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Post by madeline on Sept 22, 2018 18:58:39 GMT -5
That black SOB's re-trial starts Monday. Is anyone keeping up with what's going on or watching the Oxygen documentary? I've sort of watched it, but I was reading or doing something else at the same time because I'm not at all sympathetic, though I do hope he's convicted this time. While what happened to her was horrible, she brought it on herself. People in Courtland say that when reporters were interviewing her so-called friends, the only white friend they could find for an interview was her cousin.
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Post by kitty on Sept 23, 2018 6:48:31 GMT -5
That black SOB's re-trial starts Monday. Is anyone keeping up with what's going on or watching the Oxygen documentary? I've sort of watched it, but I was reading or doing something else at the same time because I'm not at all sympathetic, though I do hope he's convicted this time. While what happened to her was horrible, she brought it on herself. People in Courtland say that when reporters were interviewing her so-called friends, the only white friend they could find for an interview was her cousin. I also hope that he's convicted, but like you, I don't have very much sympathy for people who court danger.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 24, 2018 19:53:20 GMT -5
The Re-Trial of Quinton Tellis
Today, the re-trial of Quinton Verdell Tellis for the capital murder of Jessica Chambers got underway today with jury selection in Starkville. Jurors will be transported to Batesville, in Panola County, for the trial presided over by the Honorable Gerald Chatham. Testimony is expected to follow basically the same course as in last fall's first trial, including a trip by jurors to the scene of the crime.
In the first trial in October of last year, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. Jurors initially returned with a verdict of not guilty, but polling of the jurors indicated most considered the defendant guilty. For some reason, jurors did not understand that a unanimous verdict is required for both a guilty and not guilty verdict.
Jessica Chambers, 19, was found near her burning car the evening of Saturday, Decmber 6, 2014, on a road in Courtland, a Panola County community of around 500 residents, near Batesville. Chambers and the defendant both lived in Courtland and knew each another. It is generally believed the two engaged in a sex act shortly before her death.
Tellis, who will be turn 30 on October 6 and he has an extensive criminal background. In addition to the Chambers case, he is charged with first-degree murder in the 2016 stabbing death of Meing-Chen Hsiao, a graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Tellis married Chaqita Jackson and moved to Monroe following Chambers’ murder. He is currently serving a five-year sentence for burglary and larceny of an unoccupied dwelling.
Sources: Ron Maxey, The Memphis Commercial-Appeal, September 24, 2018, and Clerk of Circuit Court (Criminal) of Panola County, Mississippi.
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Post by Kate on Sept 25, 2018 7:31:30 GMT -5
I think that he's either going to be found not guilty or there will be another hung jury, because so many people, especially blacks, think that she got what she deserved. I've read in the news where her family said that she was planning to attend nursing school, but someone with the kind of drug problems she had probably wouldn't even have been accepted at nursing school. I think that's just something her family made up so that people would think that she was something other than a complete skank.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 26, 2018 23:53:11 GMT -5
Bombshell Witness Testifies at Retrial of Quinton Tellis The prosecution dropped a bombshell at the retrial of Quinton Tellis for the burning death of Jessica Chambers when Sherry Flowers (above) was called to the stand. On Saturday, December 6, 2014, Mrs. Flowers attended the funeral and repast for her cousin and when the temperature began to drop, she took her grandchildren home to get coats for them. On her way back, she noticed a man (presumed to be Tellis) waving for her to stop. She pulled over, thinking he was a family member. He told her his aunt’s house was on fire and he needed to check on her. Mrs. Flowers asked who is aunt was he said “Julia Chambers” (no relation to Jessica Chambers). She knew Julia Chambers, who at one time had been her hairdresser, and though she did not know the young man, gave him a ride. At the intersection of Old Highway 51 and US 51, not far from the home of Julia Chambers, she asked where he wanted to get out and he said, “This will be fine.”
