Jessica Chambers suspect charged in Louisiana homicide
The man charged in the 2014 burning death of Jessica Chambers in Mississippi now faces an additional murder charge in Louisiana.
Panola County District Attorney John Champion said Quinton Tellis also has been charged in the August 2015 death of Meing-Chen Hsiao.
Champion said his office received the warrant to be served to Tellis, who currently is incarcerated in DeSoto County awaiting a July 15 arraignment on his capital murder charge in the Chambers case.
Champion said the charge will not affect the date of Tellis' arraignment or his trial here in Mississippi. However, he would go back to Louisiana for trial and stay there if he is convicted, regardless of the outcome in Mississippi.
"Once we finish with him, we have to send him back," Champion said.
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Tellis was indicted in Chambers' death in February as he sat in the Ouachita Parish Jail in Monroe, Louisiana, on charges related to the stabbing death of Hsiao, 34, of Taiwan.
Hsiao, known to her friends as Mandy, was a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Police said she and Tellis were acquaintances. Witnesses told police about seeing Tellis at Hsiao's apartment, and they were seen together on Wal-Mart surveillance footage.
Tellis was living in Monroe with his new wife when he was arrested in August 2015 by the Monroe Police Department and charged with crimes connected to Hsiao's death. Hsiao lived in an apartment complex, and she and Tellis knew each other, said Monroe police.
Police said Hsiao's stabbing death was particularly brutal. Tellis was the main suspect in her death and pleaded guilty to charges of using her credit cards a few months ago.
Tellis also is charged with first degree arson in Chambers' death. Tellis admitted to investigators that he was the last one to see her alive, but he has not confessed to killing her. He was indicted as a habitual offender under state law because of two previous burglary convictions and a felony fleeing conviction.
Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.