What to Know About Jessica Chambers’ Burning Death | PEOPLE.com After a mistrial last year, suspect Quinton Tellis will go to trial again this month in the Mississippi murder of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers After a mistrial last year, suspect Quinton Tellis will go to trial again this month in the Mississippi murder of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers
Her murder trial divided the tiny town of Courtland, Mississippi after Quinton Tellis, a black man, was arrested and accused of killing her. Who was Jessica Chambers? Her aunt Sherry Hall, described her as a blue-eyed cotton topped little girl.
First one jury, then a second, failed to reach a verdict on whether an accused man splashed fuel on Jessica Chambers and caused the 19-year-old former high school cheerleader to die by setting her on fire on a rural Mississippi road in 2014.
While in high school, Jessica was a cheerleader at her high school football games. Her father, Ben Chambers, said she was a flyer who was thrown up in the air during stunts. But, at around the age of 16, she stopped wanting to be a cheerleader.
When did Jessica Chambers die?
But 14 months after a petite blonde former high school cheerleader was intentionally set on fire on the night of Dec. 6, 2014, and died within hours from her horrific injuries, the stubborn mystery that had everyone talking still had no answers. Who killed Jessica Chambers?
The Twists & Turns After 19-Year-Old Was Burned to Death: What to Know About Murder of Jessica Chambers. After a mistrial last year, suspect Quinton Tellis will go to trial again this month in the Mississippi murder of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers. By Jeff Truesdell.
That trial is on hold until his alleged role in Jessica’s murder is resolved. Tellis, now 29, is serving a five-year sentence in a Mississippi state prison after an unrelated conviction for burglarizing an unoccupied dwelling, according to jail records.
The judge in the case declared a mistrial, opening the door for prosecutors to try Tellis a second time on the murder charge. That trial is set to begin Sept. 24 in a courtroom in Batesville, where the first trial unfolded and with Circuit Judge Gerald Chatham once again presiding.
How did Jessica Chambers die?
First one jury, then a second, failed to reach a verdict on whether an accused man splashed fuel on Jessica Chambers and caused the 19-year-old former high school cheerleader to die by setting her on fire on a rural Mississippi road in 2014.
But while Chambers’ family hopes that a third trial in the Chambers case may yet deliver the justice they seek, the Mississippi prosecutor, John Champion, tells PEOPLE that he’s not rushing forward. “I’m just going to wait and see what happens in Louisiana,” he says. jessica-chambers-2. Jessica Chambers.
The victim in that case, 34-year-old Meing-Chen Hsiao, was a Taiwanese exchange student who was tortured and stabbed more than 30 times in her apartment in July 2015 by someone allegedly trying to obtain the PIN number to her debit card, according to affidavits obtained by PEOPLE.
After two juries failed to reach a verdict, Jessica Chambers’ accused killer now awaits trial on an unrelated murder charge in another state. By Jeff Truesdell.
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Authorities also located phone records that, they alleged, placed the pair together at the approximate time of Chambers’ attack — with Tellis’ DNA on her car keys. Prosecutors argued at trial that Tellis strangled Jessica after they eventually did have sex, and then he set the blaze believing she was already dead.
Where was Jessica Chambers set on fire?
By: Catherine Townsend. On December 6, 2014, a 19-year-old cheerleader named Jessica Chambers was set on fire in the small town of Courtland, Mississippi. Despite suffering from smoke inhalation and having been severely burned on almost her entire body, Chambers managed to escape.
Intelligence Analyst Paul Rowlett testified about Chambers’ and Tellis’ phone data, and claimed that phone data put Chambers and Tellis together at the same location just before, or possibly even during, Chambers’ murder. The defense team has questioned Rowlett about the accuracy of the data.
According to an affidavit, Palmer accused Champion of “ numerous ethical violations, prosecutorial misconduct [and] potential criminal violations. ”. Karas said that the judge concluded that any potential prosecutorial misconduct by Champion ” was not prejudicial ” to Tellis.
Jurors in the upcoming trial for Chambers murder could potentially be influence d by evidence from the Hsiao case, but Karas point ed out that none of the evidence from Hsaio’s case will be admissible.
After the mistrial, prosecutors immediately announced their intention to retry the case. According to Karas, the first jury came from Pike County and was sequestered, while the new jury would come from Oktibbaha County. And there were new witnesses, including a speech expert.
Tellis has not been indicted by a Louisiana jury in connection with Hsiao’s death. But circumstantial evidence links him to the crime: He was caught using Hsaio’s debit cards after her murder, and police have obtained cell phone and ATM data that they say places him at the scene. Karas notes that Hsaio’s murder investigation in Louisiana originally …
