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KNOXVILLE — A jury in Knoxville on Tuesday convicted a third suspect in the carjacking and torture killing of a young Knoxville couple.

The jury, chosen in Chattanooga, found George Thomas guilty on Tuesday in the January 2007 murders of 21-year-old Channon Christian and her 23-year-old boyfriend Christopher Newsom.

In live coverage by WBIR-TV, the jury foreman announced guilty verdicts for all 38 counts against him, ranging from first-degree murder to robbery, rape and kidnapping.

The defense presented no testimony in defense of Thomas, of Lebanon, Ky., but told jurors the state failed to present evidence that Thomas carjacked, raped or killed anyone. His attorneys did not speak to reporters after the verdict was read.

Newsom's mother, Mary Newsom, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that she hoped to see Thomas receive the death penalty.

“They took our kids' lives away,” she said, referring to Thomas and his co-defendants. “We feel like they should take his life, too.”

The jury on Wednesday will begin hearing testimony about whether he should receive the death sentence.

In earlier trials, ringleader Lemaricus Davidson was sentenced to death and his brother Letalvis Cobbins of Lebanon, Ky., was sentenced to life without parole. A fourth defendant, Vanessa Coleman, remains to be tried.

A fifth conspirator, Eric Boyd, was convicted in federal court of being an accessory after the fact for hiding Davidson, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The jury deliberated for about six hours over two days during the trial that began a week ago.

Newsom's naked, bound and burned body was found near railroad tracks and Christian had been stuffed into a trash can and left to suffocate.

Assistant District Attorney Takisha Fitzgerald told the jury in her opening statement that the crime centered on Christian's sport utility vehicle and the desire of the defendant and his friends to ride in it.

In his first statement to the jury, defense attorney Thomas Dillard said his client didn't take part in the theft of the vehicle, but sat in the house to which Christian and Newsom were later taken, smoking a “blunt” — marijuana wrapped like a cigar.

Dillard said Thomas knew the others were going to steal a car, but “didn't know they were going to steal the people in the car.”

In recounting the crimes against the couple, Dillard said of his client, “There is absolutely no evidence that he did that.”

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