Memphis man pleads guilty to kidnapping and murder of schoolteacher

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping. Memphis school teacher while she was on her morning jog and then killed her.

Cleota Abston pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping in the kidnapping and death of Eliza Fletcher.

Abston, 40, was appointed to to appear in court in February. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Abston is convicted of first-degree murder. Instead, Judge Lee Coffey sentenced Abston to life in prison without parole after he pleaded guilty.

Fletcher On September 2, 2022, she was grabbed on the street while jogging before dawn near the University of Memphis 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. Races in Memphis and a number of other cities took place early in the morning holding events in her honor a week after her abduction, a tradition that continued in the city on the anniversary of her abduction.

In a statement, Fletcher’s family said they “miss the bright light of Lisa’s life every day.”

“Lisa 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 many others were touched by countless examples of her faith. kindness and compassion.”

Abston, who also goes by the name Cleota Henderson, was arrested after police found his DNA on sandals found near where Fletcher was last seen. An the autopsy report showed Fletcher died from a gunshot wound to the head.

“We’ve been meeting with him regularly over the past few months and telling him that we need to settle this case, that we can’t continue to litigate and expect to succeed,” said Juni Ganguly, Abston’s lawyer.

Abston 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 raping a woman at gunpoint in September 2021.

Abston, whose history of criminal charges dates back to the 1990s when he was a minor, was not charged in the 2021 rape case until a year later when he was charged with Fletcher’s murder due to a long processing delay affairs. sexual assault kit. After Fletcher’s death, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to report quarterly on sexual assault kit testing times.