Jessica Chambers murder trial pushed back to October

Quinton Tellis, the man who will face trial in the brutal 2014 burning death of Panola County teen Jessica Chambers, will go to trial a few months later than expected.

Tellis, 28, who was indicted in Chambers death a little less than a year ago in February 2016, will go to trial Oct. 9, District Attorney John Champion said Monday night. He was originally set to stand trial on June 19.

Tellis is charged with capital murder, accused of setting Chambers, 19, on fire on Herron Road in Courtland. She was found by first responders with burns over 98 percent of her body, officials said. She lived long enough to be airlifted to a hospital in Memphis, where she died early the next morning.

The Courtland native was indicted on capital murder charges by a special grand jury in Panola County in February as he sat in the Ouachita Parish Jail in Monroe, Louisiana, where he was being held on charges connected to the stabbing death of Meing-Chen Hsiao, 34, of Taiwan.

Chambers was with Tellis the night she died, by his own admission, officials said. The two allegedly had a relationship in the weeks leading up to her death. He has not admitted to having a part in her death, but Champion and other authorities have said they are comfortable with the case they have against him.

Officials returned Tellis to Mississippi in June. He was charged with murder in Hsiao's death in July.

Hsiao, known to her friends as Mandy, was a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Police said she and Tellis were acquaintances. Witnesses told police about seeing Tellis at Hsiao's apartment, and they were seen together on Wal-Mart surveillance footage.

Tellis was living in Monroe with his new wife when he was arrested in August 2015 by the Monroe Police Department and charged with crimes connected to Hsiao's death.

Contact Therese Apel  at 601-961-7236 or tapel@gannett.com . Follow her on Facebook  and Twitter .