MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man accused of kidnapping a Memphis, Tennessee, schoolteacher during a morning run and killing her, a district attorney said Thursday.
Cleotha Abston is accused of kidnapping Eliza Fletcher from a street near the University of Memphis on September 2 and forcing her into a van. Her body was found days later near an empty duplex. She has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder and specially aggravated kidnapping.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy filed a notice with the court that prosecutors will seek the death penalty if Abston is convicted of first-degree murder, Judge Lee Coffee said. State law says that cases that are considered heinous, egregious and cruel are eligible for the death penalty, Mulroy said outside court.
“We argue that that applies in this case,” Mulroy said.
No trial date has been set. Coffee said he’d like to see it happen this year, but it wasn’t clear if the lawyers would be able to meet that schedule.
The murder of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community and generated an outpouring of support for her family. Runners in Memphis and several other cities held an early morning running event in her honor a week after she was kidnapped.
Abston, also known as Cleotha Henderson, is also accused of raping a woman in September 2021, about a year before Fletcher was killed. She was not arrested on the rape charges prior to Fletcher’s murder because of a long backlog in processing the sexual assault kit, authorities said.
Abston, 39, previously served 20 years in prison for a kidnapping he committed at age 16.
In Fletcher’s case, Abston was arrested after police detected his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit.
An autopsy report showed that Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head. He also had injuries to his right leg and fractured jaw.
A massive police search for Fletcher lasted for more than three days. His body was found near an abandoned duplex. Officers noticed vehicle tracks next to the driveway and “smelt a smell of decomposition,” an affidavit said.
Mulroy, the Democratic district attorney, took office the day before Fletcher’s disappearance. He has said he has long been an opponent of the death penalty and would vote against it if he were a legislator, but as Memphis’s top district attorney and prosecutor, he must follow the law when it comes to cases that could qualify for the penalty. capital. .
Mulroy previously announced that prosecutors would seek the death penalty in an unrelated first-degree murder case against a man accused of killing three people and wounding three others during a live-streamed shooting shortly after Mulroy took office.
Fletcher’s family was consulted about the decision to seek the death penalty against Abston and supports it, Mulroy said.
