The jury has been selected in Pike County, Mississippi, for the murder trial of the man accused of killing Jessica Chambers.
Chambers was found burning alive beside her car on a country road in Panola County in December 2014. Quinton Tellis is charged with Chambers murder and third-degree arson.
The jury was selected in Pike County, nearly 200 miles south of Batesville, where the trial will be held. The jury consists of seven men and five women, and three alternates (2 women and a man.)
Local and national media are setting up at the Panola County courthouse where Tellis is expected to go on trial Tuesday.
A grand jury indicted Tellis in 2014, following a 14-month investigation. The main question is, what happened to Jessica Chambers on December 6th, 2014 between the hours of 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Prosecutors will only say they have filled that time in, and it will be revealed in court. The state is also expected to reveal what Chambers said to first responders when they found her.
Chambers was doused with gasoline and set on fire on a back road in Courtland, Mississippi, just outside of Batesville.
Because of the intense media coverage, the judge decided that jurors would be chosen from Pike County near the Gulf coast.
29-year-old Tellis pleaded not guilty to murder charges. When Tellis was indicted for Chambers murder in 2016, he was being held in connection with the torture death of a Louisiana exchange student. That indictment alleges that Tellis stabbed the student more than 30 times to get her to reveal her debit card pin number. Tellis pleaded guilty to fraudulent use of the student’s ATM card.
The jury will be bused to Batesville and sequestered during the trial. They will be surrounded with tight security everywhere they go.
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