Criminology - The Murder of Jessica Chambers

Episode Date: January 10, 2021

On Dec. 6, 2014, in Courland, MS, a horrible murder occurred. First responders were called out to a scene that they thought was just a car fire. But, then they found 19-year-old Jessica Chambers who had severe burns on over 90% of her body. Emergency personnel tried to get information from Jessica on what happened to her but she could barely speak and she died later at the hospital. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the tragic murder of Jessica Chambers. Investigators struggled to piece together what happened to Jessica and who was involved. A lot of rumors swirled around Courtland and the surrounding towns. Police centered their attention on a man named Quinton Tellis, who was with Jessica that day. They have tried him twice, but, both juries failed to reach a verdict. Tellis has also been charged with the murder of Mandy Hsiao in Louisiana. That trial has yet to occur and it remains to be seen whether Mississippi will try him a third time. You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 141 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, what is going on with you? I'm refreshed. Recharge the batteries, did a little bit of fishing, and just took a little bit of time off to recharge the battery. How about you?

Yeah, it was nice to have, you know, a couple of weeks. off, spent time with family through the holidays. I really enjoyed it. Did you have a good new year? I did. I did. I had a good Christmas and New Year. I know you and I needed it. We put out a lot of podcasts in 2020, rough year. And you and I have talked about it. It was a rough year and we really wanted to give our listeners steady content because I think, you know, that's part of what people needed. They needed something to escape to. But as you and I have talked about, that wears on you. And that's a lot of work.

And so we decided to take a couple of weeks off. And I think it was well needed. And I think it will help us going into 2021 to be really focused. Yeah, I agree with you. It's a marathon putting up that amount of episodes every year. So just have a little bit of downtime helps out a lot. And we did get some nice messages from people that were thanking us for helping them to be distracted a little bit from everything that was going on in 2020.

And hopefully 2021 is going to be a better year for everyone. But if not, we'll be there, right? With more distractions or more entertainment or whatever you use the podcast for. We'll be there. More if we had some really great Patreon support. So let's give some shoutouts. We had Kathy McDermott, Stacey Holcomb, Tim, Clay Compton Garrison, Marissa, Patricia Baker, Tammy Goodell, and Holly Mail. So it's a lot of support.

We really appreciate it. Yeah, it's very generous. We can't thank our Patreon supporters enough. And if anyone out there wants to help support the show, they can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. Don't forget about Stitcher Premium. Morphi and I continue to get a lot of messages about, hey, you know, where's your older content? And that's where it is. It's out on Stitcher Premium.

They have a free 30-day trial. So you really have nothing to lose to check it out. Besides criminology, there is a ton of amazing content. All right, buddy, it's time to get into our first case of 2021. And, you know, this is an especially cruel and heartbreaking one. We're talking about the murder of Jessica Chambers. Panola County, Mississippi in the United States, deep south, is a small county full of small towns. Some of the towns are so small that they're technically villages.

One of them is Cortland, a tiny town with just over 500 residents. It's the kind of place where everyone sort of knows each other. Like in many small towns, your business doesn't stay private for very long. and many of your neighbors know most everything about your life, your comings and goings, who you know, who you like and don't like, whether you tell them or not. The entire county has been plagued by gang violence moving out of the larger cities, like Memphis, Tennessee, and spreading into rural areas of Pannola County. Pope also located in Pinala County is even smaller than Cortland.

Only 241 people live there. The two towns are just a three-minute drive apart, despite rumors traveling at the speed of light. One thing remains a mystery in Cortland, and none of the locals seem willing to talk about it, not even for money. It's the cold-blooded murder of Jessica Chambers. In a county with a 20% poverty rate and a median annual income of around $30,000, the offered reward of $54,000 would seem guaranteed to make someone come forward. Officials there have even comment on the surprising silence and lack of talk on the street surrounding this case,

noting it has made their investigation even more difficult. The answer to the question, who is behind the brutal murder of Jessica Chambers, has remained unknown for six years. Police and the DA have a suspect, and they believe they have the right man. But two juries have been unable to come to a decision. That man's name is Quentin Tellis. He's been tried unsuccessfully twice for Jessica's murder. He's currently sitting in jail, awaiting yet another trial in another murder case.

Now, while the ending is yet to be written, it's important for us to go back to the beginning. The end of the year is a time with many highs and exciting occasions. Even if you don't celebrate, you just really can't escape the holiday season. There's Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. Many people are busy shopping and making holiday plans. But in December 2014, residents of Pinala County spent Christmas wondering who, living amongst them, might be a murderer. Since then, every December instead of having a joyous time, Jessica Chambers family remembers and misses a beautiful soul, and they spend Christmas time wondering if their daughter will ever see the

justice she deserves. You can describe 19-year-old Jessica Chambers as an all-American girl. She was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and when she was in high school, she was a softball player and a cheerleader. She was good nature, had dreams of becoming a nurse and helping people. her mother told People magazine that Jessica believed everybody deserved a fair chance, even after they'd done their time. And Jessica didn't judge others. Family and friends admit that she was trying to get her life together and straighten herself out. The issues that she had or needed to work on and the extent of Jessica's problems are still a little bit unclear. But what is evident is that she wanted to do better for herself.

