The night a 19-year-old Mississippi woman was burned to death, she and her killer had sex in her car and he thought he had suffocated her before he torched her vehicle with her inside, a prosecutor said Tuesday in an opening statement, presenting his theory of what led to the gruesome slaying.
But a defense attorney said Jessica Chambers told firefighters who found her near her burning car that a man named Eric set her on fire — not the person charged with her murder, Quinton Tellis.
Tellis’ trial began in Batesville, Mississippi, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Memphis, Tennessee. Tellis, 29, could face life in prison without parole if convicted of capital murder.
The horrific circumstances surrounding the former high school cheerleader’s death garnered national attention. Security is tight — the jury is being sequestered and spectators are being screened through metal detectors before entering the courtroom.
Prosecutor John Champion told jurors that they will see graphic photos of a burned Chambers and they will hear from about 35 witnesses. Chambers had burns on about 93 percent of her body when she was found along a rural back road on Dec. 6, 2014, the prosecutor said. She died hours later at a Memphis hospital.
He said Tellis repeatedly lied to investigators about spending time with her in the hours before she was found. He also said that Tellis had repeatedly asked Chambers for sex, and she had told him no.
Champion said cellphone records show that Chambers and Tellis — who had met about two weeks before her death and had become friends — were together twice on the day she was burned.
Chambers and Tellis rode around in her car for a while that morning before Chambers dropped off Tellis at his house and she went home to take a nap, the prosecutor said. Chambers then picked up Tellis about 5:30 p.m. and they went to a fast food restaurant, Champion said.
Citing statements Tellis made to investigators, Champion said Tellis and Chambers had sex in her car later that evening. Champion said he believes Tellis suffocated Chambers and thought he had killed her.
Tellis then drove Chambers’ car with her inside it to the back road, ran to his sister’s house nearby, jumped in his sisters’ car, stopped to pick up gasoline from a shed at his house and torched Chambers’ car and her, Champion said.
“Horrific burns,” Champion said. “Horrific pain.”
Chambers was found walking on the road — wearing only underwear in 40 degree temperatures — when a passing motorist spotted her shortly after 8 p.m., Champion said. Her car keys were later found nearby, and they had Tellis’ DNA on them, Champion said.
Authorities have said previously that Chambers was on fire when she was found.
Champion said Tellis first told investigators he only saw Chambers on the morning of her death.
Tellis later acknowledged they were together in the evening, saying he met her to sell her marijuana and had sex with her in her car, Champion said. The prosecutor also said Tellis’ alibi was fabricated.
Defense attorney Darla Palmer said Tellis is wrongly accused. She said Tellis was buying a pre-paid debit card miles away in Batesville at the time Chambers was burned.
Palmer also said eight first responders who treated Chambers asked her if she knew who did it.
“She said ’Eric set me on fire,’” Palmer said. “She didn’t say any other name.”
In his opening statement, Champion acknowledged that the first responders did hear her say the name “Eric” or “Derek.” Champion said she could have been saying “Tellis,” but the damage done to her throat made it sound different.
Palmer told jurors that Tellis never confessed to the killing.
“He insisted this is not something he would do,” Palmer said.
About 20,000 telephone numbers were analyzed in the investigation. Witnesses will include cellphone data experts, Champion said.
Tellis faces another murder indictment in Louisiana, where he’s accused in the torture death of Meing-Chen Hsiao, a 34-year-old Taiwanese graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. No trial date has been set in that case.
#1: Tooconservative To: cranky (#0)
I notice that CBS and Fox News both managed to include that info.
AP is just getting sloppier every year. Hopefully, they'll go out of business entirely as the dead tree industry declines.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-11 09:02:39 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: cranky (#0)
Hey. A man buys a woman dinner, he expects sex afterwards. Fast food. Fast sex.
Rape counts as sex, right?
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-11 10:25:46 Reply Private Reply
#3: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#1)
Nor did they mention he was in the Vice Lords gang. Nice picture of the perp. Studious looking. But these scumbags always clean up nice when they're forced to be among normal people. Here he is in the wild:
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-11 10:39:08 Reply Private Reply
#4: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#3)
They should acquit him for that alone.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-11 11:14:58 Reply Private Reply
#5: Stoner To: Tooconservative (#4)
Although it would be fun to see him given Vlad the Impaler treatment !
