually just a zip code , click on the picture that will come up in the map and use the street arrows to navigate. Keep in mind when you move the arrows the site says it  it is approximate and not exact. If you have seen pictures of the place before you can probably figure it out. The last one that comes up  as 2352  , next to the fence looks right  with the way the windows are, the extra room off to the side, the steps- and fits with the story about someone buying the empty lot next to it and turning the house’s space into a larger parking lot and memorial site. If you hold the left clicker down you can spin the scene and see the field across the street which probably leads to the railroad tracks where Chris lost his life. 

A Knoxville company is putting an end to what it calls the “death house next door.”

Waste Connections of Tennessee plans to demolish the house on Chipman Street where Channon Christian was found dead in January 2007. Chris Newsom’s body was found near the railroad tracks across the street from the house.

“When I’m outside, you can’t help but look over at that house, and everytime a train goes by, and it beeps it reminds you of what happened down there,” Waste Connections of Tennessee Division Controller Sherry Tipton said.

Tipton has worked for Waste Connections for more than 20 years, but since the murders, pulling into the parking lot at work means driving by a house with a history next door which is a solemn reminder of rapes, torture, and death within four walls.

Tipton also remembers seeing the four people accused of raping and killing the couple walk by her office window several times before the murders.

“The evil is so horrible to think about what those men did to that girl and to that boy,” Tipton said.

Lemaricus Davidson is one of the four defendants scheduled to go to trial in 2009 for the couple’s rapes and murders. He was the tenant renting the house where investigators say he and some friends took Christian and Newsom after carjacking them at the Washington Ridge Apartments.

Police believe George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman and Letalvis Cobbins were also involved with the killings. Cobbins is the first scheduled to go to trial for capital murder in January 2009.

Earlier this year, Tipton and several employees asked Waste Connections management to add the house next door to an extension plan for the company.

“Since we’re buying that other building is there any chance we expand our parking lot and take down what we call the death house next door,” Tipton explained.

Management agreed and paid $20,000 for the house at 2316 Chipman Street. Tipton says they plan to demolish it in October. Workers will then pave the parking lot and establish a memorial in the slain couple’s honor.

The Christian family is grateful the house will soon be gone. Deena Christian spoke off camera to say she appreciates Waste Connection’s willingness to demolish the house and to honor Channon’s and Chris’ memory. Christian says she and her family plan to be at the demolition and want to somehow be involved with bringing the house down.

The Newsom family is also grateful to hear the house will soon be gone.

“I will still have thoughts of what happened there, that will still be in my mind, I don’t think that will ever be erased, but taking it down will surely help,” Mary Newsom said.