Not long before her death, Jessica stayed for a short time at a place called Leah's house. Some described Leah's house as a rehab and others called a woman shelter. While Leah's house describes their nonprofit organization as, quote, a place of restoration where women accept Christ and discover his purpose for them through biblical studies and life skills training. Jessica's mother claimed she was looking for. for help with anger issues, but there are many unsubstantiated rumors about this time in her life,

including Jessica's stay at Leah's house. Some say Jessica is actually going to rehab to seek treatment for abuse of hard drugs. But according to the Leah's house website, they are not a halfway house and have no detox programs or medical or psychiatric treatment. And all residents must be completely drug and alcohol-free before entering the program. Some people have wondered whether Jessica needed to escape a domestic violence situation, while others have claimed a local drug dealer had threatened her. The most extreme rumor about the need for Jessica's time away was that she had been sexually assaulted by multiple men and sought shelter and help afterwards. Her family claims to have no knowledge of Jessica being involved with or selling drugs.

but friends and other residents say otherwise. One friend Keisha Meyer later testified during the trial that Jessica did sell marijuana. It's also important to note that nothing like a sexual assault was revealed by family or uncovered during an investigation into Jessica's murder. Whatever the reason for Jessica seeking the help of Leah's house remains a mystery. But it seems to support her family's belief that she was trying to better her life in some way. On the afternoon of December 6, 2014, Jessica was napping in the home she shared with her mother in rural Pope. Jessica's parents, Ben Chambers and Lisa Dowardy, are divorced and live separately. At 4.23 p.m., Jessica received a phone call which woke her up.

She then texted a friend that she would hang out with her if the friend paid for them to go get some food. Jessica went to the bathroom and then called someone, but her mother doesn't know who it was. Just a while later, Jessica got into her 2005 Kia Rio, left home, and never returned. Jessica told her mom she was going to get something to eat and then clean her car, and that she'd be back home to clean up her room since Lisa had been urging her to tidy up a room for the past few days. When Jessica left the house, she was wearing warm pajama pants and a black coat. After Jessica left her home at around 6.30 p.m., she was captured by security cameras just two miles away from her house at M&M first stop, the local gas station. In the footage, Jessica doesn't seem to be scared or nervous, and she really doesn't do anything odd. Absolutely nothing stands out from her demeanor. There are no clues in her behavior that she was at all of. of what was to come, walking from her car into the M&M station.

Something or someone caught her attention. She waved and walked off camera. About a minute later, she returned into the camera's view walking toward the station door. She bent over to put out what appeared to be a cigarette or possibly a joint before entering the store. Jessica exited the building. She answered a phone call. And then she pumped her gas.

From there, Jessica got back into her car and drove away from M&M. Ali Alsani, the cashier working that night at M&M, would later note that Jessica is a regular customer. She would normally put in $5 worth of gas at a time. But that evening, she purchased $14 worth of gas. It was notable. So Ali asked about the larger purchase, but Jessica only replied that she had somewhere to go. Nothing else seemed odd to Ali about her behavior, and he believes that she would have told him about any problems she was having. While Jessica was at the M&M station, a man in a striped shirt is also seen on camera, filling up a gas can and then leaving.

He used the pump next to Jessica's car and walked away from the station with the gas can while Jessica was still parked there. About 15 minutes after being seen at M&M, Jessica spoke with her mother on the phone. she told Lisa that she loved her and would be home soon, but Jessica would never see her mother again. And those are the last words that Lisa heard from her daughter. The only thing that Lisa recalls is notable about the call is that there wasn't any road noise or music playing while Jessica was talking to her, which there usually was. in phone calls, there was always something in the background when Jessica was alone. I think this fact made Lisa believe that her daughter was not the only person in her car during that call that came in at 6.48 p.m.

At 807 p.m., two men, Glenn Williams and LaTroy Rudd called police to report a car on fire on Heron Road near Cortland. The men were on their way from Cortland to Lambert, Mississippi. and were taking back roads when they happened upon the fiery scene, because they had been drinking and wanted to avoid police. They stayed at the scene of the fire, just one and a half miles from the M&M gas station for two minutes, and during that time, they saw no other vehicles or people near the burning car. Just a few minutes after the 911 call,

first responders arrived at the scene on Heron Road, ready to simply extinguish a car on fire. None of the people responding that night were prepared for what the scene actually reviewed. Fire chief Cole Haley arrived on scene first. He saw a woman severely burned and wearing only her underwear, walking toward him from the woods. She had her arms outstretched, asking for help. Looking at this badly injured woman who was practically unrecognizable, her skin blackened from soot, her hair burned off. He had no idea who the victim was. Cole wrapped a blanket around her and laid her at the back of his fire engine because she was too weak to go any further. Burns covered over 90% of her body. Only her pelvic area, her buttocks and the souls of her feet were unscathed. When she tried to say her name, it didn't come out right because her mouth and lungs were damaged from flames and smoke.

Cole heard Jessica Tambors. But it finally dawned on him. In this tiny town, this could only be Jessica Chambers, a name that he was familiar with. Cole and other first responders tried to keep Jessica alert, tried to get any information they could that may help them figure out what happened to Jessica that night. Cole kept Jessica from losing consciousness by performing something called a sternum rub, rubbing his knuckles over her chest and collarbones, which causes pain. This technique is common in trying to rouse people who might be experiencing a drug overdose.

It's also a way to tell patients to have brain activity by watching for a response to that pain. For Jessica, this pain was the only thing keeping her from slipping away without being able to name her killer. The scene was absolutely hectic, completely chaotic, and almost deafening. There were multiple fire engines and ambulance rigs causing a tremendous amount of noise. It was so loud that when Cole had to answer a phone call, he couldn't hear the person on the other end until he was almost 100 feet away. This noise made it difficult for everyone to communicate that night, especially Jessica. Just two feet away from all of this noise.

