Photo: Chambers Family
Neither convicted nor cleared, the suspect, Quinton Tellis, now sits in jail awaiting trial for an unrelated murder in neighboring Louisiana.
Tellis has pleaded not guilty to Hsiao’s murder, just as he and his defense attorney maintained his innocence through the two Chambers trials.
But while Chambers’ family hopes that a third trial in the Chambers case may yet deliver the justice they seek, the Mississippi prosecutor, John Champion, tells PEOPLE that he’s not rushing forward.
“I’m just going to wait and see what happens in Louisiana,” he says.
Tellis, 31, already has pleaded guilty and was sentenced for unauthorized use of a Chase Bank debit credit card belonging to Hsiao, reportsThe News Star.He completed that sentence but remains jailed in Ouachita Parish with a $300,000 bond on the murder charge, the parish district attorney’s office confirms to PEOPLE.
According to the plea deal outlined in court, Tellis admitted to using Hsiao’s debit card without authorization to withdraw at least $1,000.
His next hearing on the murder case is Feb. 18; a trial date has not yet been scheduled.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
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In the Chambers case, Tellis emerged as a suspect after investigators learned that he and Chambers were recent acquaintances in small-town Courtland, Mississippi, population 500. Prosecutors alleged that Tellis had pestered Chambers for sex that she repeatedly rebuffed.
Among the clues to her killer: Several first-responders reported hearing Chambers utter a namethat sounded like “Eric” or “Derek,”possiblysteering them toward her attacker.
Yet the apparent disconnect over the name loomed large after Tellis was charged with her murder. If Chambers had indeed named her assailant — as Tellis’ defense attorney, Darla Palmer, argued during his first trial — then Tellis could not have been involved, since no one knew him as “Eric” or “Derek.”
The two mistrials leave the door open for a third attempt to try Tellis for Chambers’ murder, if Champion decides to go forward.
Chambers’ mother, Lisa Chambers, says she hopes he does.
“I am just a mother that is dying every day,” she toldFox13 Memphis. “There has got to be something they can do. They know who killed her … prove it.”
Asked why he thought prosecutors failed to win a conviction in two previous efforts, Champion tells PEOPLE: “I never speculate on why they do what they do.”
He says he has told Chambers’ family that the outcome in Louisiana likely will dictate his next move.
He tells PEOPLE: “I just left it with them that we would meet after the Louisiana trial.”
source: people.com
