Global Courant
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man accused of kidnapping and murdering a school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, Thursday, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Cleotha Abston is accused of kidnapping Eliza Fletcher off a street near the University of Memphis on Sept. 2 and forcing her into an SUV. Her body was found days later near an empty duplex. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder and most notably aggravated kidnapping.
Shelby’s district attorney Steve Mulroy has told 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 deemed heinous, gruesome and brutal qualify for the death penalty, Mulroy said outside court.
“We argue that it applies in this case,” Mulroy said.
No trial date has been set. Coffee said he would like it to take place this year, but it wasn’t clear if lawyers could meet that schedule.
The murder of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community and sparked a wave 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, aka Cleotha Henderson, is also accused of raping a woman in September 2021 – about a year before Fletcher was killed. He was not arrested on charges of rape before Fletcher’s murder due to a long delay in processing the assault package, authorities have said.
Abston, 39, previously served 20 years in prison for a kidnapping he committed at age 16.
In the Fletcher case, Abston was arrested after police discovered his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit.
An autopsy report revealed that Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head. She also had injuries to her right leg and jaw fractures.
A massive police search for Fletcher lasted more than three days. Her body was found near an abandoned duplex. Officers noticed vehicle tracks next to the driveway and they “smelled an odor of putrefaction,” according to an affidavit.
Mulroy, the Democratic District Attorney, was sworn in the day before Fletcher disappeared. He has said he has long opposed the death penalty and would vote against it if he were a legislator, but as a prosecutor and top prosecutor in Memphis, he is obligated to follow the law when it comes to cases that could qualify for the death penalty . .
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 in a livestream 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.