Jessica lay surrounded by emergency personnel trying to get answers, but due to the damage to her mouth and lungs, she was barely able to speak. The engine noises drowned out what little voice Jessica had left. as the damage to her airway caused more swelling, her ability to communicate got more and more difficult. She was also becoming frustrated with first responders asking her the same questions over and over and being unable to communicate back to them. The firefighters and EMTs on the scene were just as frustrated that they couldn't hear or understand Jessica. The burns on her hands left her unable to hold a pen and write down the name of whoever had done this to her or any information about what had happened.

The skin on her hands had no ability to move or stretch. She began to go into shock from her severe injuries. Burns can cause multiple types of shock depending on their severity. and with Jessica having so many full thickness burns, it was clear that she was running out of time. At times, Jessica wouldn't even answer questions when asked and was only speaking one word at a time. Her injuries were gruesome.

Firefighter Will Turner said ashes came out of her mouth when she tried to talk. Five first responders noted that the skin inside her nose was going in and out as she tried to breathe. They understood how grim the situation was, and that she was a critical patient. Everyone there that night wanted to know what happened or who did this, and they knew that if they didn't get the answer soon, they likely never would.

Jessica was able to utter a few things that night, but the words she said and whether they were what she meant or disputed. Volunteer firefighter Brandy Davis said that he was approached by an unknown black male that Davis felt was suspicious. He asked the man to leave several times. but the man stayed just kind of staring into the woods. Firefighter Will Turner told Davis to write down the man's license plate number, but it was unclear if the stranger had even driven to the scene.

The unknown man wore a blue shirt, a hat, glasses, and a Bluetooth earpiece. When he did finally walk away, looking over his shoulder at the scene, he took off his shirt, revealing a white shirt beneath the blue shirt he was originally seen wearing. Jessica was quickly loaded and airlifted to the burn unit of Regional One Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, 70 miles away. The crime scene was taped off. Panola County Sheriff's Lieutenant Edward Dixon arrived and scoured the scene that night. He found multiple cigarette lighters, beer cans, and a cell phone with a back detached but nearby, close to the car. The cell phone was two and a half feet from the drive.

driver's door the car, which was open a few inches, and burned clothing was near the back of the car. One lighter looked rusty like it had been there a long time, so it was discarded, along with a still-burning cigarette butt, which is believed to it belonged to one of the firefighters. Jessica's keys were not found at the scene. Jessica's car was removed from the scene, and the tow truck driver that picked it up, stopped at Eminem first stop with Jessica's car still on the flatbed. Ali Asani, the cashier that served Jessica that night. took photos of her burned car and leaked them on Facebook immediately.

The news about the mysterious fire began to spread quickly. Because it was dark, the sheriff decided to return to the scene to search the next morning, leaving the scene unattended overnight. Jessica Chambers arrived at the hospital after 10 p.m. and was admitted in critical condition. But sadly, despite the efforts of first responders and hospital staff, Jessica died due to thermal injuries from her attack at 2.36 a.m. on December 7th, just over six hours after being found near her still burning car. At both the scene where she was found and during the trip to the hospital, there were at least 10 first responders and medical personnel that heard Jessica trying to speak.

Each person was a different distance away from Jessica and performing different duties. Civil Defense Director Daniel Cole was actually on his hands and knees to try to hear Jessica better and heard what could have possibly been Courtney when he asked Jessica her name. When asked who was responsible for this or who did this to her, each person heard something similar, but they all had varying degrees of. of certainty. Firefighter Jody Morris believes that what Jessica said sounded like, Eric set me on fire. Volunteer firefighters Brandy Davis and Sandra Haley believe that Jessica answered. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to

to what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Eric did this. Volunteer firefighter David Gamble heard Eric. While Cole could only understand something that sounded like Eric. E.M.T. Bradley Dixon heard Ewa.

While paramedic Josh Perkins heard what could have been Eric or Derek. Deputy Darrell House said that, While she was in the ambulance at the landing zone, Jessica told him that Eric did this to her. Deputy Chuck Tucker asked her, Eric who? And Jessica replied, no. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy.

And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. An off-duty paramedic named Casey Austin, who happened to live around five miles from the Heron Road crime scene, also responded that night. He tried to assist in starting an IV and also asked Jessica, Who did this to her?

She answered Eric, but her voice wasn't clear. And she was starting to get confused. He asked her what her last name was, but all she could say was, I'm cold. As Jessica was taken from the scene, Firefighter Sandra Haley heard her give her name, but she heard what sounded like Essie, not Jessica. She asked her if her name was Jessica Chambers and Jessica nodded. The difficulties that she had communicating are further highlighted by the words understood by

those at the scene and how she was actually able to pronounce them. Medics heard her say, Oh, and figured she was saying she was cold due to the severe burns over her entire body. And when she told them she was thirsty, they heard hursty. The overwhelming consensus among those, that heard Jessica speak following the fire was that she was saying the name Eric or Derek.

