No Justice

In December of 2014, 19-year-old Jessica Chambers was set on fire in her car on an old country road in her rural Mississippi town. Jessica survived long enough to give a few clues as to who committed this unspeakable crime, but it would prove near impossible to apprehend her killer.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's December of twenty fourteen. Christmas is just around the corner.
Lisa Chambers sits in the burn unit of the Regional
Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee. She's an hour from her
home in Mississippi. She's been here since late last night.
The white noises of the hospital fill her head. The beeps,

(00:31):
the fast clicking of shoes in the hallway, the chit chat,
the random coughs and buzzing of machines. Lisa sits in
a chair next to her nineteen year old daughter, Jessica.
She clutches her hand. Jessica is dying. She's burned on
ninety eight percent of her body. Practically every inch of

(00:56):
her dainty teenage frame is wrapped in white gauze. Her
organs are shutting down one by one. The soot inhalation
she suffered is so severe that Jessica can't speak, She
can't write. She can't do anything but feel the warmth
of Lisa's touch and take little, shallow breaths. Lisa knows

(01:22):
this is it. The once beautiful, blonde daughter she raised
for two decades is at the end of her time
on earth. Lisa looks at her child Jessica, it's okay, baby.
Mama's here and daddy's in the waiting room. You know

(01:43):
you're daddy. He's a big old baby and he can't
come in here, but he's here, and we love you,
she says. Lisa pushes her glasses up to her nose
and looks at her daughter. She touches her neck, the
last part of Jessica that isn't burned. I know you're

(02:03):
in pain, baby. If you want to go, you can go.
Lisa's head pulses. It's two thirty seven am. Jessica is still.
Lisa watches that's her child, takes her last shallow breath,
and then she's gone. The monitor flat lines. Lisa buries

(02:30):
her head into her hands and sobs. Welcome to Sword

(03:00):
and Scale Nightmares, True Crime for Bedtime, Where Nightmare beginnings now.

(03:22):
Nineteen year old Jessica Chambers was born and raised in Cortland,
a small town of about five hundred people near Batesville, Mississippi.
It was a kind of place where everyone knew everyone
and there was no business that wasn't also your neighbors.
The town was an even mix of black and white residents,

(03:43):
but everyone had two things in common faith and football.
That's America for you. Jessica's parents, Lisa and Ben, were divorced,
but they remained close friends and even lived down the
street from one another. Lisa was a nurse and Ben
worked as a mechanic for the Sheriff's department. Jessica had

(04:04):
a happy life filled with five loving siblings, extended family,
and lots of friends. By the time she had high school,
she had a reputation for being an outgoing cheerleader. She
was the flyer, the girl on the squad who got
tossed into the air. In late twenty fourteen, Jessica was

(04:26):
nineteen years old and talked about wanting to be a nurse,
just like her mother. She also dreamed of writing for
a living, or maybe she'd be a teacher. As she
figured out which direction to take her future, Jessica lived
with Lisa and worked at a local clothing store to
earn money. But on December sixth, twenty fourteen, everything changed.

(04:50):
At about four thirty pm, Jessica received a call on
her cell phone. She told Lisa that she was going
to go out to the store and that she'd be
back soon. The store was a local gas station called
the M and M that served as a hub in
this sleepy rural town. Jessica waved goodbye to her mother

(05:12):
and sauntered out the door. Lisa wouldn't see her daughter
again until she was holding her hand in the burn unit.
Three hours after Jessica left her mother's house, the streets

(05:34):
had grown dark. Two young men were driving down a
desolate road on the outskirts of town. The car speeds
through the darkness when suddenly the driver notices something up ahead.
Out of the black and there's a ball of fire,
a glowing yellow lump in the distance. As they get closer,

(05:57):
they realize it's a car completely engulfed in flames. They
call nine one one when firemen and police arrive on
the scene two minutes later, they prepare for protocol. Then
they notice something. Amongst the thick smoke and crackling flames,
A figure emerges. It's a woman in her underwear, so

(06:20):
severely burned that she looks sub human. Her arms are
stretched out in front of her as she takes short, tender,
broken steps towards the fireman. Her hair is gone, her
skin is tight black and melting on to itself. The
firemen rushed towards her in disbelief. Some one wraps a

(06:43):
blanket around the girl when she falls to the ground.
Who are you? They ask? What's your name? The girl
can barely speak, Her tongue is thick with sores and burns,
but she manages to get out her name, Jessica Chambers,
she mutters. Everyone on the scene knows the Chambers family,

(07:07):
the Chambers' pretty blonde daughter had been burned alive. Who
did this to you? They press on, but Jessica's throat
is closing in. She can't swallow, she can't speak. She
tries again. She mutters a name. It sounds like Eric

(07:29):
or Derek, but her tongue can't make the words anymore.
The burns are too severe and her body is shutting down. Meanwhile,
Jessica's father, Ben is alerted of the incident, and his
wife runs down the street to find Lisa. She bursts

(07:50):
in her front door, breathless and screams. They set Jessica
on fire. Lisa gets in the car and the three
of them rush off to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis.
This belief hangs in the speeding car like an odor
Who would do this to Jessica? How did this happen?