Stoner posted on 2017-10-11 11:52:07 Reply Private Reply
#6: Stoner To: misterwhite (#3)
If it was my daughter, I would make that nigger die a very, very slow, and very, very painful death !!!!
Stoner posted on 2017-10-11 13:31:32 Reply Private Reply
#7: cranky To: Tooconservative (#1)
Try reading the second paragraph of the article aloud.
You might learn something.
cranky posted on 2017-10-11 19:32:00 Reply Private Reply
#8: Tooconservative To: cranky (#7)
Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-11 20:46:46 Reply Private Reply
#9: misterwhite To: Stoner (#6)
True justice would have him chained to the driver's seat, soaked with gasoline, and lit.
Eye for an eye.
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-12 09:04:16 Reply Private Reply
#10: Stoner To: misterwhite (#9)
Yeah, but Whitey, that would be too quick.
Stoner posted on 2017-10-12 11:54:48 Reply Private Reply
#11: Liberator To: cranky (#0)
So when does 'Mississippi Burning' -- the sequel -- get done in Hollywood?
Notice the how MSM is predictably censoring this story? AND avoiding reporting one not-so-small detail of -- that the victim of gruesome murder was WHITE and a BLONDE WOMAN.
(courtesy VDARE)
http://www.vdare.com/posts/jessica-chambers-news-white-girl-burned-to-death-in-mississippi-black-man-charged-trial-finally-starting
More from VDARE:
"Not only have the national media, surprisingly outside of People, had little interest in this case, but Twitter bully Jack Dorsey has worked hard to suppress it, by banning people who tweeted about it (Kyle Rogers, Nicholas Stix, et al.)."
Imagine the outcry, rage, and hate from the Usual Suspect were the circumstance reversed? The MSM is not only Fake, it's Twisted; As in their collective reaction to Congressman Scalise's near-assination as well as the Vegas slaughter of "Republican rednecks."
What we have been seeing is the tree of toxic hatred racism bearing its fruit as a result of the last couple of generations of black indoctrinated by Marxist schools and a warped "entertainment" culture to hate and blame Whitey for their wretched lives.
Toss in "victimhood," (as taught by guilty-white Leftists, and America is now dealing with demos of militant haters who have de-humanized White people, conservatives, the religious, Republicans, and straight people (who will NOT ever celebrate homosexuality.) The Nazis pulled off a similar massive brainwashing quite well that required de-humanizing Jews to enable its demonic savagery.
Thanks to the NFL debacle and open hatred of their white fans, millions of Americans who were once oblivious are now given a heads-up on the reality of the situation.
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 12:20:32 Reply Private Reply
#12: Liberator To: cranky (#0)
Wow.
The Media: "Meh."
New Agers: "Everyone controls their own destiny."
Satanists: "What's the big deal??"
BLM: "The rest of you crackahs are next."
Antifa: "We're jealous."
Marxist-run Public Schools and Academia: "This is merely payback for 'Slavery' and 'Privilege.' The dude is STILL "The Victim."
ESPN: "The b*tch set the brutha up."
Roger Goodell: "The man has the Constitutional right to 'Free Expression.'"
Black Congressional Caucus: "It's a start."
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 12:29:50 Reply Private Reply
#13: Liberator To: Tooconservative (#1)
The MSM is burying this story as much as possible. As expected. If CBS and FOX mentioned a name, they did so reluctantly. Think they mentioned the complexion of both Animal AND Torture Victim?
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 12:32:25 Reply Private Reply
#14: misterwhite To: Stoner (#10)
We'll pull him out at medium well, then let him suffer. Like she did.
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-12 12:33:46 Reply Private Reply
#15: Liberator To: misterwhite (#3)
Ooops. The MSM omitted that tidbit? Not important enough I guess. After all, they ARE fighting a war, aren't they? And this animal is an ally.
These scumbags always clean up nice when they're forced to be among normal people.
Trending very badly for 13% of the population. For actual "normal" blacks, you wonder how they are handling the daily stress of not wanting to be part of the revolution. THAT is a shame.