Keri Hinson, the daughter of Julia Chambers, testified she is related to Tellis and he did not stop by to check on her mother that night. Julia Chambers took the stand next and said to her knowledge, Tellis never reached out in any way to check on her.
The prosecution contends this indicates the hitchhiker, presumed to be Tellis, already knew about the fire at Julia Chambers’ house, which placed the time Flowers picked him up well within the time frame of when he would have been attempting to get back to his sister’s house from the location where he had set Jessica Chambers and her car on fire. Additionally, Mrs. Flowers, who lives at 74 Main Street, picked up the hitchhiker shortly after leaving her home and Julia Chambers lives at 124 Main Street. Deputy Tyler Mills testified earlier that Jessica Chambers’ keys were found at 124 Main Street.
In other testimony, a firefighter who was on the scene on December 6, told the court the 19-year-old girl’s body was completely covered in burns and “almost looked like shoe leather. Her face itself ..., he paused, “she was unrecognizable. There was black charring.” According to the witness, when another firefighter asked the woman who did this to her, she responded with what sounded like “Eric” or “Derek,” but it was a struggle for her to speak.
Ben Chambers, Jessica’s father, began sobbing in the courtroom while listening to the gut-wrenching testimony.
EMT Bradley Dixon, who administered first aid to Chambers, told the jury the first thought that came to his mind when he saw the victim’s condition was that a medical helicopter was needed. “Skin was hanging off of her lips [and] out of her nose,” he recounted. “Her eyelashes and eyebrows were gone. The hair on top of her head was a big singe-ball.” He added that the girl attempted to speak, but her voice was raspy and it was almost impossible to make out the words she was attempting to utter. He thought he heard her say what sounded like “her-see,” which he took to mean “thirsty,” and “ole,” which he thought was “cold.” He also said he heard her say what came out as “eh-wih,” and he thought this might mean “Eric.”
Next on the witness stand was another first responder who said he was surprised to have learned the victim was only 19. “She didn’t look like a 19-year-old girl laying there,” he insisted, adding that he thought at the time she was between 40- and 50-years-old.
Darrell House and Chuck Tucker, two Panola County deputies, also testified that when they asked the victim to name her attacker, she said what sounded like “Eric.” She could not say the man’s last name, but indicated he was not her boyfriend. When asked whether the assailant was black or white, she responded with what sounded like “black,” according to House. Tucker also testified that when he asked the girl “Eric who?” she answered “No,” but admitted he didn’t know if she was saying, “No, not Eric,” or “No, I don’t know his last name.”
The defense has previously emphasized that multiple emergency workers heard the dying young woman say someone named “Eric” attacked her, calling the prosecution’s evidence “speculation” or “unreliable.”
Prosecutors say cellphone locations, video, DNA on a keychain and Tellis’ statements link him to the death of Jessica Chambers. “Once you hear all the evidence the state offers, you’re going to have plenty of evidence to convict him of capital murder,” Panola County Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale told jurors in his opening statement.
Darla Palmer, the defense attorney, urged jurors in her opening statement to disregard evidence about cellphone locations, which she alleged cannot prove Tellis and Chambers were in the same place. “This evidence is always going to show, it’s always going to say Eric did it, no matter what the state does to diminish that and we would ask that you find Quinton not guilty.”
Hale countered by saying the authorities had interviewed many people named Eric or Derek, but ruled out all of them. After the inquiries reached a dead end, he added, investigators re-examined Tellis, who had been an early suspect. They focused on him after he changed his story and admitted he had been with Chambers later on the Saturday of her death. “Quinton Tellis had not been truthful to investigators,” Hale declared.
On the first day of testimony, the jury heard from Jessica’s mother, Lisa Daugherty, who described in detail the last few days of her daughter’s life. Around 5:15 on the evening of her death, Chambers told her mother she was going out to get something to eat. Speaking to the producers of the new docu-series Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers, which premiered September 15 on Oxygen, Mrs. Daugherty said she called Jessica while she was out to see what time she would be home. “I called her and she said I’ll be home in a little while Momma, but I love you. I told her I loved her too. She said, ‘See you in a little bit.’ That’s the last I heard from her.”