(08:12):
In less than twenty four hours, Lisa would be by
her daughter's side, staring at her unrecognizable body and saying
her final goodbye. Police were astounded as to how or

(08:47):
why this happened to Jessica Chambers. It was obvious that
her car had not been in an accident, it had
been intentionally set on fire. When the doctor at the
burn unit Exis dammed her body, he noticed a splash
pattern across her chest, indicating that some kind of accelerant
had been dumped on her. He also thought the same

(09:10):
accelerant had been poured down her throat, a very personal
and vile way to burn someone alive. Jessica had been
found wearing only charred underwear, but there was a scrap
of her bra amongst the wreckage, and when that was
tested it was positive for gasoline. Whoever did this had

(09:33):
stripped her down to her underwear then doused her in
gasoline before lighting a match. Who in the world would
hate Jessica enough to do this to her? The police
didn't have much to work with. Before Jessica died. The
only clue that she managed to get out was that

(09:54):
her assailant's name was Eric or Derek, But the first
responders on the scene weren't so sure if that's exactly
what she said, And this whole issue has been a
huge debate. In her case, it sounded like Eric or Derek. Remember,
Jessica's throat had been burned. Her tongue was so swollen

(10:16):
with sores that when she told the first responders her name,
it barely came out, sounding like Jessica Chambers. Try to
say her name while holding your tongue. That's kind of
what it sounded like. The Eric Derek thing was all
the police had to work with, so they held on
to it. Meanwhile, they interviewed Jessica's best friend, Keisha, who

(10:41):
had been with her earlier that day. Keisha said that
she and Jessica had gone driving that morning and picked
up a guy named Quentin Tellis. Keisha didn't know well,
and Jessica had only been friends with him for a
few weeks. He lived across from the Eminem grocer with
his mother. He had been in and out of jail

(11:03):
on some burglary charges. When the police got a hold
of Quentin tell Us, he voluntarily came to the station. Yes,
he'd been with Jessica and Keisha that day, but after
they dropped him off at around lunch, he never saw
Jessica again. Then Quentin said he knew a guy named
Dereck Holmes who had been after Jessica for a while,

(11:27):
Derek Bingo. Like Quintin, Derek also had a criminal past,
but his involved sex acts with a minor. Derek had
been crushing on Jessica, but apparently nothing had happened between them,
Plus he had an alibi that could be corroborated by
multiple people. He was home the evening of Jessica's murder

(11:50):
giving his diabetic mother a foot rub. Yep, you heard
me correctly. Moms do not make your sons rub your
feet for you with it's weird and cringey. Plus it's
got to leave some kind of psychological scar. I'm sure
probably explains Furries. Police decided to hit the Eric and

(12:11):
Derek quest as hard as possible, and they interviewed four
hundred and ninety six men with the name Eric or Derek,
and even one jerk in the country. If you can
believe that it's a guy actually named Jerck, This expressing
your creativity and naming your child has got a stop.
Go down to Michael's get a hobby. None of them

(12:34):
had ties to Jessica, though, so that was a problem.
Then two small breaks happened. First, someone found Jessica's car
on the side of the road a little ways from
the fire. And second, despite the burn damage, Jessica's cell
phone data was able to be retrieved. Mind you, it's

(12:57):
now been months since she was killed. This investigation was
long and arduous. There was a number in Jessica's phone
that hadn't been saved in her contacts yet. But she'd
been talking to this person on and off for a
few weeks before her murder, and the texts in the
four days leading up to the fire had become increasingly

(13:19):
aggressive and sexual. The person kept telling Jessica how horny
he was and that he wanted to sleep with her.
She just tried to brush him off by texting back
things like oh lordy. This same number was the one
who called her before she left her mother's house the
evening she died. In fact, cell phone towers put Jessica

(13:43):
and this mystery person together up to thirty minutes before
she was found. When the police traced this number, they
found out it belonged to Quintin tellus, so the police
brought Quintin back in, but there was even more disturbing

(14:04):
information on Quintin's cell phone. The last message he sent
to Jessica was just after she died, and it was
somewhat of a sweet, cute good night message. I'm paraphrasing here,
but it was something like, too bad, I can't see
you tonight, babe, my girlfriend is coming up, sweet dreams,
that kind of thing. Then he deleted all messages with

(14:27):
Jessica from his phone and erased her number. When the
police asked why he did that, he said that when
he found out she passed away, he deleted her number
and messages because it seemed pointless to have a dead
girl's information on his phone. That's some efficient thinking. As
soon as someone dies, I go delete them from my

(14:48):
contact list too. That was sarcasm. Just wait, because this
gets even better. Quentin says that he did actually see
Jessica that night, but it was only for a second
at Taco Bell to give her some weed. He had
been riding around with his friend Big Mike, no relation.

