Photo Credit: Jackson SunKNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The retrial of a Kentucky woman in the 2007 torture killing of a young Knoxville woman has begun in Knoxville.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported prosecutors laid out a timeline Tuesday morning in the slayings of 21-year-old Channon Christian and 23-year-old Christopher Newsom in opening statements at the trial of Vanessa Coleman. Coleman is not charged in Newsom's death.
Coleman, of Lebanon, Ky., was previously convicted of playing at part in the facilitation of crimes against Christian.
The state and the defense agreed the retrial of Coleman was necessary after the trial judge acknowledged he was using tranquillizers during the initial trial.
The state is challenging a ruling that three men convicted in the killings must also be retried.
A Madison County jury is hearing the trial.
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