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Twenty-nine-year-old Quinton Tellis was charged with aggravated murder by the death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers in the commission of another crime, a third-degree arson. He pleaded not guilty. Tellis's lawyer could not be reached immediately on Monday.
Chambers had left his mother's house in pajama pants on December 6, 2014, apparently to clean his car. Later, firefighters responded to a car fire report and found her in a burning car on a rural road near her home in Courtland, a city in northwestern Mississippi. 39, about 500 inhabitants.
Chambers was burned with gasoline, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigators said.
She suffered third degree burns on more than 95% of her body.
During the trial, eight first responders, including firefighters, testified that they were on the scene when Chambers said, "Eric set me on fire. She did not give a last name.
Chambers died the next day in a hospital in Memphis.
Prosecutors: Tellis suppressed telephone communication with a teenager
Local police, the FBI and an intelligence expert have been working on the case for months and have examined all the people named Eric in the area after Chambers' death, the authorities said.
The prosecution said it used mobile phone technology, text recordings, surveillance cameras and interviews to identify Tellis as a suspect.
Tellis, who grew up in Courtland, had known Chambers for about two weeks, a friend said.
At the time of Chambers' death, Tellis had suppressed all communications with her from her phone and had stopped monitoring her, according to the prosecutor.
Tellis was arrested in February 2016 while he was being held in a Louisiana jail and incarcerated on an unrelated charge.
First trial in error
At the first trial, the defense focused on the fact that Chambers had not named his client.
"She told Eric," said Alton Peterson, one of Tellis' lawyers, during the final argument. "E.R.I.C. Eric."
The judge read the instructions again. More than an hour later, the jury declared that he was in stalemate and that he could reach a unanimous verdict after about nine hours of deliberation.
Champion later stated that he did not consider the judicial annulment as a loss.
"I have already hung juries on many occasions … and on the new trial we had and we managed to get in. Some did not do it," he told the press. "You do that as long as I do, you'll have days like this."
Sheena Jones, Michael Phelan, Steve Almasy, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Melonyce McAfee contributed to this report.
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