Image Credit: Tennessee Department of Corrections & Memphis Police Department
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
A Memphis man pleaded guilty on Monday to the 2022 kidnapping and murder of a kindergarten teacher out on a morning run, opting to avoid the possibility of receiving the death penalty.
40-year-old Cleotha Abston was scheduled to go to trial in February 2025. Prosecutors had made it clear that they would ask for the death penalty if Abston was convicted. Instead, Abston entered a plea of guilty on both charges: first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping.
Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped on September 2, 2022, as she jogged near the University of Memphis. After several days of intensive searching, her body was found near a vacated residence. Autopsy reports stated that Fletcher died from a gunshot to the head.
Abston, also known as Cleotha Henderson, was arrested after investigators found his DNA on sandals that had been found near the scene where Fletcher had last been seen.
In April, Abston was convicted of raping a woman in September 2021 and was sentenced in May to 80 years in prison. He was not charged in that case until after being charged with Fletcher’s murder because a delay in the processing of rape kits in Tennessee kept him from being identified.
Judge Lee Coffee sentenced Abston to life in prison without parole for the murder of Eliza Fletcher.