Chambers later stumbled out of the woods near Courtland after she and her car were set ablaze. The last time Lisa Daugherty saw her daughter alive was at the hospital. Jessica had suffered burns to more than 90 percent of her body and was barely clinging to life. The volunteer firefighters and first responders who found Jessica were shocked at the state of her injuries, with one describing her as resembling a “zombie.”
Next on the stand was Jessica’s best friend Lakesha “Kesha” Meyer, who is black. Ms. Meyer recounted how she first met Tellis a few days before Chambers’ death and how the 19-year-old introduced him as just a friend.
Following a break, Dr. Carolyn Higdon, a speech language pathology expert, took the witness stand and told the court that based on her analysis of autopsy photos showing extensive damage to the victim’s mouth, larynx and lungs, and her conversations with Chambers’ doctor, the young woman would have been unable to utter the names “Eric” or “Derrick.” Higdon’s testimony could help in undercutting the key defense argument that multiple EMTs heard a dying Chambers say someone named “Eric” attacked her. The defense attorneys urged jurors to trust the testimony of the first responders.
Tellis has always insisted he is innocent, telling police, “I told the truth. I didnt kill Jessica. It ain’t even in my heart to kill nobody.” Tellis faces another murder indictment in the 2015 stabbing death of another woman in Monroe, Louisiana. He has already pled guilty to unauthorized use of her debit card. Some of Tellis’ family members claim police are simply looking for someone to blame in the case, which has become a highly-charged racial issue after Tellis, who is black, was arrested for the death of the white teenager. The 29-year-old defendant is a convicted felon currently serving a prison sentence in Mississippi on an unrelated burglary charge.
After Tellis was arrested, prosecutors told the court during the first trial that Jessica may have been trying to say another name, but her throat and mouth were so badly burned she may have been saying “Tellis,” rather than “Eric” or “Derek.” Prosecutor John Champion told the jury Tellis thought he suffocated Chambers while they were having sex before he drove her car to a back road.
Prosecutors also introduced a number of text messages, which showed Tellis, who was from the same neighborhood as the victim and attended her high school years earlier, was pestering Jessica for sex. After he [Tellis] thought he had choked her to death, Champion said Tellis ran to his sister’s house nearby, jumped into his sisters’ car, stopped to pick up gasoline from a shed at his house and torched Chambers and her car. Sources: Therese Apel, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 26, 2018; Eryn Taylor and Bridget Chapman, WREG, September 26, 2018; Snejana Farberov, The Daily Mail, September 26, 2018; and Sarah Fowler, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 12, 2017.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 29, 2018 0:49:50 GMT -5
Jurors Watch Videos of Defendant’s Constantly-Changing Story
On the fourth day of the retrial of Quinton Tellis, jurors watched videos of investigators interrogating the defendant concerning the burn marks he sustained the night Jessica Chambers was burned alive and his explanation was puzzling to say the least. He claimed he was “hanging out” at a pit barbecue and attempted to jump over a barbecue grill. “I ran back to about the barbecue grill and I took off and jumped,” Tellis said. “I made it but at the end, like I just fell back in the fire and they pulled me up.”
The lengthy videos – which were taped in late 2015 and early 2016 – also showed Tellis repeatedly changing his story about the events of December 6, 2014. In the interrogation room, Tellis insisted he last saw Chambers earlier in the day when they were driving around with her friend. However, when confronted with surveillance footage and cellphone data, he changed his story and alleged his final interaction with the teenager occurred that afternoon when he gave her $10 to purchase food at Taco Bell. He also claimed he was in the truck with his friend, “Big Mike,” the afternoon the girl was killed. When informed Big Mike was in Nashville that day attending a football game, Tellis admitted he may not have been in his friend’s vehicle.
