Quinton Tellis Murder Cases: Jessica Chambers and Mandy Hsiao

Quinton Tellis is a Mississippi man charged in two separate killings: the 2014 burning death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers in Panola County, Mississippi, and the 2015 stabbing death of 34-year-old Ming-Chen “Mandy” Hsiao in Monroe, Louisiana. The Quinton Tellis murder cases have taken very different paths. Two Mississippi juries deadlocked on the Chambers charge and the local district attorney declined to try him a third time. The Louisiana case against him for Hsiao’s killing went to a bench trial in May 2026, and a verdict from the judge is scheduled for July 23, 2026.

Who Quinton Tellis Is

Tellis is from Courtland, Mississippi, where he lived with his mother before his arrests. His record predates both killings by several years. He was charged with simple assault in 2009 without serving time, then arrested in 2010 for burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and felony fleeing from police, drawing a five-year sentence of which he served about one year. A 2012 burglary conviction produced an eight-year sentence; he was released after roughly two years and returned to the community by October 2014, two months before Jessica Chambers was killed.¹²

Those prior convictions later mattered in charging: when a Panola County grand jury indicted Tellis for capital murder in the Chambers case in February 2016, he was also charged as a habitual offender.³

The Jessica Chambers Case

On December 6, 2014, Jessica Chambers was found burning near her car in Panola County. She had been doused with gasoline and suffered burns over 98 to 99 percent of her body, dying shortly afterward at Regional Medical Center in Memphis.⁴ Tellis was later indicted on a single count of capital murder in her death.

Two Mistrials

Tellis’s first trial took place in October 2017. The defense presented multiple first responders who testified that Chambers had said “Eric set me on fire” in her final moments. Prosecutors offered a detailed timeline of her final days and her interactions with Tellis. That trial ended in a mistrial after confusion over the jury instructions: the instructions said a guilty verdict required unanimity but did not clearly say the same for acquittal, and jurors came away believing they could not return a not-guilty verdict if they were not unanimous on guilt.⁵

The retrial in the fall of 2018 was heard before Circuit Judge Gerald Chatham. Prosecutors added a speech pathologist and a medical doctor who testified that Chambers, with burns covering nearly her entire body, would have been physically unable to speak to first responders. Nine responders again testified they heard her name someone called “Eric.” Cellphone evidence, prosecutors said, placed Tellis with Chambers at the time of her death. After 12 hours of deliberation the jury was deadlocked, and Judge Chatham declared a second mistrial on October 1, 2018.⁶

The Panola County district attorney declined to prosecute Tellis a third time. Based on the most recent reporting, it is unclear whether the capital murder charge was formally dismissed or remains technically open.⁷

The Mandy Hsiao Case

Ming-Chen “Mandy” Hsiao was a 34-year-old Taiwanese woman who had recently earned a master’s degree from the University of Louisiana Monroe and lived alone in a one-bedroom apartment near campus.⁸ Authorities say she was killed in that apartment on or about July 29, 2015: tortured to extract her debit card PIN, then fatally stabbed more than 30 times. An autopsy by Dr. Frank Peretti documented 27 superficial cuts consistent with torture, three fatal stab wounds to the carotid arteries, and defensive wounds on her hands.⁹ Her body was not found until August 8, 2015, when her landlord entered the apartment. Decomposition suggested she had been dead for more than ten days.¹⁰

Within days of the killing, someone used Hsiao’s debit card at an ATM. Tellis was arrested on August 20, 2015, on charges of unauthorized use of an access card and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. In May 2016 he pleaded guilty to the access card charge and was sentenced to ten years of hard labor. An arrest warrant for Hsiao’s murder was not issued until July 7, 2016, and the second-degree murder indictment came on May 17, 2019.¹⁰¹¹ Tellis married Chakita Jackson on August 8, 2015, the same day Hsiao’s body was found.¹²

Dismissal and Reinstatement

The Louisiana case nearly ended before it went to trial. In October 2022, Assistant District Attorney Holly Chambers Jones arranged for Tellis to be transferred to Mississippi to serve his outstanding burglary sentence, without notifying the trial court and shortly before a scheduled trial date. On October 24, 2022, District Court Judge Larry Jefferson found the prosecutor had acted in “bad faith,” ruled that Tellis’s statutory and Sixth Amendment speedy-trial rights had been violated, and dismissed the second-degree murder charge without prejudice.¹⁰

On April 10, 2024, the Louisiana Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, split the ruling. It affirmed the finding that the statutory speedy-trial deadline had expired and upheld Tellis’s release without bail, but reversed the dismissal of the murder charge, holding that the delay was not “presumptively prejudicial” under Barker v. Wingo because Tellis had been transferred to serve an existing sentence. The case was sent back to Ouachita Parish for reinstatement.¹⁰

