HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) – An ex-convict who left Mississippi last year as authorities tried to determine who killed a young woman in their small town appeared in court Friday and pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge.
Quinton Tellis, 27, grew up with the victim, Jessica Chambers, 19, who was found near death, with burns over 98 percent of her body, near her burning car on a rural road outside Courtland, a town about 70 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.
Authorities said the former high school cheerleader had been doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire.
Investigators found was so much criminal activity and drug use in the small town that 17 people were arrested as a result of the murder probe, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.
District Attorney John Champion said that probe has been resolved with the grand jury’s indictment of Tellis, who has previous convictions for burglary and fleeing from law enforcement.