New robbery charges for 1 suspect in Knoxville double murder

New robbery charges for 1 suspect in Knoxville double murder

May 18, 2007

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- One of the suspects in the double murder of a young Knoxville couple is facing new charges for armed robberies committed just days after the murders.

Lemaricus Davidson is charged with six counts related to two robberies.

The Knox County grand jury indictment states that Davidson robbed a worker at the Pizza Hut at 3428 N. Broadway at gunpoint and snatched a woman's purse at gunpoint on the same day, January 8.

Davidson is also charged for possessing a weapon as a convicted felon during the robberies. He was convicted in 2001 of aggravated robbery and carjacking in Madison County, Tennessee.

Davidson is due on court on the robbery charges on September 27.

He is already charged in the couple's double murder case with 46 counts including felony murder, premeditated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape and theft for the kidnappings, rapes and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. 

Investigators believe the couple was killed on January 6 or 7, making the armed robberies as soon as the following day.

He was the first suspect arrested for the double murder. Davidson was taken into custody on January 11 in Knoxville at a house on Reynolds St. That was two days after Christian's body was found in a house nearby.

The case was featured on FoxNews Friday morning when 6 News reporter Erica Estep fielded questions about why local authorities don't consider this a hate crime. The suspects are all black. The two victims were white.

However, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen told the media in a press conference Thursday there's no evidence to support that. "It appears to have been a random violent act."

Davidson is due to go on trial in the double murder case next year.