The apartment building where officials say Mandy Hsiao was killed in 2015.MONROE, Louisiana — As the prosecution submitted the autopsy photos during the testimony of forensic pathologist Dr. Frank Peretti in the murder trial of Quinton Tellis in the brutal stabbing death of Ming Chen Hsiao in 2015, the room was stone silent.
Reflected in the photos was a horrific death. There were 30 stab wounds, 27 of which were superficial, to the back, the back of the head and neck, under the ears, and to the upper body. The other three, to the carotid and jugular on both the right and left side, would have been fatal, Peretti said.
Peretti also showed the judge where there were defense wounds to Hsiao’s hands, as she had tried to block herself from the attack. The advanced decomposition of 10 days in the August heat had rendered the 34-year-old Taiwanese national’s face unrecognizable and a stark contrast to the friendly, smiling face used by the media in stories and news reports.
The superficial wounds were between 1/4 and 1/2 inch deep, Peretti said, and they varied in length. Peretti testified that there was no way to tell which wounds were first, but the ones to the neck were the ones that had been fatal. He said once those stab wounds were administered, she would have died in less than three minutes.
On Thursday, witness Eric Hill told the court that Tellis had told him that “he stabbed a Chinese girl” for her bank card PIN number.
Peretti testified that based on the decomposition, it appeared that Hsiao had been dead for more than a week, and that a period of 10 days would make sense.
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The prosecution holds that Tellis killed Hsiao in her Monroe apartment on July 29, 2015. She was found dead by neighbors and her landlord on August 8, 2015, which also happened to be the date of Tellis’s wedding to his wife at the time, Chakita Jackson.
Quinton TellisPrior to Peretti’s testimony, the prosecution brought in Michelle Jackson, the deputy director of DNA at the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory, to testify to what was found at the crime scene. Essentially, Michelle Jackson told the court that there was no DNA that could tie Tellis to the scene, but there was very little that could tie anyone but the victim to the scene.
There are multiple reasons that there might not be another identifiable DNA profile, she said. If a suspect had used barriers such as gloves, long sleeves, or a condom, there wouldn’t be any DNA.
The other possibility is that the advanced decomposition of Hsiao’s body would have decomposed outside DNA as well.
The blood found at the scene was all consistent with Hsiao’s except one swab from the bathroom that had two profiles — a male and a female — and neither of those profiles matched Hsiao’s or any of the other 14 people whose DNA was tested, including Tellis. Michelle Jackson testified that there’s no way to tell how long DNA has been there.
There was also evidence of male DNA in Hsaio’s rectal swab that didn’t match any of those who were tested, but Jackson said it was impossible to tell if it was from skin, blood, or semen cells. In addition, it was a partial profile and there was no way to know how long it had been there. She also did not know if the medical examiner had taken the swab from the inside or outside of the rectum.
Tellis is the main suspect in the 2014 Jessica Chambers burning death in Panola County, Mississippi. There was very little DNA in that case as well, but a DNA profile found on her car keys matched Tellis’s familial DNA.
Court let out for lunch at noon and will be back for more testimony from prosecution witnesses at 1:30 p.m.