(15:08):
Then he went home. He swears on his mother's life
that he did not leave the house again until he
went out that evening to buy a prepaid debit card
for his girlfriend, who lived in Louisiana. What a weird
thing to go out to purchase randomly on this particular day.
Police had time stamps and footage of Quintin buying the

(15:31):
prepaid debit card, but this was after the car had
been set on fire. He technically had time to do both.
Plus when they went to go talk to Big Mike,
he told them that it was impossible that he and
Quinton were together that evening. He'd been in Nashville at
a Tennessee Titans game. So Quintin was just a fucking liar.

(15:56):
But still, the police went back again to talk to him,
and when confronted with the evidence refuting his claims, he
finally broke down and admitted that yes, he had been
with Jessica that night. They had sex together in her
car in the lot behind his mother's house, and then
she left and he never saw her again. After all,

(16:18):
he had to go buy that prepaid debit card for
his girlfriend. See how this is all starting to make sense.
But according to the cell phone data, quentin and Jessica's
phones were together from five thirty pm to seven thirty pm.
That night, and her car keys had Quintin's DNA on them. Still,

(16:42):
Quintin insisted that he did not murder Jessica Chambers. Months
went by, but finally the police were able to indict
Quentin tell Us for Jessica's murder. But when it came
time to do that, he couldn't be found. Turns out

(17:03):
Quentin was in Monroe, Louisiana, in jail on a whole
new slew of murder charges. In the summer of twenty fifteen,
about six months into the investigation of Jessica's murder, Quentin
Tellus traveled down to Monroe, Louisiana to visit his girlfriend.
They got married and began a life together. But on

(17:26):
August eighth, twenty fifteen, just a few months later, a
thirty four year old exchange student named ming Chen Saw
was found brutally stabbed in her apartment. No one had
seen ming Ching or Mandy, as she was known by
her American friends, for about ten days. Finally her landlord

(17:49):
went to check on her in the apartment, Mandy's home
had been ransacked, Clothes were thrown everywhere, drawers had been opened,
furniture kicked over. The place was a disaster, and in
the middle of the wreckage lay Mandy. Her slight body
was flung across the couch and decomposing. The smell of

(18:13):
rotten flesh overwhelmed her landlord as he ran out the
door to call nine one one. Mandy had been stabbed
over thirty times. When police searched the apartment, they found
a Walmart prescription receipt from the day. They suspected that
Mandy had been murdered, so they pulled footage from the Walmart.

(18:36):
In the greeny, black and white video, they see Mandy
wearing a flowy sun dress and sandals. She strolls out
of the wal Mart with a white pharmacy bag clutched
in her hand. She flicks her long black hair and
slides into the passenger seat of a Chevy Impala. The
driver is a black mail He takes the pills from Mandy.

(19:00):
The exchange is complete. When the police ran the plates,
they discovered that the Chevy Impala belonged to Quinton tell Us.
It turns out that Quinton's new wife lived not too
far from Mandy. When they went to talk to Quinton,
he had Mandy's debit card. In fact, he'd been using

(19:22):
it all over town. This wasn't enough to arrest Quinton
for murder, but they could get him on theft. Then,
the Monroe Police received a crime Stoppers tip from a
young man who said that his friend, Quinton tell Us,
admitted to him that he tortured and stabbed a woman
to steal her debit card. These details were never released

(19:44):
to the public. How else would this friend know unless
he had been confided in by Quinton. So he was
arrested and thrown into the county jail, and that's where
he sat until he was brought back up to Mississippi
in handcuffs to face his role in the brutal death
of Jessica Chambers. Of course, no one on the jury

(20:07):
knew about Quentin's second conviction. Maybe if they had, things
would have turned out differently. It took nearly four years

(20:40):
of preparation and investigation, but in the fall of twenty seventeen,
Quentin Tellis was put on trial for the murder of
Jessica Chambers. Through fundraising, his family was able to hire
a prominent defense attorney named Darla Palmer. The prosecution vowed
to get Jessica justice, but the town of Courtland was divided.

