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Cleotha Abston Charged In Eliza Fletcher Kidnapping

Cleotha Abston has been charged with the kidnapping of Memphis Tennessee woman Eliza Fletcher. According to police reports Eliza Fletcher was jogging near the University of Memphis when she disappeared. Clotha Abston who has been described as a violent felon who served time for kidnapping and robbery would be arrested and has been charged with aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence. The search for Eliza Fletcher continues with the family offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

Cleotha Abston More News

A man has been charged in connection with the disappearance of a Memphis teacher investigators believe was abducted while she was out for a jog Friday morning, police said.

Cleotha Abston, 38, was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence, according to a tweet from the Memphis Police Department posted early Sunday.

“Eliza Fletcher has not been located at this time. MPD Investigators and officers, along with our local and federal partners, continue searching for Mrs. Fletcher,” the post said.

Fletcher, 34, was jogging around 4 a.m. Friday when a black GMC Terrain SUV passed by her, according to surveillance footage obtained of the incident. A man was then seen getting out of the vehicle and “ran aggressively” toward Fletcher and forced her into the passenger side of the SUV. Once both individuals were inside the SUV, the vehicle remained in a parking lot for approximately four minutes before driving away, according to the footage cited in an affidavit obtained by CNN.

Abston was arrested Saturday after police found a vehicle they had been looking for in the case.

US Marshals located the GMC Terrain in a parking lot near Abston’s residence, according to the affidavit. The vehicle had the same distinguishable vehicle damage and partial license plate identification seen in the surveillance footage from Fletcher’s abduction.

Abston was located nearby by U.S. Marshals and attempted to flee but was taken into custody, the affidavit said.

It is unclear whether Abston has an attorney.

DNA recovered from a pair of sandals found near where authorities believe Fletcher was abducted helped investigators in Memphis identify and arrest Abston in connection with Fletcher’s disappearance, according to the affidavit.

Investigators discovered surveillance footage captured from a local theater the day before Fletcher’s disappearance, which showed Abston wearing what authorities believe are the same pair of Champion slide sandals found at the crime scene, according to the affidavit.

Additional surveillance footage matched with statements from Abston’s employer confirmed the vehicle believed to be involved in Fletcher’s kidnapping belongs to a woman associated with Abston’s home address.

Cell phone records also place Abston at the site during the time of Fletcher’s abduction on Friday morning, the affidavit said.

Fletcher’s damaged phone was found near the scene where she is believed to have been abducted, CrimeStoppers Executive Director Buddy Chapman said, according to a news release obtained by CNN affiliate WHBQ.

According to the affidavit, a witness said she saw Abston at his brother’s house after the abduction. Both the witness and his brother said Abston was behaving oddly as he cleaned the interior of his SUV and washed his clothes in the sink.

According to the affidavit, Abston declined to share Fletcher’s location.

Photos released by police show Fletcher running in the neighborhood near the University of Memphis. She was last seen wearing a pink jogging top and purple running shorts, police said in an alert.

Fletcher is White, 5 feet 6 inches tall, with brown hair and green eyes, police said. She weighs 137 pounds.

The family of the mother of two is offering a $50,000 reward through CrimeStoppers for information leading to an arrest in the case, WHBQ reported.

“We look forward to Eliza’s safe return and hope that this award will help police capture those who committed this crime,” her family said in a statement shared by Chapman.

In a post on Twitter, St. Mary’s Episcopal School said Fletcher is a junior kindergarten teacher.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a tweet it is assisting Memphis police in the investigation.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/04/us/memphis-eliza-fletcher-missing-teacher-suspect-charged/index.html

Isabelle Jocson Teen Killer Murders 14 Yr Old Girl

Isabelle Jocson is a sixteen year old alleged teen killer from Nashville Tennessee who was arrested for the murder of a fourteen year old girl. According to police reports Isabelle Jocson and the victim fourteen year old Malia Powell began arguing in a Walmart and the verbal disagreement would continue outside of the store. When the two teen girls were by a bus stop Isabelle Jocson would fatally stab Malia Powell. Isabelle Jocson would be arrested and has been charged with criminal homicide.

Isabelle Jocson More News

A 16-year-old girl has been charged in the stabbing death of a 14-year-old girl outside the Dickerson Pike Walmart.

Metro police reported Isabelle Jocson, 16, was charged with criminal homicide for Monday night’s stabbing of Malia Powell, 14, in the parking lot of the Walmart near a bus stop

According to a release, Malia and Isabelle exchanged words inside the store, which continued into the parking lot and to the nearby bus stop.

The teen suspect reportedly asked Malia if she wanted to fight and then charged at her while holding a pocketknife, according to Metro police. After the stabbing, the suspect ran away toward Doverside Drive.

Investigators do not believe Malia and Isabelle knew each other prior to the stabbing.

Metro police told News Channel 11’s sister station News 2 in Nashville that they are investigating potential suspects since the attack was recorded on a cell phone. No arrests have been made at this time.

