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This story has been going on for 12 years now, and has several twists and turns. Honestly a confusing narrative, so I will try to summarize as best I can.

In 2014 Quinton Tellis is a 24 year old ghetto thug with several convictions for assault, robbery, drug possession, etc. He starts "dating" a cute white girl, -- Jessica Chambers -- who was almost as trashy as he was. The only reason they were "talking" or screwing or whatever is because her boyfriend was in jail. So Jessica was somewhat available.

On the day she was killed, Jessica spent most of it riding around with Quinton, smoking weed, and getting dropped off with friends and then asking to get picked back up. Four times during the day via text Quinton asked Jessica for sex, and each time she refused.

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Prosecutors believe that, while in Tellis' driveway, he tried to have sex with Jessica, however, she resisted. They believe that he became enraged and suffocated her until she was unconscious. In order to distance himself from the crime, he then drove her car to the area where it was later found. He then ran on foot to his sister's home nearby, took her car, picked up gasoline from his home, returned to Jessica's car, and set it on fire, with her inside.

Jessica was found naked and on fire standing next to her car. When paramedics asked her who did this, they claim she made a sound like "Derek" or "Eric". But since she basically had no face or throat or lips or vocal chords, it's hard to say. She died the next day.

This put proseuctors in a bind. They knew Tellis had killed her. But they had no witnesses and no DNA. And the "Derek or Eric" thing was a major problem. So they didn't feel like they had enough to charge him.

So Tellis is free to go. And he moves to Monroe.

While in Monroe in 2015, just about 7 months after killing Jessica Chambers, he meets and befriends a Taiwanese exchange student named Ming Chen Hsaio. She lives alone in a Monroe apartment, and she makes the mistake of inviting him in. He tortures her for the PIN code to her ATM card, then kills her when she gives it up. He rides around Monroe draining her bank accounts at cash machines. She isn't discovered missing until neighbors report a foul odor coming from her apartment.

Tellis is arrested in Louisiana and charged with theft of the ATM card, but Louisiana authorities aren't sure they have enough evidence to charge him with murder.

Tellis pleads guilty to unauthorized use of her ATM card and is sentenced as a habitual offender to 10 years in Angola. Which is the maximum sentence available for the crime.

While Tellis is in Angola, Mississippi decides to go after him on the murder of Jessica Chambers. He is tried twice for her murder, in 2017 and 2018. Both times the jury is split along racial lines, and ends with a mistrial. The "Derek or Eric" thing is a real problem.

But Louisiana is not finished with him. By 2025 his sentence has been served in the ATM card case. And he could possibly be released. So Louisiana charges him with murder in the Monroe case.

His attorney asks for a bench trial rather than a jury trial. Smart move. While getting ready for trial, the state of Louisiana has an expert witness -- a retired Brig General in the US intelligence agencies -- who will testify to the cell phone data linking Tellis to the Monroe apartment where the murder took place. The General is driving to Monroe to testify in the Tellis trial when he is killed in a car accident. Two days before the trial is set to begin.

The State of Louisiana is forced to move forward without their expert witness. Last week, Ouachita Parish Judge Larry Jefferson found Tellis Not Guilty of the Monroe murder. With that Not Guilty verdict, and having finished his sentence on the ATM charges, Tellis might have walked free.

But not so fast. There's more.

While investigating the Monroe murder, police interview Tellis' ex wife's nephew, who tells them that Tellis admitted to him that "tortured an Asian woman to death for her PIN code". That nephew was set to testify against Tellis. But the nephew ended up in jail also, and in some sort of stroke of bizarre police incompetence, he ends up housed in the same prison block as Tellis.

While there in jail with Tellis, the nephew writes out an affidavit saying that Tellis never admitted the crime to him. And that police forced him to say that. Handwriting experts testiy that it was actually Tellis's handwriting on the affidavit -- not the nephew's -- which makes sense considering that Louisiana was stupid enoug to literally put those two guys in the same cell block.

As soon as the nephew is released from jail, he claims the affidavit recounting his statement was coerced by Tellis. The nephew testifies to all of this at the murder trial of Tellis. But Judge Larry Jefferson wrote on his verdict opinion that the nephew was "not a credible witness" and thus he has to ignore his testimony. So that's basically how we get the Not Guilty verdict in the Monroe murder.

In an attempt to save face, one day after the Not Guilty verdict comes down, the state of Louisiana charges Tellis with a new count of "Intimidation of a Witness". Yep. The nephew they alllowed Tellis to intimidate by putting them in the same cell block.

Meanwhile, back in Mississippi, officials there find an old burglary charge that Tellis was on parole for. They revoke that parole and they will keep him in jail for approximately one more year. Then he could possibly be turned back over to Louisiana for the intimidation of a witness charge.

Finally, once that charge runs its course, Mississippi could still try him again in the death of Jessica Chambers.