Christopher E. Russell discusses his decision not to testify while the jury is outside the courtroom on Aug. 17.A Marion County man’s appeal of his conviction, motion for new trial and 25-year sentence in the battering death of his infant son has been denied by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.
A jury in August 2016 convicted 29-year-old Christopher E. Russell of second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the June 2012 death of his 3-month-old son, Colin Eugene Russell. He was sentenced in October 2016.
Russell filed an appeal contending evidence was insufficient for his convictions, trial Circuit Court Judge Thomas W. Graham erred in denying Russell’s motion to continue the trial and erred in the denial of a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, and that the sentence Graham handed down was excessive, according to appellate court documents.