MONROE, Louisiana — When dispatch alerted Sgt. Duane Cookson of the situation on Filihol Road, he only knew he was headed to a deceased female.
There was decomposition, he was told, and foul odor. When he got there, what he found told a grim story of brutality that investigators have talked about in the time that’s passed as one of the most brutal scenes they’ve come across.
Cookson took the stand on Tuesday in the trial of Quinton Tellis in Monroe, Louisiana. Tellis is accused in the 2015 stabbing death of Ming Chen Hsiao, known to her friends as Mandy.
Both the prosecution and the defense laid out their opening statements Tuesday morning, with Assistant District Attorney Holly Jones painting a picture of Tellis as a soulless, calculating killer who tortured Hsiao to death to get the pin number for her debit card, and the defense contending that there would be absolutely no evidence that would stand to show Tellis had killed her.
Jones said cell phone records, both locational and call logs, would show Tellis was with Hsiao when she died, and that he dialed her bank and entered her credit card information, including the pin, twice from her phone and once from his just moments after she allegedly died. Defense attorney Randall Donald said the defense would rely on the inaccuracy of phone records to show that there’s no proof that Tellis caused Hsiao’s death.
Whoever did it, though, left a scene that disturbed Cookson in 2015 and those in the courtroom Tuesday when he was called to testify as the state’s first witness.
Hsiao had been dead at least a week when she was found, according to investigators. Photos shown by the prosecution as Cookson testified Tuesday showed some of her 30 stab wounds in advanced decomposition. Her 5’3″, 100 lb frame lay half face down, half sideways at the foot of her bed, with her head partly under the footboard.
Blood spatter adorned the bed, the walls, the doors, and a suitcase, and Cookson said the odor of decomposition could be smelled at least 20 feet away from the apartment when he arrived. A neighbor had called the landlord after seeing flies by the door and noticing the smell, Cookson testified, and the landlord had alerted police from a call box across the street.
Photos submitted into evidence by the prosecution showed Hsiao’s door standing open, and even as soon as the photographer stepped in the door, her body could be seen in the bedroom down the hall.
During the showing of the photos, Tellis’ face was emotionless. He sat with his hands and feet shackled, wearing his prison jumpsuit, and watched with a blank expression.
The TV Tellis alleged he had bought from Hsiao sat on a TV stand in the living room, and the counters and table were covered with signs of life — basic clutter, cleaning products, hair accessories, and the like. Her wallet was on the bed, her phone was on the floor, and her Chase bank card was nowhere to be found, according to the prosecution.
There was a bloody print — possibly a palm print — with a ridged pattern on one of the doors, but there didn’t seem to be footprints or any other direct evidence of the killer. Cookson testified that with the advanced decomposition, it was fairly clear they were dealing with a homicide, but either way it was obviously a suspicious death.
The bed was off the frame, the slats having come loose and the box spring had fallen in part to the floor. In the opening statements, Jones had told the judge that the neighbor upstairs had heard a noise that sounded like the box springs falling off the frame. She had laid out a timeline that showed that Hsiao had messaged with a friend at 7:41 that night and that the calls had been made to the bank from her phone and Tellis’s at 8:16. During that time frame, Jones said, is when Tellis allegedly killed her, and cell phone data will put him in the area of the apartment.
Jones said Mohammed Mahrouz will testify that Tellis gave him Hsiao’s card and told him to go get money off of it at Chase Bank. When he got there, he was afraid, so he just got a bank balance and came back. Eric Hill, the cousin of Tellis’s then-wife Chakita Jackson, will testify that Tellis threatened him to find a fall guy for the killing or “he’d do to him what he did to that girl.” Hill allegedly framed a man named Curtis Lemons, who detectives found to have an alibi. Hill will testify in court this week, Jones said, that the reason he knew details of the killing that only the killer could know was because Tellis told him about it.
Donald told the judge that the DNA at the scene excludes Tellis. In previous reporting, it has come out that Hsiao’s level of decomposition had made it impossible to identify any DNA besides hers, but it’s unclear if there has been more evidence since then.
The defense agreed that Tellis had pleaded guilty around a decade ago to charges of using Hsiao’s debit card, but Donald asserted that it doesn’t mean that Tellis killed her. Donald referred to Hsiao as “this young lady,” but never said her name.
Tellis is also the main suspect in the 2014 burning death of Jessica Chambers in Panola County, Mississippi. If the prosecution’s timeline is correct, Tellis allegedly killed Chambers, moved to Monroe to be with his fiancee, then allegedly killed Hsiao about eight months later before he was a clear suspect in the Chambers killing. When he was indicted in Mississippi, he was in jail in Ouachita Parish in connection with Hsiao’s death.
Judge Larry Jefferson dismissed court for lunch around 12:15 p.m. Court resumed at 1:30 p.m.
Much of Jones’ questioning of Cookson after lunch involved people he had interviewed aside from Tellis. She asked about search warrants police had obtained and executed on several other people. The line of questioning seemed to be in place to show the judge the thoroughness of the investigation.
Cookson also detailed what amounted to an aha moment when, on August 16, 2015, he felt that his investigation was going nowhere. He said he went back to Looking through evidence found in Hsiao’s home, and found something he had not noticed before in her purse.
Inside Hsiao’s wallet was an account card from Chase Bank that had a savings account number and a checking account number on it. Prior to that time, investigators did not realize that she had accounts at Chase Bank.
There were no corresponding debit or credit cards in the wallet, so Cookson took a deeper look at the account. That once again pointed the finger at Tellis.
Testimony ended at 5 PM on Tuesday, and will start back up at 9:15 on Wednesday morning. Cookson will finish his testimony, Jones said, and Hsiao’s neighbor Katelyn Hearn will take the stand as well.
