Exclusive: Laqunta Tellis Finally Explains Her ‘Eric’ Tattoo In Jessica Chambers Docu-Series

Laqunta Tellis appeared on “Unspeakable Crime: The Killing Of Jessica Chambers” to talk about her brother Quinton Tellis, who recently faced a retrial for the murder of the 19-year-old former cheerleader. The trial ended in a hung jury again. Early on in the docu-series, Laqunta’s touching interview about her shared childhood with Quinton shocked viewers when they saw she had an “Eric” tattoo on her hand, which was starkly visible in the show.

Famously, first responders remembered a badly burned Jessica Chambers walking toward them asking for help. She would tell at least eight of them that a person named “Eric” or possibly “Derrick” had done this to her. (The veracity of what first responders believe they heard was called into question at the retrial by an expert in speech language pathology who said that Chambers would not have been able to speak “articulate sounds.”)

The Jessica Chambers murder case had attracted attention from online sleuths who gathered in forums and on Facebook to figure out the identity of the murderer. The reaction to the “Eric” tattoo was palpable on social media with tweets like “Did anyone ask Quinton’s sister about the Eric tattoo on her hand? I’m just curious.”

 So legal analyst Beth Karas, in the final episode of “Unspeakable Crime,” went to Courtland, Mississippi and spoke with Laqunta Tellis herself. Karas asked Laqunta who Eric was — someone she used to date? 

“It’s somebody from my past. We both got each other’s name tattooed on us,” reveals Laqunta. “This tattoo has been on my hand…almost six, seven years.”

Karas then asked her if Eric is still around.

“He’s been out of the picture, many years ago.”

Eric Hill, Laqunta Tellis’ ex-boyfriend, is family to Quinton Tellis in another way: he is Chakita Jackson’s cousin. Jackson, who was part of Tellis’ alibi for the night Jessica Chambers was burned alive, married Tellis in 2015 when they lived in Monroe, Louisiana, on the same day that Meing-Chen Hsiao’s body was found. Quinton Tellis is a person of interest in the 2015 stabbing of Hsiao. 

And Eric Hill was a key informant in delivering information on the Hsiao murder to authorities, according to a police warrant obtained by Oxygen.com.

Before a scheduled trial in 2016, Quinton Tellis had entered a guilty plea to unauthorized use of Hsiao’s debit card, receiving a 10-year sentence according to the Clarion-Ledger.

While no verdict was reached in the Jessica Chambers retrial this fall, Tellis’ future continues to hang in the balance as he has been transferred from Mississippi to Louisiana, where he is facing an arrest warrant for the murder of Meing-Chen “Mandy” Hsiao. The Louisiana arrest warrant obtained by Oxygen.com acknowledges that the murder charge is based “solely” on circumstantial evidence, rather than anything directly linking Tellis to the crime.

[Photo: Unspeakable Crime: The Killing Of Jessica Chambers screengrab]