Jessica's parents were understandably shocked and horrified by the news of what happened to Jessica. Early on in the investigation, after they got more details, Ben Chabers made statements about his daughter's murder. He claimed that she had been hit on the head as evidenced by a large gash, and that the killer had poured an accelerant like ledger fluid down Jessica's throat and also squirted into her nose. He believed Jessica had been hit on the head, rendered unconscious, and then set on fire. Contrary to the possibility of lighter fluid being used to set Jessica on fire, no lighter fluid traces were found when items were examined by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, firearms, and explosives. A different accelerant, gasoline, was found only on a piece of Jessica's

brawl. Also tested were strands of hair, and items included in a cigarette lighter, and a piece of blanket found at the scene, but no additional traces of gasoline were found. Additionally, there's no report of any blunt force injury in Jessica's autopsy. If Jessica was immobilized or unconscious before she was murdered, it had to be through a different method than a blow to the head. It didn't take long for rumors about possible motives in Jessica's murder to swirl due to Ben Chambers, being employed as a mechanic by the Panola County Sheriff's Office, one early theory was that Jessica was a criminal informant for her dad's employer. There was also a few very vocal residents dragging Ben's name through the mud on social media,

accusing the police of covering up and murder that one of their own committed. It didn't matter that Ben is technically service and support staff. He was not an officer or really anything close to it. Still, the accusations kept coming. Some people even insinuated that Ben Chambers may have been involved. But, and more if I think this is a question that, you know, people ask in a lot of cases, why would a father murder his daughter? Some people accused him of being a racist or having an issue with his daughter dating men of

color. Now, on the flip side, Ben Chambers has never really made it a secret that he didn't agree, and I'm assuming probably still doesn't, with interracial dating, though he says he has no problem with black people in general. He was very open and candid about this on an oxygen special about the case. There weren't many motives that made sense to investigators. Jessica is well liked, known to love and trust everyone, always mingling with people of any race or class. Jessica's friend, Ashanta Winfield, described Jessica as someone who couldn't even see skin color when judging a person. Jessica had dated multiple black men in the past, even living with ex-boyfriend Brian Rudd for two years. The rumor mill churned on. Some thought maybe Jessica's murder was

an act of revenge, or some kind of drug deal gone wrong. It's also a rumor that sometime in the year before her death, Jessica and her ex-boyfriend cheated local drug dealer Roger Hintz during a drug deal, receiving $500 cash for fake pills. Jessica's ex-boyfriend ended up in jail on an unrelated charge, and this left Jessica to take the brunt of threats over this deal. Hintz and his girlfriend allegedly started threatening Jessica, once confronting her at the M&M gas station, and once even showing up at her house. Hence his girlfriend confronted Jessica before she left for Leah's house and again after she returned.

And I think these public confrontations shed a little bit of light on the rumor that she needed to escape the wrath of an angry drug dealer when she sought the help of Leah's house. Roger Hince and his brother had records for arson charges. Just one more reason people looked at Hence as the perpetrator of this crime. in the fall of 2015, Roger Hince died. There is no obituary, but commenters on sites like topics claimed he passed from liver cancer. It's unclear how closely investigators looked at Roger Hens in Jessica's case. But what is clear is that police were looking closely for any erics or derricks in Jessica's life. The sheer number of people who believe they heard Jessica say Eric or Derek was responsible for her murder gave police a great starting point.

But after searching her cell phone records, no contact name Eric or Derek was found, and investigators looked into just about every person with a similar name in Pinola County. After interviewing more than 150 people, no suspect was found. By February 2015, investigators had combed through over 200,000 phone records. When you remember how tiny these towns are, populations of 200 to 500 people, the scale of this investigation seems magnificent and likely stretched far beyond the area where the crime happened. On December 8th, two days after the fire that killed Jessica, a man named Jerry King was walking his one-year-old daughter down Main Street in Cortland. He saw a pink string in a ditch on the side of the road and something shiny attention.

attached to it caught his eye. It was keys on a pink keychain. He picked the keys up and let his daughter play with them on the walk home. When he got home, his girlfriend noticed that the keychain had a Ben's auto tag on it and thought, they may have found Jessica's keys. King's girlfriend was a confidential informant for the Panola County Sheriff's Department. So she called the personal cell phone of CSI Jeffrey Mills and explained what King had found. Mills went to the King residence and found the keys were wrapped in a paper towel and had been placed on the hood of a car. Wearing gloves, he picked up the keys and had King take him to the spot where the keys were

found. Once the pair got there, Mills placed the keys down on the ground on the side of the road and took a few photos and then put them into an evidence bag. This spot was less than half a mile from where Jessica had been discovered. Test were done looking for a match between DNA found on the Keys and Jerry King's DNA and the results were inconclusive. In another development, police were ultimately able to ID the man who was pumping gas into a gas can when Jessica was at the M&M service station and he was also ruled out through DNA. But DNA on the Keys did man. DNA taken from a man that would later become the prime suspect in Jessica's murder. Quentin Tellis.

Additionally, his fingerprint would be found on one of the keys. The spot where those keys were found is en route from the crime scene to Tellis's sister's home. During the investigation into Jessica's murder, the FBI uncovered information leading to the indictments of 17 members from three different gangs on charges including possession of narcotics, sale of narcotics, child endangerment, counterfeit money, robbery, and possessing stolen weapons. Those arrested included members of the street gangs, vice lord, sip mob, and black gangster disciples. None of this information and none of the arrests were directly related to Jessica's murder. And none of this led to any breaks in her case.

However, it highlights the many problems in Pinola County and just how involved. However, remotely with these people, Jessica really was. It also shed some light on a few of the rumors surrounding Jessica's life as well as her death. DA John Champion publicly stated, he never thought Jessica's murder was drug-related or related to any gang activity. Twice in December on 10th and 14th, police interviewed a man with a name that sounded absolutely nothing like Eric or Derek. That man was Quentin Verdel Tellis, and records indicated that he and Jessica had called and texted each other the day of her murder. In fact, he was the last person Jessica ever texted.

