By Rupert Howell
The indictment came from a grand jury that spent Monday and Tuesday at the Panola County courthouse in Batesville where evidence was presented that would lead that jury to indict Quinton Verdell Tellis with the murder of Jessica Chambers while in the commission of third degree arson.
That jury also charged Tellis with being a habitual offender as he had been charged in 2010 with felony fleeing and sentenced to five years and on the same date was also sentenced to five years for burglary of a dwelling.
The Circuit Court again sentenced Tellis for Burglary of a Dwelling in February of 2012, this time for eight years.
Tellis served time with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and was released in October of 2014. Chambers was murdered two months later in December.
The Panolian archives indicate Tellis had run-ins with the law prior to being sentenced in Circuit Court.
In October of 2006, he was charged and arrested for no driver’s license, expired tag and felony fleeing.
Days later in City of Batesville Municipal Court Tellis was referred to the Panola County Grand Jury for charges of running a red-light, two counts of running a stop sign, expired tag, reckless driving and no driver’s license.
“I am not judging this case, but I can bet you are standing here today because you have no license and you ran because you were scared,” the Judge Bill McKenzie told Tellis adding, “Go get you a license, son!”
Tellis would reappear in McKenzie’s courtroom in May of the following year on charges of simple assault and domestic violence-simple assault. The affiants, two women, would fail to appear and those charges were dropped.
In July of 2011 Tellis would again go before McKenzie on charges of burglary and grand larceny the judge refered him to the Panola County Grand Jury according to The Panolian archives.
Tellis moved from Panola County to West Monroe, Louisiana during 2015 according to District Attorney John Champion.
He is currently behind bars there on charges associated with the murder of a former University of Monroe exchange student, Meing Chen Hsiao, who was found dead in her apartment August 9. She was stabbed to death by someone she knew according to Monroe police.