Jury selection begins in retrial over Panola County woman’s burning death

Published 2:45 pm Monday, September 24, 2018

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Jury selection begins Monday in a retrial of a man accused of killing a Mississippi woman by setting her ablaze.

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.

A jury is being selected in Starkville and will be taken 90 miles northwest to Panola County, where Chambers died.

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Prosecutors say cellphone locations, videos, a keychain and Tellis’ statements link him to Chambers’ death. The government may also call a witness who says she picked up a man the night Chambers died.

The defense emphasizes emergency personnel heard the dying Chambers say someone named “Eric” or “Derek” attacked her.

Tellis faces another murder indictment in Louisiana in the death of Meing-Chen Hsiao.