A second trial in the Jessica Chambers murder case is set to begin today in Batesville after Monday’s jury selection in Starkville.
Quinton Tellis, 30, faces murder charges for a second time after a mistrial was declared in October 2017.
Gerald Chatham, the Panola County Circuit Court judge who will hear the case, ordered Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk Tony Rook to impanel a jury pool of 300 for Monday’s selection process, which began at 10 a.m. and was completed at about 4 p.m., Rook said.
“The process went about as smooth as it could possibly go,” Rook said. “We ended up having plenty of people in the pool. There was never any doubt that there would not be enough jurors.”
The jury consists of nine African Americans and three whites (six male, six female) and three alternates (two white women, one white male).
“The judge gave them an hour-and-a-half to go home and get back and be back at the courthouse to be transported to Panola County,” Rook said. “My understanding is that the trial will last 10 days and they’ll be sequestered until it’s over.”
This is the second time the trial will use a jury composed of people from outside Panola County.
The October trial was composed of jurors selected in Pike County.
Using a panel of jurors from outside the area where the crime occurred — in Courtland — was a function of the high-profile nature of the case.
Chambers, 19, was found by paramedics engulfed in flames walking down the road on Dec. 6, 2014. The case received national attention, including an episode on the TV show “Unsolved Mysteries.”
Prosecutors in the case accuse Tellis of setting Chambers and her car on fire on a rural back road in the small Panola County town of about 500 people. Firefighters found Chambers walking near the car the night of Dec. 6, with third-degree burns covering most of her body. Chambers died at a hospital in Memphis.
Tellis, who also faces a murder charge in Louisiana, has pleaded not guilty to capital murder. His case, which grabbed national headlines when it went to trial in October, ended in a hung jury and was declared a mistrial.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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