Retrial set for man accused in woman’s burning death
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A second trial is set to begin Tuesday for a man accused of killing a Mississippi woman by setting her on fire.
Jurors couldn’t reach a verdict last year in the first trial of Quinton Tellis, charged with capital murder in the 2014 death of Jessica Chambers.
Prosecutors say cellphone locations, videos, a keychain and Tellis’ statements link him to Chambers’ death. The government has also subpoenaed a new witness, a woman who says she picked up a man the night Chambers was burned. There’s a dispute, though, about how precisely she can identify Tellis.
FILE – In this Oct. 12, 2017 photograph, Quinton Tellis, center, stands with his defense attorneys Darla Palmer, left, and Alton Peterson, right, near the remains of Jessica Chambers car in Batesville, Miss. Tellis was charged with burning 19-year-old Jessica Chambers to death. The trial ended in a mistrial, but Tells is to be retried in Chambers’ burning death, starting Tuesday, Sept. 25. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal via AP, Pool, FILE)
The defense emphasizes that multiple emergency personnel heard the dying Chambers say someone named “Eric” or “Derek” attacked her.
Tellis faces another murder indictment in Louisiana in the torture death of Meing-Chen Hsiao in Monroe.
FILE – In this Oct. 16, 2017 photo, Quinton Tellis, sits during his trial in Batesville, Miss. A second trial is set to begin Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 on charges that Tellis set Jessica Chambers on fire, leading to her death. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool, File)
FILE – In this Oct. 15, 2017, file photo, Panola County District Attorney John Champion holds an enlargement of a selfie taken by the late Jessica Chambers, during delivering closing arguments to the jury, in Batesville, Miss., in the capital murder of Quinton Tellis. A second trial is set to begin Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 on charges that Tellis set Chambers on fire, leading to her death. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool, File)
FILE – In this Oct. 16, 2017 file photo, Circuit Judge Gerald Chatham declares a mistrial in the trial of Quinton Tellis, who was charged with burning 19-year-old Jessica Chambers to death, in Batesville, Miss. A second trial is set to begin Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018 on charges that Tellis set Chambers on fire, leading to her death.(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool, FILE)
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