By TopTrendReportTv
October 29, 2014
A Tennessee man who kidnapped and killed a teacher in September 2022 was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday after reaching a plea deal that removed the possibility of the death penalty.
The man, 40-year-old Cleotha Abston, had been set for trial next year. However, his lawyer negotiated with prosecutors for him to plead guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. The family of the victim, Eliza Fletcher, supported this arrangement, according to a statement from the Shelby County District Attorney’s office.
Ms. Fletcher, 34, was abducted while on an early morning run near the University of Memphis campus on September 2, 2022. When she didn’t return, her husband contacted police at around 7:45 a.m. Forensic evidence and surveillance footage led investigators to Mr. Abston, who was arrested on September 4, and Ms. Fletcher’s body was discovered the following day behind an abandoned building in South Memphis.
Mr. Abston’s attorney, Juni Ganguli, explained that he had advised his client to plead guilty due to the “overwhelming” evidence against him. Given the intense public interest and media coverage, Ganguli believed a jury would likely have sentenced Mr. Abston to death, so they proposed a plea agreement for life without parole, which prosecutors accepted.
In a statement, Ms. Fletcher’s family addressed Mr. Abston directly, expressing heartbreak and anger: “Your actions were evil. There is no other word for it. You murdered Liza, even though she did nothing to deserve it… She would’ve been the first to help if you needed it.”
The Shelby County District Attorney’s office acknowledged that the tragic crime had “deeply shaken the community.”
Separately, Mr. Abston was sentenced to 80 years in prison earlier this year for a 2021 case in which he was convicted of rape and kidnapping.
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