Defense accuses DA of violation

John Champion, the district attorney prosecuting the Jessica Chambers murder case, tried to pressure a potential witness into testifying that Chambers used the nickname “Eric” for defendant Quinton Tellis, according to a new court filing.

Darla Palmer, the Jackson-based attorney for Tellis, says in a motion and affidavit filed Monday that Champion was guilty of “numerous ethical violations, prosecutorial misconduct (and) potential criminal violations.”

Oxygen.com first reported the filings. Oxygen Media is working on a docu-series about the case.

Champion, whose district includes Panola County where the case occurred, could not be reached Tuesday. However, he told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson that he he could not comment on the allegations because of the pending trial. Tellis is scheduled for retrial in September after his first trial last October ended in a hung jury.

Palmer says Champion tried to pressure Jalen Asir Matthews Caudle, who is also Palmer’s client. Caudle and Tellis met when both were incarcerated in the DeSoto County Jail in Hernando before Tellis’ first trial.

According to the court documents, Champion asked to meet with Caudle in an office at the jail this past April, without Palmer’s knowledge. She claims that during the meeting, Champion offered to help Caudle with his sentence if Caudle would testify that Chambers

called Tellis “Eric.” Caudle is charged with first-degree murder in an unrelated case.

The point is important because a steady stream of first responders testified during the October trial that the badly burned Chambers seemed to be saying “Eric” burned her. Palmer and the defense team used that point to cast doubt on Tellis as the killer.

Palmer’s motion asks that Champion’s office be recused from the Tellis case and the retrial adjourned until the state attorney general’s office is appointed to the case. The motion also seeks “monetary sanctions/ criminal contempt” be imposed against Champion.

Tellis is accused of setting Chambers, 19, afire on a rural road in Panola County’s tiny Courtland community, about 60 miles south of Memphis, the evening of Dec. 6, 2014. She was burned over more than 98 percent of her body and died a few hours later at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis.

Testimony during the first trial revealed that Chambers and Tellis had been together hours earlier, after getting something to eat in nearby Batesville.