At the time Jessica was killed, Quentin Tellis was a 27-year-old with a criminal record and had multiple convictions for burglary, as well as a felony fleeing conviction in Mississippi and in Louisiana. He also had convictions for larceny, DUI, and simple assault. He was also a purported member of the street gang, vice lords, as claimed by him and witnessed on his social media through gang signs and by certain tattoos he has on his arm. Despite Telsus' lengthy criminal history, and though he had been sentenced for multiple crimes,

he was never behind bars long. He served just one year of a five-year sentence for burglary and fleeing authority. Another eight-year burglary sentence turned into just two short years before Tellus was released in 2014. After his release on parole in October 2014, Quentin Tellis met Jessica Chambers. It's unclear how the two actually met. Tell us told FBI investigators that Jessica's friend Keisha Meyer introduced them at the M&M first stop and that it was Keisha who gave him Jessica's number. Meyer had testified that it was actually Jessica who introduced her to tell us. They knew each other for only about two weeks before Jessica's murder and in the week before her death,

Tellus repeatedly bugged Jessica for sex via text messages, each time she said no, including four times on the day of her death. Prosecutors have actually offered two theories as to what happened that night. They believe that either Tellus was angry because Jessica had turned away his advances so many times, and that during an altercation over it, he killed her, or that during sex that night, he believed he killed her and set her on fire to cover up the death. Death. District Attorney John Champion theorizes that Tellus suffocated Jessica, leaving her unconscious in her car and left the scene. He then borrowed a sister's car to get his gas can and returned to the scene where he lit Jessica's car on fire before quickly heading to Batesville. It was there that he purchased a green daughter money pack card, creating an alibi for himself. But the motive for killing Jessica

starts to get murky when you dig further into Telos's incoming phone activity. Five different women were texting and her calling Tellas while he was hanging out with Jessica that night, including his then-girlfriend, Chiquita Jackson. Chiquita wanted to travel from her home in Louisiana to Cortland to see Tellis, but while he was with Jessica, he didn't text any of the women back, including Chiquita. She gave up trying to initiate a meeting. It seemed that if Tellus was after sex, he had options that didn't involve murder. This may be why there were two theories presented about what happened that night.

Phone records show that Telas's phone activity stopped around 6.30 p.m. Just before Jessica spoke to her mother, and then activity started again around 7.42 p.m. After which he called Jessica and also texted her that his girlfriend was coming over that night so he couldn't see her. Shortly after that text, Tela stopped contacting her and deleted their text from his phone. prosecutors believe this proves Tellus was trying to hide their relationship and communication. But he says he didn't want a number in his phone that wouldn't be used again.

And his mother later said she believed he was simply afraid. He would be pointed to regardless of his innocence because of how much they had talked in the few days they knew each other. Closer review of surveillance from Eminem first stop shows a car believed to be Tellis's sister, La Quanta's, stopping at Tellus' home at 7.50 p.m. For less than two minutes. This is when investigators believed Tellus grabbed a gas can from his shed. Champion a test that Tellus didn't realize Jessica was still alive and was trying to destroy evidence, believing he had already committed murder. Tellus initially admitted to seeing Jessica the morning of the day she was

murdered. He claimed he was giving her money for food. He changed his story multiple times, as he was confronted with different and contradicting evidence. He was interrogated again in November 2015 and January 2016, each time changing parts of his story. Another version of events told by Tell Us was that he and Jessica, as well as Keisha Meyer, were together that day. Tellus claimed Jessica drove around while the two girls smoked marijuana, which lines up with Meyer's statement to police. Tellus later admitted that Jessica asked him for money for food and picked him up again that evening and the two drove to Taco Bell in Batesville. Then back to his house where they sat in his driveway listening to music until she left at 7 p.m. And then a friend picked Tell Us up.

However, their cell phones prove that Tell us and Jessica Chambers were together until 7.30 p.m. The night she was murdered. Surveillance video from the M&M first stop, which is across the street from Telsa's home, and conveniently records his driveway area, shows Jessica leaving his home at 7.30 p.m., headed toward where she was later found on Heron Road at 8.10 p.m. The friend who supposedly picked Tell Us Up, a man named Big Mike Sanford, was an hour away in Nashville, watching a foot. football game. So that alibi never really checked out. When FBI special agent Dustin Blount interrogated Tellis, he claimed he was with Jessica until noon on December 6th, but that at the time, Jessica was murdered. He was with two friends, either at a local hangout called the sandbox, or in Batesville,

buying a green dot money card. He planned to use the money on their card for his girlfriend in Monroe, Louisiana. Investigators discover that Tulles did travel to Batesville that night. and he did indeed buy a green dot card. He also had a girlfriend, Chiquita, texting him trying to arrange travel to Cortland to see him. But he didn't reply to most of her text. He is seen on surveillance video at a store in Batesville buying a green dot card about six miles away from the crime scene in less than a 10-minute drive at 8.26 p.m. This is about 15 minutes after first responders arrived at the scene and found Jessica's car burning,

which was a few minutes after the 911 call was placed. This means there's closer to 20 minutes between Jessica's attack and TELUS being spotted on camera in Batesville. This proves there was enough time for TELUS to attack Jessica and make it to Batesville, especially when you consider that an SUV that looked just like Tulles' sisters was spotted at 8 p.m. on M&M surveillance footage, driving towards Batesville very quickly. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy.

