Jessica Chambers suspect Tellis back in Miss. jail

Murder suspect Quinton Tellis, accused of burning 19-year-old Jessica Chambers to death last year, was transported back to Mississippi Thursday evening, officials said.

Panola County District Attorney John Champion said he was picked up from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on Thursday morning and was taken to north Mississippi.

Champion said Tellis faces an arraignment in Panola County on July 5. He will be housed in the jail in DeSoto County in the meantime, officials said.

Tellis, 27, originally of Courtland, was indicted on capital murder charges by a special grand jury in Panola County 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. Local media reports say she had been missing more than a week when her body was found Aug. 8. He pleaded guilty to using her credit cards and was sentenced as a habitual offender in Louisiana.

Tellis is believed to have been the last person with Chambers the night she was killed. The two allegedly had a relationship in the weeks leading up to her death, officials said.

Tellis is something of a loner, according to people who knew him. Hsiao's body was found on the day he married his new wife in Monroe.

Authorities don't believe that Chambers' killing was gang-motivated or that Tellis was acting on behalf of a gang, but he was affiliated with the Insane Vice Lords street gang.

Courtland is a town of between 400 and 500 people, and Chambers' death put it in the national spotlight. When Tellis' indictment was announced, residents were relieved but still left with a feeling of apprehension.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.