XPost: ucb.math, alt.society.civil-liberty, ca.environment
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PANOLA COUNTY, Miss. --A grand jury has indicted a 27-year-old
man in the death of Mississippi teen Jessica Chambers, who was
burned alive in her car on a rural road in December 2014.

The indictment, returned Tuesday morning, charges Quention
Tellis with capital murder, Panola County district attorney John
Champion said at a Wednesday press conference. Tellis is being
held in Washington Parish, Louisiana in connection with the
August 2015 murder of a University of Louisiana Monroe foreign
exchange student, reports the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Meing-Chen
Hsiao, 34, of Taiwan, was reportedly found stabbed to death in
her apartment Aug. 8.

Tellis hasn't been charged in that death, reports CBS affiliate
WREG, but he is a suspect and is being held on charges of using
the woman's bank card.

Champion wouldn't speak to the nature of the relationship
between Chambers, 19, and Tellis, beyond saying that they both
grew up in Courtland, Miss. and were friends. WREG reports the
two had been romantically linked. Champion alleged that Tellis
is a gang member, but said Chambers' murder was not related to
gangs or drugs. He called it a "personal crime against Jessica,"
though he wouldn't comment on a motive.

Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Warren Strain
said it was edifying investigators could offer some closure, "if
there is some," to the teen's family.

"It's rewarding to know someone capable of this degree of evil
will have to answer for his actions," Strain said.

Chambers' father Ben Chambers also addressed the media
Wednesday, thanking investigators and the DA's office for "never
giving up" on his daughter's case.

"Jessica will be at peace since this step has been taken," Ben
Chambers said.

Jessica Chambers was found with burns over nearly 98 percent of
her body on Dec. 6, 2014. She was doused with gasoline and set
on fire in her car, next to a gate leading to private land in
Courtland, police said. She got out of the car and was found on
the road with burns over most of her body. She died hours later
at a hospital in Memphis.

"This has been the most unusual case I've ever dealt with,"
Champion said. "The nature of how she died is very brutal, very
horrendous."

Champion said Wednesday he wanted to dispel a rumor that
accelerant had been poured down her throat. He wouldn't discuss
media reports that the teen tried to tell responders who killed
her before she died.

The teen was seen on surveillance video at a gas station shortly
before her death. Tellis is believed to have been the last
person to have been with Chambers that night, the Clarion-Ledger
reports.

Champion described the roadblocks investigators ran into early
on in the case, saying detectives had interviewed more than 150
people - all of whom cooperated - but none of the interviews led
to an arrest. He said investigators were surprised about the
lack of information coming from "street sources," believing
initially that because many in the community knew Chambers and
because of a reward being offered, people would come forward
with tips.

"A big hurdle was the lack of information we were getting from
the streets - it put our focus back on the belief that one
person did it who did not say anything to anybody," Champion
said.

He said on four occasions investigators received information
they felt would solve the case - traveling to Iowa, Chatanooga,
Tenn. and eastern Mississippi to track down leads - but nothing
panned out. Eventually, he said, investigators re-reviewed
technological evidence including cell phone records, and that's
when the case against Tellis began to gel.

Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby told the Clarion-Ledger in
December investigators had sifted through more than 20,000 phone
records trying to find Chambers' killer. That month,
investigators announced the Chambers murder investigation had
resulted in the arrests of 17 suspected gang members, though
none are charged in her death, the paper reported.

Those were not related to Chambers' murder, Champion said
Wednesday. He said he's confident Tellis acted alone.

Tellis his three prior convictions in the county on burglary and
felony evasion charges, and was released from jail in October
2014, Champion said.

Champion says he doesn't expect Tellis to return to Mississippi
to face the capital murder charge until the case against him in
Louisiana is complete. He's charged with killing Chambers during
the commission of third-degree felony arson, making him eligible
for the death penalty.

Champion said he hasn't decided whether he will pursue the death
penalty.

Comments:

EMPTY_DRESSER 17 minutes ago
Death penalty, PLEASE.



And swiftly. Try, convict, sentence, and execute within 30 days.



Let's PLEASE not waste resources, time, or money on this waste
of carbon.


SHARE4LIKEREPLY
CARL LOMBARDO 8 minutes ago
@empty_dresser - Sentence quickly - Kill slowly.



Terrorists (which hunters too?) have been known to burn their
prisoners - I just can't think of a more cruel way to kill


SHARELIKEREPLY
CARL LOMBARDO 2 minutes ago
@empty_dresser WITCH!

SHARELIKEREPLY
POUNDPOLITICOS 2 minutes ago
@empty_dresser 30 days? lol drunk much?

SHARELIKEREPLY
THINKINGFORMYSELF 18 minutes ago
Was it exciting dating a rough neck, dear? A little too
exciting I would guess.

SHARE1LIKEREPLY
EMPTY_DRESSER 16 minutes ago
@ThinkingForMyself

+3 for going there


SHARELIKEREPLY
WESTCOASTKIDTOO 19 minutes ago
gangs. drugs. guns. easy sex. welcome to America 2016, folks

SHARELIKEREPLY
FACTICAL WEAPON 20 minutes ago
Animal, not human.

SHARELIKEREPLY
SOCIALWRKRKP 20 minutes ago
I would think being burned alive, one of the most excruciating
ways to die, would warrant the death penalty. Hopefully in this
case, who ever is responsible for this girls death, dies in as
painful a way as she did. I realize that's most likely not
going to happen, but one can dream.

SHARE1LIKEREPLY
EMPTY_DRESSER 16 minutes ago
@SocialWrkrKP

I fail to see how a rational person could value the life of the
criminal one bit in this case.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/suspect-indicted-in-case-of- mississippi-teen-jessica-chambers-burned-alive/
 

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