And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. When he finally admitted that he and Jessica were together that night, tell us also told

investigators that they did have sex once in her car near his home. Cell phone records confirmed the two were together in the same area he described the night of the murder. He explained that when they had sex, he was in the passenger seat with it reclined. It's unclear when during the night tells us claims to have had sex with Jessica. One important part of the prosecution's theory is that the seat was still. still reclined when Jessica's car was found burning. Though no one asked him about it,

tell us volunteered the information that he had a five-gallon gasoline can in his shed. This was an important detail to investigators because of the traces of gas found on Jessica's bra. However, the gas can was not collected as evidence or examined. When oxygen filmed unspeakable crime, the killing of Jessica Chambers, Tellis's mother, Rebecca, pointed out the can to producers. As seen on various surveillance videos on December 6th that were collected by police, Tellis changed clothes three times that day. Investigators were also intrigued by burn scarves that Tellus had.

When questioned about the burn scars, about a year after the murder, Quentin told investigators that he had fallen into a fire after just, jumping over it, resulting in burns to his arm and butt. Tell us denied killing Jessica and instead pointed the finger at someone else, someone with an interesting name. Tell us claim that a man named Derek Holmes had been stalking Jessica. Holmes was a registered sex offender. The name Derek sounded promising because so many people had heard the name Derek or Eric come

from Jessica herself. But like most things that sound too good to be true, it was. Derek had a verified alibi for the night of Jessica's murder. He was at his mother's house massaging her feet because of a medical condition. Police confirmed Derek's alibi by having him describe what they watched on television together that night. They also verified that the DNA found on Jessica's keys was not a match to Derek Holmes. This was a letdown for police, but they continued to look at Tell Us. Authority still hadn't found the evidence they needed to make arrests.

And as time went by, discussion of Jessica's case dwindled. For most people in court when life moved on by early 2015. Ali Alsani, the gas station clerk, who talked to Jessica the night she died and later posted photos of her burned car, had to move away from Pinola County because he was receiving death threats. He was also being accused of being her murderer. Al-Sani denies any involvement in Jessica's murder, maintains his innocence, saying he knew her because she was his customer, and that's as far as it goes. As for prime suspect Quentin Tellis, he moved to Monroe, Louisiana, and married his girlfriend, Chiquita Jackson. By the time the Panola County Sheriff's Department were ready to make their move and arrest Quentin Tellis, the person they believed responsible. for Jessica's murder, they found out he was already behind bars in Louisiana.

On August 20th, 2015, Quentin Tellis was arrested for using a murdered woman named Ming Chen Hay Sayal's debit card without authorization, as well as possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Like in Jessica's case, Ming, who went by Mandy, was also linked by cell phone records to Quentin Tellis in her final hours. Tellis had been caught by ATM cameras withdrawing money using Mandy's stolen credit card. Physically, Mandy and Jessica were very different. Mandy had very dark hair and dark eyes, and at 34, she was older than Jessica. But like Jessica, Mandy was described as a caring person who was focused on helping others.

Mandy was a Taiwanese graduate student who studied education at the University of Louisiana Monroe. She was known to be outgoing and would give the children in her neighborhood candy when she saw them. Police believe the evidence points to Mandy being tortured and ultimately murder on July 29, 2015, just five months before Tellis was interrogated in the murder of Jessica Chambers. On August 9th, 2015, Mandy was found dead in her apartment. An upstairs neighbor had noticed that her lights were off, but the porch light was on constantly from July 29th to August 8th. The neighbor recalled that she hadn't seen any activity at Mandy's apartment since July 28th. It was also on July 28th that the neighbor recalls hearing Mandy arguing with a man.

She had seen at the apartment multiple times. This guy creeped her out enough during those encounters that she wrote down his license plate number. Mandy had been stabbed, cut, and nicked over 30 times. Some of the wounds were obviously non-fatal, and it was theorized that they were meant solely to inflict pain. Investigators believed that these smaller cuts were tortured and attempt to force Mandy to reveal her ATM pincode. At 8.16 p.m. on July 29th, Mandy's phone called Chase Bank, two times, but both calls disconnected immediately. Two minutes later, Quentin Tells his phone. phone also called Chase Bank twice and entered Mandy's debit card number in Penn.

During this time, Telsus' phone was within 200 feet of Mandy's apartment, according to records from AT&T. Mandy died sometime between 5.22 p.m. and 8.16 p.m. on July 29th, 2015. At 5.22 p.m., Mandy made a call to get a ride to church. But there was no further activity on her phone until that 8.16 p.m. called to Chase Bank. On August 1, 2015, someone withdrew $400 from Mandy's account at an ATM in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Phone records show Quentin Tellis and Vicksburg at this time. Quentin and Mandy were also seen together on security footage at a Walmart the day before her death. In the footage, Tellis is driving with Mandy in a car with a license.

plate that matches that of the man the neighbor had bad feelings about. Tellis also matches the description of the man given by Mandy's neighbor. On August 9th, the same day Mandy was found dead on her bedroom floor, Tellis married his girlfriend, Shakita Jackson. When interrogated in August 2015, Tellis admitted that he had abandoned Mandy's apartment on July 27th and 28th. He explained that he was there to take Mandy to pick up a prescription for the painkiller War Tab from Walmart, which he then presented.

