Why Was Jessica Chambers’ Friend Boone Arrested When He Showed Up To The Murder Trial?

George “Boone” Mister, a friend of Jessica Chambers, was once a person of interest in her murder and was questioned several times as the police investigated the December 2014 burning.

Investigators later ruled him out as a suspect. 

Boone, who saw Jessica the day of her murder, is insistent on his innocence in “Unspeakable Crime: The Killing Of Jessica Chambers,” which may partially be due to online sleuths, who have shared conspiracy theories about his relationship to Jessica.

“I know damn well it don’t sound like no ‘Boone’ or ‘George,’” says George Boone, pointing to what Jessica told the first responders, when she named an Eric, or possibly a Derrick, as the culprit responsible for the burn injuries that covered more than 90 percent of her body.

“They might convict Quinton Tellis,” says Boone on the new docu-series, before Tellis’ first trial ended in a hung jury. “I don’t know if he did it or didn’t. But it got too much publicity. So they got to come up somebody to charge with.”

Viewers of “Unspeakable Crime” will see Boone attempting to see Quinton Tellis’ trial in person.

But Boone, who says he and Jessica were good friends and Jessica would sometimes sleep over at his house, showed up at the courthouse to watch the trial — and was rightly apprehensive.

Before entering the courthouse, he told the cameras: “When they find out I’m out here, you watch. Watch how they go into action.”

“They’ll probably throw some handcuffs on me, and tell me to get out, slam me down on the ground,” he predicted.

“Let’s go see if they’ll let us in here,” said Boone on his way into the courtroom with his nephew Antonio.

Boone’s words were prescient, if anything. He was arrested after entering the courthouse on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for simple assault in another county, authorities told the makers of “Unspeakable Crime.”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” said the nephew to the cameras. “We got to go through this sh** all the time down here, man. They do what the f*** they want to do down here to us.”

“What’s wrong with these folks, man?” asked Antonio rhetorically, looking off to the side where a uniformed official appeared to be talking to someone else. 

Edith Mister, Boone’s sister, questions why her brother couldn’t be there if it was supposed to be an open court.

“I am pissed, mad, because this is an ongoing thing,” said Edith. “They’re harassing him all the time.” 

Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby gave his side on “Unspeakable Crime,” saying Boone was someone he’s “had to deal with before.” 

“We have the authority [to] address the people we don’t feel comfortable with, is a potential threat to our courthouse,” Sheriff Darby said.

To understand why Boone might have been arrested, it’s important to know how Boone fits into this story.

Boone has been a mysterious figure to many online sleuths interested in the case. In the Buzzfeed article “Troll Detective,” Katie J.M. Baker, who appears on the docu-series to explain the interest in the case, talks with Boone, who says that he was “questioned regarding his involvement in a ‘lover’s quarrel’ with Jessica” and was being hassled by the police. In the first episode of “Unspeakable Crime,” Boone mentioned "messing off" with Jessica, while reaffirming their friendship.

In the months after Jessica’s death, the police would pull him over and put him in jail for “all kinds of bogus stuff,” said Boone to Baker. Boone evinced frustration at the level of cooperation he had already reportedly extended including taking a lie detector test, providing a mouth swab and answering police questions.

Boone also told Baker that he was being harassed by social media users; Baker says Boone engaged with people on social media, protesting his innocence in comments and private messages.

It is unlikely Boone will testify at the ongoing retrial of Jessica Chambers’ murder, where Quinton Tellis is facing life imprisonment without parole if convicted.

“Unspeakable Crime: The Killing Of Jessica Chambers” airs on Oxygen Saturdays at 7/6c. 

[Photo: Oxygen screengrab]