Trial delayed for man accused of killing Taiwanese woman

A trial has been delayed again for a man accused of fatally stabbing a Taiwanese woman who had just received a graduate degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe .

Quinton Tellis, 33, is now scheduled for trial in Ouachita Parish on Aug. 29 in the 2015 slaying of 34-year-old Ming-Chen Hsiao, the News-Star reported. He has previously gone on trial for the burning death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers, but jurors have twice deadlocked regarding that 2014 Mississippi killing.

In terms of the trial over Hsiao’s death, court documents show that Tellis has waived his right to a jury trial and will be tried by a judge alone. Conviction on the second-degree murder charge would carry an automatic life sentence.

Hsiao’s body was found in her apartment near ULM’s campus in 2015.

Authorities believe Tellis burned Chambers to death a year before killing Hsiao. But two juries from different counties deadlocked on whether he was the person who set Chambers on fire. Prosecutors there have not said whether they will try him a third time.

The Louisiana trial date had been rescheduled from March 14 to Monday after Tellis’ attorneys hired an expert to determine where his phone was at the time of Hsiao’s slaying.

Her phone dialed the number on her debit card twice on the night of her death, hanging up each time before the call was answered. At 8:16 and 8:18 p.m., Tellis’ phone dialed the same number, and Hsiao’s debit card and identification numbers were entered.

Tellis pleaded guilty in 2016 to illegally using Hsiao’s debit card and was sentenced to 10 years as a habitual offender.