In the video recordings, Tellis became emotional when denying he killed Chambers, with whom he allegedly had a sexual relationship, according to authorities. “I ain’t never killed nobody,” he insisted. “I don’t even got it in my heart.”
All week, the defense team has argued Tellis was falsely accused, citing the testimony of emergency responders who believed the dying teen named “Derek” or “Eric” as her attacker. Prosecutors, however, contend Chambers wouldn’t have been able to articulate words given the extent of her injuries.
Sources: Jackie Salo, The New York Post, September 28, 2018, and WREG.
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Post by pat on Sept 29, 2018 2:12:01 GMT -5
With all of the evidence against him, I don't see how the jury can be hung this time.
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Post by catherine on Sept 29, 2018 14:59:48 GMT -5
With all of the evidence against him, I don't see how the jury can be hung this time. I hope you're right. The problem is that Jessica Chambers is at least 50% at fault for what happened. She hung out exclusively with blacks and thumbed her nose at the white people of Panola County. Both black and white jurors will have to try to set that aside and find that ugly thug guilty and I don't know if they'll be able to do that.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Oct 1, 2018 16:03:23 GMT -5
Another Hung Jury in Re-Trial of Quinton Tellis
For the second time, a jury of his peers could not decide collectively whether Quinton Tellis was the one who set 19-year-old Jessica Chambers on fire on a dark, lonely embankment in December 2014. The lack of a verdict comes after a serious courtroom drama.
After the first trial seemed to hinge on the idea that first responders heard her say something that sounded like, “Eric,” the prosecution returned with better-clarified questions: “What did it sound like?” Assistant DA Jay Hale asked several of the first responders, who, in turn, sounded out what they heard.
There were also experts who testified as to whether Chambers could have spoken at that point. Dr. William Hickerson, the medical director at Firefighters’ Burn Center at Regional One in Memphis who has 40 years experience, testified it appeared the teen had burned for three to five minutes before she was able to escape the flames. For this reason, he said, as did speech pathologist Carolyn Higdon, Chambers could not have said anything intelligible with the third-degree burns rendering her face, lips and tongue to something like hard leather. Defense Attorney Darla Palmer pushed Hickerson, insisting medical science was not 100 percent accurate. Couldn’t this be the exception? she asked repeatedly. Hickerson insisted it could not.
Working with the analogy of putting together a puzzle, the prosecution laid out a timeline showing the relationship between Chambers and Tellis – one they said had lasted only a week. They presented evidence they claimed filled in the blanks, showing through cellphone data, video footage and witness testimony – including some of the Defendant’s own – where the two were throughout the day, until the time Tellis alleges he learned of Chambers’ death.
Agent Scott Meadows with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives presented videos of the interviews of Tellis to the jury, revealing what he said was proof that, as the evidence was presented to Tellis from the day of Chambers’ death, Tellis changed his story multiple times. Jurors watched as Tellis became emotional, insisting he didn’t have it in his heart to kill anyone and his seemingly obvious confusion on which day he met Chambers to give her some money.
They heard from other prosecution witnesses about the stranger picked up by Sherry Flowers the night Chambers was burned. Flowers couldn’t positively identify Tellis years later, but said the mysterious hitchhiker wanted a ride to the home of Julia Chambers (no relation to Jessica Chambers), whom he claimed was his aunt.
When Julia Chambers was called to the stand, she admitted Tellis was a relative, but never came to see her that night. The jurwas taken to the spot where the hitchhiker was dropped off: 350 yards from the home of Tellis’ sister. Both Tellis and his sister admitted he borrowed her truck that night.
