March 17, 2019 at 04:04AM
The former boyfriend of Jessica Chambers, the 19-year-old Mississippi woman who was burned to death in 2014, was fatally shot, according to a new report.
Travis Sanford, 33, was found with a gunshot wound near a home in Courtland, on Friday, March 15, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said, reported the Associated Press. At this time, it is not known if there was a motive for the shooting.
John Champion, Panola County District Attorney confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger that Sanford was an ex-boyfriend of Chambers.
"It is the same person," he said.
At the time of her murder, Sanford was incarcerated and cleared in her death, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said.
Sanford was shot once with a buckshot from a shotgun, Darby said. Sanford's girlfriend and two small children were in the home at the time, he said.
"It's terrible," Darby said. "We are trying to find out what led to the shooting."
He said the suspect and Sanford had been in the home for some time before the shooting. Darby said the suspect fired the shotgun while he was running out of the home.
Darby said a suspect has been taken into custody but hasn't been charged yet. Because it is an ongoing investigation, he said he couldn't comment further.
Sanford's body was sent to the state medical examiner for an autopsy, Panola County Coroner Gracie Gulledge said.
Sanford was ruled out as having any role in Chamber's death, Darby said.
On Dec. 6, 2014, Chambers, 19, was found by first responders with burns covering almost her entire body. She had been set on fire on a back road in Courtland, a town in Panola County, reported the Associated Press. She died the next morning in a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital, holding her mother's hand, reported the Clarion-Ledger.
A suspect, Quinton Tellis, was charged for her death. However, he has been tried twice and both trials have resulted in mistrials due to hung juries.
At the time, prosecutors said cellphone evidence showed Tellis and Chambers at similar locations, and they also played videotaped interrogations where Tellis repeatedly changed his story when confronted with new evidence, reported the Associated Press. Initially, Tellis denied seeing Chambers late in the day she was set on fire, but later he admitted to having been with her up until about an hour before her death.
Defense lawyers said the timeline the prosecutors presented was implausible, and they presented testimony from ten firefighters and emergency medical workers who said they heard Chambers say someone named "Eric" set her on fire. Authorities in Mississippi have not decided whether or not to try Tellis for a third time.
Tellis is currently facing a murder charge in Monroe, Louisiana, in the August 2015 death of Ming-Chen Hsiao, a student of the University of Louisiana Monroe, reported the Clarion-Ledger.
In May of 2016, Tellis pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of Hsiao's credit card and was sentenced to ten years in prison.
The former boyfriend of Jessica Chambers, the 19-year-old Mississippi woman who was burned to death in 2014, was fatally shot, according to a new report.
Travis Sanford, 33, was found with a gunshot wound near a home in Courtland, on Friday, March 15, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said, reported the Associated Press. At this time, it is not known if there was a motive for the shooting.
John Champion, Panola County District Attorney confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger that Sanford was an ex-boyfriend of Chambers.
"It is the same person," he said.
At the time of her murder, Sanford was incarcerated and cleared in her death, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said.
Sanford was shot once with a buckshot from a shotgun, Darby said. Sanford's girlfriend and two small children were in the home at the time, he said.
"It's terrible," Darby said. "We are trying to find out what led to the shooting."
He said the suspect and Sanford had been in the home for some time before the shooting. Darby said the suspect fired the shotgun while he was running out of the home.
Darby said a suspect has been taken into custody but hasn't been charged yet. Because it is an ongoing investigation, he said he couldn't comment further.
Sanford's body was sent to the state medical examiner for an autopsy, Panola County Coroner Gracie Gulledge said.
Sanford was ruled out as having any role in Chamber's death, Darby said.
On Dec. 6, 2014, Chambers, 19, was found by first responders with burns covering almost her entire body. She had been set on fire on a back road in Courtland, a town in Panola County, reported the Associated Press. She died the next morning in a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital, holding her mother's hand, reported the Clarion-Ledger.
A suspect, Quinton Tellis, was charged for her death. However, he has been tried twice and both trials have resulted in mistrials due to hung juries.
At the time, prosecutors said cellphone evidence showed Tellis and Chambers at similar locations, and they also played videotaped interrogations where Tellis repeatedly changed his story when confronted with new evidence, reported the Associated Press. Initially, Tellis denied seeing Chambers late in the day she was set on fire, but later he admitted to having been with her up until about an hour before her death.
Defense lawyers said the timeline the prosecutors presented was implausible, and they presented testimony from ten firefighters and emergency medical workers who said they heard Chambers say someone named "Eric" set her on fire. Authorities in Mississippi have not decided whether or not to try Tellis for a third time.
Tellis is currently facing a murder charge in Monroe, Louisiana, in the August 2015 death of Ming-Chen Hsiao, a student of the University of Louisiana Monroe, reported the Clarion-Ledger.
In May of 2016, Tellis pleaded guilty to unauthorized use of Hsiao's credit card and was sentenced to ten years in prison.