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 12:37:43 Reply Private Reply
#16: misterwhite To: Liberator (#15)
I would like to see these "normal" blacks start cleaning up their neighborhoods by condemning this gangsta behavior and reporting the perps.
This "I dint see nuffin'" bullshit has gotta stop.
misterwhite posted on 2017-10-12 12:42:21 Reply Private Reply
#17: Liberator To: Stoner (#6)
Used to be, "An eye for an eye."
For most of history, the penalty might have been exactly your solution. Instinctively, we'd all want to take our pound of flesh. But THEN, we revert back to how it might affect our soul in the Afterlife.
As a defense measure, of course all bets are off.
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 12:44:06 Reply Private Reply
#18: Liberator To: misterwhite (#16)
Yes, we'd all like to see it. But...those who do suggest it are conditioned and ostracized. Especially in academia and in the hood. Guilty-White liberals have been fanning the flames the decades.
When blended with other demos, they seem to understand and accept what's best for all.
"Black" culture and ours has been coarsened and set backwards by at least 100 years by their Hope & Change Divider/Saboteur in Chief.
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 12:49:53 Reply Private Reply
#19: sneakypete To: cranky (#0)
Ms doesn't have the death penalty?
BTW,even though she was a high school cheerleader,she was a whore for a black pimp that moved to live with relatives somewhere like South Dakota right after she died. Reports were that he was dealing coke and MDMA,and he would pimp her out for money.
Given her life-style and associates,who the hell knows who killed her? It could have been anyone from a cast of hundreds.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:37:23 Reply Private Reply
#20: sneakypete To: misterwhite (#2)
Yeah,with a crack/meth/coke/mdma whore,it sometimes does.
At one time some local man in his 40's was a suspect because he had been humping her,too. He was just one of many men who were interviewed,and he told the police he paid her pimp/drug supplier for her services.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:40:22 Reply Private Reply
#21: sneakypete To: Stoner (#6)
She has no father. He either died or disappeared long ago.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:41:51 Reply Private Reply
#22: sneakypete To: misterwhite (#9)
I can't argue with that,but I sure as hell can argue with keeping him in prison for the next 50 or 60 years and using public money to keep that creature alive.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:43:17 Reply Private Reply
#23: sneakypete To: Stoner (#10)
Time can be a relative thing,and I suspect it passes slowly when you are on fire.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:44:12 Reply Private Reply
#24: sneakypete To: Liberator (#11)
They are also failing to mention he was her prime drug supplier,and pimp.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:45:37 Reply Private Reply
#25: sneakypete To: Liberator (#15)
No kidding. I have nothing but sympathy for them and the crap they have to put up with in life because so many people that just happen to look like them are trash,and they get hit up with guilt by association for what the trash people do.
Also,it needs to be pointed out more often that the mainstream media LOVES to write and publicize stories about the trash blacks,but you never see any mention of the lives and activities of honorable,law-abiding,hard working blacks.
sneakypete posted on 2017-10-12 13:48:39 Reply Private Reply
#26: Stoner To: misterwhite (#16)
Yes it does !!
Turn em into wind chimes !!!
Stoner posted on 2017-10-12 14:01:51 Reply Private Reply
#27: Liberator To: sneakypete (#24)
Wow.
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 14:19:39 Reply Private Reply
#28: Liberator To: sneakypete (#25)
Hear ya. On all points.
The Leftist-indoctrinated MSM refuses to respect and showcase hardworking, patriotic blacks who can't stand this nonsense and noise. THEY are being character-assassinated by the leftist media.
Given "Perception = Reality," the MSM will ONLY report on the extreme caricatured "Black America" -- the one that portrays the "typical" black" as ghetto stupid and vicious, perpetually angry, aggrieved, and victims of "Whitey's ongoing oppression."
We see the MSM/Dems sticking to their script especially in their abusive treatment of black Republicans.
It's ironic in that the progressive-Left White Media in large part perpetuates the "Uncle Toms" caricature of independent blacks who reject the "hate-whitey" group-think and Plantation hive. If ANY group merits resentment and anger, it's Leftist Whites.
Liberator posted on 2017-10-12 14:31:47 Reply Private Reply