purchase from her, which explains their Walmart trip seen on surveillance. On August 20th, 2015, Quentin Tellis was arrested for using Mandy's debit card without authorization. He claimed that a drug dealer gave him the debit card, but then later changed his story to a drug addict of a different name. He admitted to using Mandy's debit card on August 17th, 18th, and 19th. and is definitely seen on ATM cameras making those withdrawals. It was also revealed that on July 30th, before withdrawing any money himself, TELUS gave the neighbor of his mother-in-law a debit card and asked her to withdraw $2,000. The neighbor stated that it was a Chase debit card,

and he recalled that it had an Asian-sounding name on the front of it. instead of withdrawing any money, this person simply checked the balance. In May 2016, TELUS pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for unauthorized use of Mandy stolen debit card and the marijuana charges were dropped. His sentence was longer than most because his criminal history made him a habitual offender, which doubled the five-year sentence. but Tellis was only behind bars for the illegal credit card activity. Prosecutors wanted murder charges against him in Mandy's death.

Prosecutors in Louisiana continued building a murder case against Tellus, while authorities in Mississippi used the time to interrogate Tellus multiple times and finished their investigation into Jessica's murder. In February 2016, Quentin Tellis was finally indicted for the first-degree murder of Jessica Chamber. Over a year later, just two months shy of the two-year anniversary of her murder, a trial was held, and Quentin Tellis formally faced charges for the murder of Jessica Chambers. When the jury returned with the verdict, Judge Gerald Chatham was informed that the unanimous verdict was not guilty.

After he announced it, a juror stated that they didn't actually agree on the verdict. The jury had misunderstood their directions and thought that they had to agree to find someone guilty, but not to find someone not guilty. The judge asked the jury to return and deliberate again. The trial ended in a hung jury with seven deeming Tellis guilty and only five believing he was not guilty. Telas remained in prison for the credit card charges and Mississippi started rebuilding their case against him. It was during this time that a man named Jalen Cottle, who was charged with capital murder in an unrelated case, says DA John Champion held a secret meeting with him in which he tried to bolster the strength of evidence against Tellus in Jessica's case.

Cottle claims champion after talking about how long he could be in jail and how he could do things to help him get out sooner, asked him if he or anyone else called Tellus, Eric. Cottle felt pressured to confirm that Eric was a nickname, though he doesn't know tell us as Eric at all. Defense attorney Darla Palmer claims this was an attempt to intimidate an inmate into being a witness. However, Champion believed Cottle was lying in order to gain favor and lessen his sentence for murder. Judge Gerald Chatham cleared champion of prosecutorial misconduct and cleared the way for a second trial against Tell Us. In September 2018, the retrial started.

Prosecutors were confident they had tightened their case and would be able to convict Quentin Tellis for the murder of Jessica Chambers. The suspicious man just staring toward the crime scene as first responders aided Jessica hadn't been identified in time for the first trial. He was identified during the second trial by Major Barry Thompson as Willie Taylor, who was at the scene out of concern for his own daughter that night. who hadn't come home. He had been staring intently to make sure it wasn't her. A new witness was also called this time around. Sherry Flowers, a resident of Cortland, testified that on December 6, 2014,

she was driving down Main Street and gave a hitchhiking man a ride. She couldn't identify the man any further than saying he was young and black, but the man said he wanted to check on his aunt, Julia Chambers, who's no relation to Jessica. Because he had heard her house was on. on fire. Sherry gave the man a ride and dropped them off near Julia Chambers' home, which is also near Laquanta Tellis's home. Tellis and Julia are actually quite distantly related, with great grandmothers who were sisters, but Tellis never stopped by the home that night, and it turns out it was only a small microwave fire, not a serious one. Prosecutors had alleged Tellus went from the area he was dropped off at, which is just miles from the crime scene, and went not home, but to his sister's house,

He borrowed a car in order to retrieve his gas can. This answered questions that had been posed during the original trial about how someone could possibly make it from the scene back to Tell Us His Home and all the way back to the scene in the tight time frame and without being seen by someone in a place where everyone knows everyone. During the second trial for Jessica's murder, a speech pathologist was called to testify about the extent of Jessica's injuries. and the way they would have impacted her ability to communicate.

The prosecution wanted to show that despite multiple people hearing the name Eric that night, there was no way she could have actually spoken clearly. In the DA's eyes, it was Jessica's own words, preventing her from getting justice, and they needed to explain the name away. Filling in the gaps from the first trial with data and experts, the prosecution and Jessica's friends and family hope for a different outcome. But unknown DNA on Jessica's keys as well as possible contamination of the evidence related to the keys couldn't be cleared up.

And it left lingering doubts for the jury. Ultimately, the jury could not agree. Six jurors voted guilty and six voted tell us not guilty. On October 1st, 2018, there was a mistrial once again. But TELUS was still not a free man. He had at least four months to serve for using Mandy's stolen debit card. Plus, prosecutors in Mandy's case were still building a murder case against Tulles. In May 2019, Quentin Tellis was finally indicted for the second-degree murder, Mandy Haseau.

The arrest weren't charging Ques. Quentin tells us for the murder is entirely based on circumstantial evidence. No physical evidence linking Quentin directly to the crime has been made public. Most evidence is data from phone records and ATM footage. Someone had attempted to clean the scene at Mandy's apartment, and there was no useful DNA recovered. Police did find shoes they believe belonged to tell us that had been spray-painted white with what is believed to be bloodstains underneath the paint. the result of any testing on these shoes, if any, has not been made public. I don't know more if that's a new one for me.