The 2026 Bench Trial

The case went to trial in May 2026 as a bench trial before Judge Jefferson at the Ouachita Parish Courthouse in Monroe. Tellis had waived his right to a jury in 2022, so Jefferson sat as sole finder of fact. Tellis pleaded not guilty and did not testify. The state rested on May 15, 2026, and closing arguments were delivered on May 21.¹³

Chambers Jones argued Tellis killed Hsiao for money, telling the court the murder was “committed by a person who was void of emotion” who “wanted only one thing — Mandy’s money.”¹⁴ The prosecution’s case was circumstantial, resting on:

Testimony from neighbor Katelyn Hearne, who said she saw Tellis at the complex on July 27, 2015, heard him ask “Where that white lady is?”, heard him arguing with Hsiao under a carport, and later heard sounds from Hsiao’s apartment on the night of July 29.⁹
Walmart surveillance from July 28, 2015, showing Tellis and Hsiao together while she purchased antibiotics and Lortabs; Tellis later told police he brought her there so he could resell the Lortabs.⁹
Evidence that Tellis accessed Hsiao’s bank account through an automated system on July 29, 2015, with a recurring pattern of calls to Chase Bank preceding unauthorized withdrawals in the following days. Detective Duane Cookson testified Tellis never disclosed that activity to investigators.¹⁵
Testimony from former neighbor Mohammed Mahrous, who said Tellis asked him to withdraw money using a debit card bearing an Asian name. Mahrous said he went to a Chase ATM on July 30, 2015, but did not complete the withdrawal: “A better conscience came to me and told me not to do it.”¹⁵
Testimony from Eric Hill, the cousin of Tellis’s ex-wife, who said Tellis told him days after his wedding that he had entered a woman’s home, taken her to a bedroom, and stabbed her until she gave up her debit card PIN. Hill said Tellis later called him from jail and told him to “put this on someone else.” Hill acknowledged first lying to police and naming another man, Curtis Lemons, saying he feared for his life; he was arrested in March 2016 as an accessory after the fact and then told police the truth. Prosecutors said Hill received no deal for his testimony.¹⁶¹⁷

The state had no DNA linking Tellis to the scene. Michelle Jackson of the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory testified that decomposition made viable DNA recovery impossible. No DNA matching Tellis was found in the apartment or his vehicle, and a postmortem rape kit was negative.⁹

Defense attorney Robert Noel argued the case was entirely circumstantial. No blood was found in Tellis’s vehicle even after chemical testing, and no fingerprints of his were recovered from the apartment.¹⁵¹⁴¹⁸⁹

What Happens Next

Judge Jefferson said after closing arguments that he needed time to review transcripts from earlier sessions. A verdict initially expected on June 18, 2026, was postponed and is now scheduled for July 23, 2026, at the Ouachita Parish Courthouse.¹⁹

Tellis is currently in a Mississippi prison serving a sentence on a prior burglary conviction, with a tentative release date of October 16, 2027.²⁰ A second-degree murder conviction in Louisiana carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.

1
WREG. Tracking the History of Accused Killer Quinton Tellis
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Oxygen. Facts About Quinton Tellis
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The Mississippi Link. Man Charged With Jessica Chambers Murder Extradited From Louisiana
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The Clarion-Ledger. Quinton Tellis to Stand Trial in Ming-Chen Hsiao Murder
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The Clarion-Ledger. Quinton Tellis Jessica Chambers One Year Later
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Action News 5. Jurors Deliberating Retrial of Jessica Chambers Murder Case
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The Clarion-Ledger. Quinton Tellis Update: Court Hearing in Louisiana
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MyArkLaMiss. Day Two of Trial of Man Accused of Stabbing to Death ULM Graduate
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KNOE. Closing Day: Tellis Faces Bench
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FindLaw. State of Louisiana v. Quinton Verdell Tellis
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KNOE. Key Expert Witness Dies in Crash Days Before Trial of Quinton Tellis
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Oxygen. Quinton Tellis Married Chakita Jackson
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KNOE. State Rests in Quinton Tellis Murder Trial
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MyArkLaMiss. State, Defense Present Closing Arguments in the Quinton Tellis Murder Trial
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MyArkLaMiss. A Better Conscience: Witness Testifies in Day Eight of Tellis Murder Trial
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The Clarion-Ledger. Quinton Tellis Ming-Chen Mandy Hsiao Murder Trial
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KNOE. Family Testifies Against Defendant Day 3 of Tellis Murder Trial
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KNOE. Defense Presses Experts Over Cellphone Location Data, Inmate Call Records
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MyArkLaMiss. Judicial Verdict Postponed for Tellis Murder Trial in Ouachita Parish
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The Clarion-Ledger. Jessica Chambers Murder Suspect Serving Burglary Sentence in Mississippi