The Tennessee man charged with kidnapping and killing a kindergarten teacher during a morning run two years ago pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, officials said Monday.
Cleotha Abston, 40, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, for the Sept. 2, 2022, murder of Eliza Fletcher, 34, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Fletcher, a mother of two, had gone for a run near the University of Memphis when Abston forced her into his vehicle. Her body was found three days later with a gunshot wound to her head.
Abston was linked to Fletcher’s death through surveillance video and forensic evidence, the prosecutor’s office said.
Fletcher’s family called Abston’s actions “evil.”
“We have no idea what happened to you to turn you into someone so filled with a desire to hurt people,” the family said in a statement released by the district attorney Monday. “Whatever it was, it does not excuse or explain what you have done. You have changed our lives forever, and nothing will ever be the same.
“You murdered Liza, even though she did nothing to deserve it,” the statement continued. “She did not hurt you. In fact, she would’ve been the first to help if you needed it.”
Abston, who previously served 20 years in prison for kidnapping a Memphis attorney and was sentenced to 80 years in a separate rape case earlier this year, was scheduled to stand trial in February, the Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors had said they would pursue the death penalty in Fletcher’s murder.
Abston’s lawyer, Juni Ganguli, said he had advised Abston to accept an agreement with prosecutors.
“We had been meeting with him regularly for the past few months and had been telling him that we need to settle this case, that we cannot go forward with a trial and expect to succeed,” said Ganguli, according to the AP.