Hotel hit by Hurricane Nate will reopen half of rooms Sunday

BILOXI — A Mississippi hotel damaged by Hurricane Nate will reopen half its rooms Sunday.

Margaritaville Resort Biloxi spokesman Cono Carana tells news outlets that the storm damaged elevators and escalators. Hotel officials estimate $7.5 million in damage. Carana says two elevators will be repaired, and the hotel will reopen 170 rooms. Its restaurants, rooftop water park and large entertainment center also will be open.

Margaritaville opened 16 months ago after the remodeling and expansion of the former Casino Magic Biloxi that had been closed since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Neighboring casinos south of the beachfront U.S. 90 on the east end of Biloxi all reopened Sunday after the hurricane made landfall.

Associated Press

BATESVILLE — Firefighters who talked to a severely burned Mississippi woman say the victim, who later died of her injuries, told them that someone named Eric set her on fire.

Several firefighters testified Tuesday and Wednesday in the trial of Quinton Tellis in Batesville, Mississippi, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Memphis, Tennessee.

Tellis has pleaded not guilty to capital murder in the death of the 19-yearold Chambers, who authorities said was found with burns on 93 percent of her body on Dec. 6, 2014, in Courtland, Mississippi. Prosecutors say Tellis set Chambers and her car on fire in a rural back road and left her to die.

The defense maintains that Tellis has been falsely accused, and that Chambers’ dying statement to firefighters shows the killer was someone else.