MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty to kidnapping on Monday a teacher at a school in Memphis while she was running in the early morning and then killed her.
Cleotha Abston entered guilty pleas to first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping in the kidnapping and death of Eliza Fletcher.
Abston, 40, was set to stand trial in February. Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty if Abston was convicted of first-degree murder. Instead, Judge Lee Coffee sentenced Abston to life in prison without parole after entering the guilty pleas.
Fletcher was grabbed from a street while jogging near the University of Memphis on September 2, 2022, and forced into an SUV. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex.
The killing of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community and led to an outpouring of support for her family. Runners in Memphis and several other cities were held early in the morning organize events in her honor a week after she was kidnapped, a tradition that continues in the city on the anniversary of her kidnapping.
In a statement, Fletcher’s family said they “miss the bright light of Liza’s life every day.”
“Liza meant so much to so many, and her smile radiated happiness, energy and comfort,” her family said. “Her husband, her children, her parents, her brother, the rest of her family, her friends, her students, her school families, her fellow teachers, her church community and so many others were moved by countless examples of her faith, kindness and compassion .”
Abston, who also goes by the name Cleotha Henderson, was arrested after police discovered his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen. A the autopsy report showed Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head.
“We have met with him regularly over the past few months and told him that we must settle this case, that we cannot move forward with a trial and expect this to succeed,” said Juni Ganguli, Abston’s attorney.
Abston it was sentenced to 80 years in prison May 17 for raping a woman a year before he was charged in Fletcher’s death. He was convicted in April of raping the woman while holding her at gunpoint in September 2021.
Abston, whose history of criminal prosecutions dates back to the 1990s when he was a juvenile, was only charged in the 2021 rape case after being charged with Fletcher’s murder a year later due to a long delay in processing. the sexual assault kit. After Fletcher’s death, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to issue a quarterly report on sexual assault kit testing times.