An ex-convict who left Mississippi last year as authorities tried to determine who killed a young woman in their small town on Friday appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge.
Quinton Tellis, 27, grew up with the victim, Jessica Chambers, 19, who was found near death, with burns over 98 percent of her body, near her burning car on a rural road outside Courtland, a town about 110km south of Memphis, Tennessee.
Authorities said that the former high-school cheerleader had been doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire.
Photo: AP
Investigators found so much criminal activity in the small town that 17 people were arrested as a result of the murder probe, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.
Panola County District Attorney John Champion said that probe has been resolved with the grand jury’s indictment of Tellis, who has previous convictions for burglary and fleeing from law enforcement.
Champion on Friday told reporters that court rules prevent him from discussing the evidence or explaining why they believe Tellis murdered the young woman.
Tellis wore an orange jumpsuit and shackles and showed no emotion as his attorney Darla Palmer entered the not-guilty plea. Families of the victim and the accused attended the 10-minute hearing, and left without speaking to reporters.
Tellis faces another capital murder indictment in Louisiana, where he is accused in the torture death of Hsiao Meing-chen (蕭明珍), a 34-year-old Taiwanese graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
That indictment alleges that Tellis probably stabbed Hsiao more than 30 times on her face and body with a knife to get her to reveal her debit card’s PIN before killing her on July 29, last year.
The indictment notes that evidence is circumstantial because evidence was removed from the crime scene, but it “points to only one suspect, Quinton Tellis.”
That includes Wal-Mart security video footage showing them together the day before she was killed, and a neighbor’s testimony that she heard Hsiao arguing with a man she later identified as Tellis who gave her a “creepy feeling.”
Phone and bank records showed calls to Hsiao’s bank from Tellis’ phone the day she died, and GPS records showed Tellis was probably inside her apartment.
He was extradited to Mississippi from Louisiana last month after pleading guilty to fraudulent use of Hsiao’s card.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was