When Katherine Rogers from Scales Biological Lab in Brandon testified as to the DNA found on Jessica Chambers’ keys, however, she said two tests were run and the first one excluded Tellis. An overwhelming amount of female DNA masked the male DNA that was found on the keys by a separate test aimed at extracting male DNA, she explained. In that test, Tellis “could not be ruled out” because one of four DNA profiles on the keys contained markers consistent with the male members of Tellis’ family. But, Palmer added, the test did not show definitively that Tellis’ own DNA was on the keys.
In cross-examinations, the defense questioned not only the prosecution’s witnesses, they also questioned their interview tactics. Defense attorney Alton Peterson asked Meadows if tricks were used to get Tellis to change his story. Based on the videos of the interviews, Peterson cited the fact that when Meadows, Rowlett, and MBI agent Tim Douglas showed Tellis the cellphone and video evidence, he changed his story. When Douglas mentioned to Tellis he could be facing the death penalty, Peterson questioned whether this was intended as a threat.
Tellis’ sister was called to the stand by the defense in an attempt to discredit Mike “Big Mike” Sanford, who had been Tellis’ alibi earlier in the investigation. When authorities spoke to Sanford, he provided proof he was in Nashville at a Tennessee Titans game. Shaneeka Williams testified Sanford had lied, that he had been with her all day. Champion also noted there was no cellphone information placing Sanford in Nashville, but Williams held firm they had been together. Champion then showed her a surveillance photo of Sanford on his way to Nashville, stopping at M&M at 2 p.m. Later on, Travis Carr testified he was with Sanford in Nashville.
Source: Therese Apel, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 1, 2018.
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Post by madeline on Oct 1, 2018 17:03:11 GMT -5
Well, the ugly SOB got by with it again. I hope the prosecutors in Louisiana have better luck and he spends the rest of his sorry life in prison.
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Post by kitty on Oct 2, 2018 11:49:26 GMT -5
I saw a photo of blacks outside the court house praying that sadistic bastard wouldn't be found guilty and I'm sure all the black jurors felt the same way. Although that girl was asking for trouble, burning to death is a horrible way to die. Maybe at least her death will be a warning to other white girls not to get mixed up in that lifestyle.
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Post by dbsweeny on Oct 13, 2018 7:28:10 GMT -5
The reason why there are multiple hung juries is because of the horribly botched police investigations. Heck even when Trellis was interviewed by FBI and Trellis admitted to DELETING all his contact information with Jessica, he NEVER followed up on that.
SURE, you could easily say "i didn't want to have no dead persons info on my phone"
or
"i didn't want to be reminded of her"
but, he didn't even get an answer, a trained FBI agent.
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Post by catherine on Oct 13, 2018 9:58:56 GMT -5
The reason why there are multiple hung juries is because of the horribly botched police investigations. Heck even when Trellis was interviewed by FBI and Trellis admitted to DELETING all his contact information with Jessica, he NEVER followed up on that. SURE, you could easily say "i didn't want to have no dead persons info on my phone" or "i didn't want to be reminded of her" but, he didn't even get an answer, a trained FBI agent. You're right and it's because law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have lowered their hiring requirements to accommodate the unqualified. Some so-called investigators today aren't qualified to direct traffic, let alone question a suspect.
Maybe he'll be convicted of killing the woman in Louisiana, but I wouldn't bet on it even though a neighbor has identified him as the man she saw coming and going from the apartment and he creeped her out so much that she wrote down his license plate number.
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Post by dbsweeny on Oct 13, 2018 22:29:01 GMT -5
especially if you watch the TV series, the FBI agent that did NOT follow up on that cell phone question doesn't even look like he's old enough to shave! Obviously the FBI just sent the most dispensable rookie agent to a remote rural town.
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Post by catherine on Oct 14, 2018 17:43:56 GMT -5
especially if you watch the TV series, the FBI agent that did NOT follow up on that cell phone question doesn't even look like he's old enough to shave! Obviously the FBI just sent the most dispensable rookie agent to a remote rural town. Had it been the other way around: a white man burned a black girl alive, the FBI's most experienced agents would have been swarming all over Mississippi.
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