Jury selection resumes in burning suspect’s trial

MONROE, La. — A man accused of burning a teen to death in Mississippi goes on trial Thursday in another case in Louisiana, where he is charged with using the debit card of a woman who was stabbed to death.

Ouachita Parish Assistant District Attorney Neal Johnson said six jurors and two alternates were selected Tuesday in the trial of Quinton Tellis. In Louisiana, he’s charged with using the credit card of Meing-Chen Hsiao, who was later found dead. Tellis isn’t charged with killing Hsiao, though police have called him a suspect. Instead, the 27-year-old is charged with three counts of unauthorized use of an access card and one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Hsiao was found stabbed to death in August in her Monroe apartment. The Taiwanese woman had recently graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe,

State District Judge Larry Jefferson ruled Monday that prosecutors can discuss Hsiao’s death in connection with Tellis’ alleged use of the debit card. But Jefferson said prosecutors can’t call the death a murder in front of jurors.

A cousin of Tellis’ wife testified Monday, without jurors present, that when Tellis was asked how he obtained the debit card, he said he’d stabbed someone multiple times.

Police found security camera recordings of Tellis and Hsiao together at a Wal-Mart, where Tellis said he was buying pain pills using Hsiao’s prescription. Police also say Tellis admitted using the debit card multiple times after Hsiao’s death, and his image was captured on security cameras.

If convicted in Louisiana, Tellis could face a life sentence without parole as a habitual offender because of previous felony convictions in Mississippi.

Tellis was also indicted for capital murder in the 2014 burning death of northern Mississippi teenager Jessica Chambers.

He had been released from prison in October 2014, two months before Chambers was killed.

She was found on fire on a rural road in Courtland in December 2014, next to her car, also burning. She died hours later, burned over 98 percent of her body.

Authorities haven’t discussed a motive or the relationship between Tellis and Chambers, except to say they knew one another and were introduced by friends.

Panola County District Attorney John Champion has said Tellis’ trial in the Chambers case won’t come until late this year or early next year.