(21:05):
You see, Quentin was black, Jessica was white. That's the
end of the story. I mean it might as well be.
In this day and age, almost every male suspect the
police looked at, including many of those random Eric's and Derek's,
were also black. Half the county saw the prosecution as racist,

(21:30):
pinpointing and profiling men for their skin color. The other
half saw it as a coincidence and just wanted justice
for Jessica. You know, the people that are not fucking crazy.
Tension hung in the air as the court date drew closer.
Quintin's family huddled on one side of the courtroom while

(21:54):
the chambers stuck together on the other. The trial was
detailed and emotion chel. The prosecution wove a strong story
for Quentin's guilt, but without a weapon, a confession, or
firm DNA evidence, Quentin's defense lawyer, Darla Palmer, was able
to poke holes in their story. Darla held on hard

(22:17):
to the Eric Derreck story and cast shadows over doubt
in the jurors minds. Quentin shouldn't be in court, She argued,
it should be Eric or Derek. When it came time
for the jury to deliberate, they came back not guilty.

(22:38):
A wave of shock rushed over the courtroom. Then one
juror blurreted out of turn that he didn't agree with
the verdict. The judge had no choice but to send
the jurors back. He read the instructions again because clearly
they weren't getting it. After another painstaking thirty minutes, they

(23:00):
returned and agreed to disagree. They could not reach a verdict.
The judge declared a mistrial. What happens when common everyday
folk and a civilization can agree on objective facts, truth

(23:22):
or justice? I guess we will soon find out. Almost
a year later, everyone was back in court to go
over the evidence. This time, the prosecution knew they had
to fight the Eric Derek dout with some serious gusto,
so they brought in the doctor who had examined Jessica

(23:43):
at the burn unit after her death. His testimony was unforgettable.
He showed graphic photos of Jessica's charred, disfigured body, and
the doctor explained how badly her lungs and throat were burned.
Her speech was not credible, so it didn't matter if

(24:04):
responders thought they heard Eirik or Derek or if they
heard Mickey mouse. She wasn't a reliable witness. She couldn't speak.
Then he explained that there was evidence of sexual assault,
and the prosecution showed for the first time the bruises
under Jessica's horrific burns. This time, deliberations lasted longer. The

(24:31):
jury understood the assignment, but still when they returned to
the courtroom, they shocked everyone. Again. These people sworn to
seek justice and truth could not reach a verdict. It
was another mistrial, another l deadlocked again, but Quentin did

(24:59):
not want free. He pleaded guilty to stealing Mandy South's
debit card and is still serving ten years in Louisiana
as a habitual offender. Chances are his own poor decisions
will continue to keep him in a place like this.
He was scheduled to go on trial for Mandy's murder,

(25:19):
but the judge dismissed the case as part of a
deal to make Quinton serve five years in Mississippi related
to Jessica's death. It's all a bunch of confusing legal bullshit,
but there's still a chance he could go to trial
for Mandy's murder. Only time will tell, and only the

(25:40):
public will allow it or not allow it based on
the culture of the day. If we as a society
decide that murder is okay and we're going to forgive
it and let you out on the street and do
whatever you want, then I suppose we won't have much
of a civilization left to complain about. Again, only time

(26:02):
will tell, and as of now, Quinton Tellus will be
released in twenty twenty seven a free man. This is
one of the most infuriating cases of the last decade.
Really close your eyes and try to imagine the unbelievable

(26:24):
pain Jessica must have felt. You ever burn your hand
on a hot stove, You remember that feeling, that instant
reaction to pull away because the pain is so intense
and so unbelievably overwhelming. Imagine that all over your body,
inside and out, and then you can start to begin

(26:46):
to imagine the hell that was the last few moments
of Jessica's life. She was burned alive, She came to
in a car that was on fire and herself out
of the wreckage. She was burned on ninety eight percent
of her body. The pain that she must have endured

(27:09):
is unthinkable, and yet she held on long enough to
let her family say goodbye. Jessica's mother, Lisa Chambers, spoke
openly and emotionally about her daughter's murder up until her
own death in October of twenty twenty one. She never
gave up hope that one day Jessica and Mandy would

(27:33):
get the justice they deserved. I can't imagine the pain
that Jessica's mother went through that day in the hospital.
Nobody should have to see their own daughter that way. Ever,
nobody should have to sit through two trials only to
watch the man, and I hesitate to call him a

(27:56):
man responsible for the pain to your child and your family,
and you walk away practically unscathed, unpunished, able to live
his best life, and have a jury of peers say
that that's okay. I can't imagine. I can't imagine laws

(28:19):
and justice are important. I know you want to be
a good person, and you want to make people in
prison better and rehabilitate and all that shit. Some people
cannot be rehabilitated period. They walk among us and are

(28:40):
capable of the most unspeakable horrors. Quentin Tellus is one
of them. If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining
plus at Sword and Scale dot com slash Plus. But
if you can can't, consider leaving us a positive review

(29:03):
on your preferred listening platform. Sweet Dreams and good Night,