Jurors reported they couldn’t reach a verdict Monday in the week-long trial of 29-year-old Quinton Tellis, who faced capital murder charges for the second time in Panola County Circuit Court.
Judge Gerald Chatham Clarence declared the mistrial after a day and a half of deliberation when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Initial proceedings ended under the same circumstances.
Tellis was accused of dousing the teen cheerleader with gasoline then torching her car in December 2014 on a rural road in Courtland.
Prosecutors alleged Tellis met up several times with the teen, who was a recent acquaintance, on the day of her gruesome murder.
Tellis initially claimed they just spent the morning driving around with her friend, but changed his story when presented with surveillance footage and cellular data that placed them together on the night she died, according to prosecutors.
Investigators testified there were other inconsistencies with his alibi, such as his claim that he was with a friend named Big Mike, who officers later discovered was in Nashville to watch a football game on the day in question.
He also claimed to investigators that burn marks on his own body were from playing a bonfire game.