I don't know if I've ever heard of a case where a person has tried to spray paint their shoes to cover up blood. I'm sure it's happened before. I've just never heard of it. Yeah, I've never heard of it either. Why not just throw them away unless they're like some kind of special shoes that he doesn't want to get rid of. but spray. I don't care how special they are. If you've got blood on your shoes that resulted from a murder you committed,

you know, if that's what happened, burn them, dump them, get rid of them. I just don't know who in the world would think that using a little bit of spray paint would be enough to get rid of that evidence completely. I don't think we're dealing with a criminal mastermind here. After all, he did use Mandy's cards. He was caught on camera. He called from his own phone and they linked that back to him. So he's probably not the smartest criminal that's ever been out there. Well, and I think that's a good point, right? You know, all the things that we've talked about so far in this episode have not been the work of, as you put it, a criminal mastermind. There's a lot of,

of things that to me are just common sense if you are a murderer, if you have murdered someone or you're planning on murdering someone, that you just wouldn't do. So again, either this guy is a murderer and just really had either no knowledge or didn't care about what he was doing or he's not. And I guess, you know, we'll find out. Law enforcement official. discussing both pending cases against Quentin Tellis have publicly said they believe that out of the two murder cases against him, Mississippi has the stronger case. Telesawaits trial in Louisiana, but Panola County is unsure if they will prosecute him a third time for the murder of Jessica Chambers. Now, those who believe officials got the right man in

Mississippi are waiting to see if Louisiana can bring justice to the families of two bright and kind young women, Jessica Chambers and Mandy Haysaw. As of December 2020, there was no word on any trial dates for tell us. And you and I have seen this in a number of cases that are ongoing, right? 2020, such a strange year for all of us. in a number of different ways, but also very strange as it relates to ongoing criminal cases. You know, the courts experienced a lot of disruption. And I myself was called for jury duty. I didn't have to go, but, you know, even that got pushed out, pushed out. And I think that's what has happened during the 2020 pandemic as it relates to a lot of these cases, right?

There's not a rush. They're pushing things out. They're waiting until they feel like things are safe for people to be, you know, confined in in these rooms to hear these cases. But there's a lot going on here, you know, to unpack Morph as we wrap this up. Yeah, mainly this case. is about the murder of Jessica Chambers. But another woman was murdered.

And Mandy's murder plays a very pivotal role in what will ultimately happen to Quentin Tell us. We just said it. We're not sure if Mississippi is going to try this man for a third time. And, you know, one of the things that I was thinking about Morp is if you look at the make up of the voting in the first two trials. It wasn't like there was one loan holdout. It was pretty split. I think in that second trial, what did we say? It was six six. That's, that's a lot that you have to overcome. If you just had one loan holdout for acquittal or not

guilty, then I think you're much more confident at going back after it. for a third time. It's not cheap, right? It's very expensive to try these types of cases. And as much as we'd like to think that that's not a consideration, it is. Money is considered when making these types of decisions. So, you know, I think maybe Mississippi is waiting to see what happens in Louisiana, right? If, if Louisiana is able to convict, tell us for this murder and let's say he gets a life sentence with no parole or a very, very long parole many years in the future, maybe they're less likely to try him for the murder of Jessica. I know he's technically innocent until proven guilty of either of these murders,

but I think it's pretty clear that based on his past, he's a dangerous person and it's proven that people he's linked to die mysteriously. And unfortunately, it just seems they don't have that crucial piece of evidence to be able to nail him for one of these murders. Yeah, you said it. This is a dangerous guy. But does that in and of itself prove that he murdered either of these women? No, obviously not. There are many, many dangerous people walking the streets today that haven't murdered anyone.

But when you factor in the cell phone records, the lying, you know, I think you said it more about circumstantial evidence. These cases are almost exclusively built on circumstantial evidence and those cases are harder. You know, I think a lot of juries, they want that smoking guns. They want that one crucial piece of evidence that kind of Perry Mason moment that says, aha, it couldn't be anybody else, but Quentin Tell us. But you know, a lot of cases are not like that. A lot of cases are just layers and layers of circumstantial evidence that point to a person's guilt. And that's something that I think about quite.

a bit as I'm researching cases that are like this, right, mostly circumstantial. Myself as a juror sitting there knowing that I've got to get beyond a reasonable doubt. Can I do that solely with circumstantial evidence? And sometimes I wonder if I'd be able to. Well, I think one thing we know is that sometimes the wheels of justice move slowly, especially in the COVID age, but hopefully when future court proceedings happen that these families get justice in some form. Thanks goes at the Sunny Landon for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you love the show and haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating, you can leave a review.

All of that goes a long way, but keep telling your friends about the podcast because word of mouth is key. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. So, Morf, the first episode of 2021 is in the can. And you and I have a lot of great stuff lined up for the listeners for the rest of this year. I'm excited. I'm excited on a number of different levels. One is just kind of getting back to more of what we think of as normal,

getting to go out, meet up with friends, have a steak, have a beer, just be able to do what we want to do and, you know, see family. I have family members that are older, you know, my parents are older. I have one grandmother who is still living, they are seriously concerned about COVID and should be. They're in a very high risk factor. Missed out on a lot this past year of birthdays and Christmases and just sitting around not being able to do what we normally do. So I'm looking forward to it, man. It's going to be a very good year.

Yeah, I hope so for us and for listeners. And however crazy 2021 is or however. normal it is, we'll be here with with listeners to, to keep them entertain, hopefully. No doubt about it. So that's it for this episode of criminology. But Morp and I will be back with you all next week with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.