Metro Nashville Public Schools released a statement, saying the district is “saddened by the tragic death of Malia Powell Ridley.” She was a rising 9th grader who had recently completed 8th grade at Bellevue Middle and was enrolled to attend Hillwood High in the upcoming school year, according to MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted.

https://www.wjhl.com/news/regional/tennessee/tennessee-teen-charged-in-stabbing-death-of-14-year-old-girl/

Alex Lemons Teen Killer Murders Father In Fire

Alex Lemons was a fourteen year old alleged teen killer from Tennessee who set fire to his home killing his father. According to police reports Alex Lemons has been charged with murder and arson in the death of his father who died in a fatal fire in December 2021. According to investigators an accelerant was used in the fire which caused it to spread quickly trapping Edward Lemons in the upper part of the house.

The community of DeKalb County Tennessee which had been fundraising trying to help out the student at DeKalb County High School who as reported by early newspapers lost everything in the fire. Now of course Alex Lemons is behind bars where he will face charges of aggravated arson and first-degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Edward Lemons

Alex Lemons More News

A 15-year-old boy is accused of being responsible for a fire in December which claimed the life of his father.

Alex Lemons was taken into custody Thursday evening at the sheriff’s department. He has been named in a juvenile petition for aggravated arson and first-degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Edward Lemons. The fire occurred at Lemons’ home at 5056 Jacobs Pillar Road.

Although Sheriff Patrick Ray did not release the boy’s name on advice of the District Attorney General’s Office, the local media confirmed it independently. The teen is a student at DeKalb County High School.

“Today we took out petitions on a 15-year-old male. The petition is for first degree murder and aggravated arson,” said Sheriff Ray.

“On or about December 7, 2021, this juvenile did knowingly and intentionally set a residential fire located at 5056 Jacobs Pillar Road, Smithville which resulted in the death of his father, Edward Lemons,” said Sheriff Ray, reading from the petition.

“He was picked up this evening (Thursday) and we had a transport order that was signed by Juvenile Court Judge Bratten Cook, II. The boy is being housed in Cookeville at the detention center until his first court date on Monday,” added Sheriff Ray.

“We believe he intentionally set the fire with an accelerant. We, along with the Fire Division of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, gathered numerous items of evidence at the scene that were sent off to crime labs and those things support our case. Accelerant detecting dogs deployed at the scene were also helpful during the fire investigation,” added Sheriff Ray.

Sheriff Ray would not speculate on a motive for the fire. Whether or not the boy is to be prosecuted later as an adult has yet to be determined.

“This is a sad situation involving a family that is highly thought of by this community,” said Sheriff Ray.

E-911 dispatchers received a call at 8:02 p.m. on December 7 reporting a house fire at 5056 Jacobs Pillar Road. The Main Station, Blue Springs, Belk,, Cookeville Highway, and Liberty stations with the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department quickly responded, along with deputies with the DeKalb Sheriff’s Department and a unit with DeKalb EMS.

Upon arrival firefighters found the split-level home with fire engulfing the lower area of the structure. There was also a report that Edward Lemons, the resident, was trapped inside. Fire crews worked to contain the blaze, trying to keep the fire from spreading to the upper bedrooms, where Lemons was believed to be located. Despite firefighters’ best efforts, they were unable to reach Lemons in time. The home was destroyed in the blaze.

After the fire fundraisers were held in support of the Lemons family and a bank account was established which reportedly has amassed tens of thousands of dollars. Sheriff Ray said what happens to those funds might be decided later by a judge through civil court proceedings.

Teen charged in juvenile petition with aggravated arson and first-degree murder in death of his father

Michael Mosley Guilty Of Clayton Beathard Murder

Michael Mosley has been found guilty of the murder of Clayton Beathard. According to court documents Michael Mosley would approach a woman who was with the victims and was told repeatedly to go away. This brought out a situation that would turn violent outside of the Nashville bar when Michael Mosley would stab three people killing Clayton Beathard and Paul Trapeni III and injuring the third man. Clayton Beathard is the brother of former NFL quarterback C.J. Beathard and grandson of Hall of Fame General Manager Bobby Beathard. Michael Mosley would be found guilty of the two murders and of the attempted murder. At sentencing later this year Michael Mosley would not be eligible for parole for 100 years.

Michael Mosley More News

Michael Mosley was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the 2019 stabbing deaths of two men outside a Midtown bar.

Michael Mosley was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder after the stabbing left another man blind in one eye and assault against another.

Michael Mosley was named the suspect in the fight and stabbing that killed two Williamson County college students, Clayton Beathard and Paul Trapeni III, on Dec. 21, 2019, at The Dogwood, a bar on Division Street.

Beathard was stabbed in the chest, hitting his heart. Trapeni, too, was stabbed in the heart, and also in the back.

Another man, A.J. Bethurum, then a 21-year-old University of Tennessee student from Franklin, survived the stabbing with injuries to his eye and arm.

He has since fully lost vision in his left eye, he testified Thursday after the knife went up and under the organ and nearly pierced his brain.

All three victims were old friends and had attended Battle Ground Academy in Franklin together.

Deputy District Attorney Amy Hunter and Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman say Mosley escalated a comment from one of the trio’s friends to a fistfight and then he alone pulled a knife

In statements after the verdict was read Friday afternoon, prosecutors said the case was about the choices Michael Mosley made that took a violent turn.

“We were thrilled to get that verdict especially for these families who have been so wonderful and they’ve been through so much,” Hunter said. “It was also really great to get that verdict for all of the friends who came and testified, who showed such a level of composure…We were glad that they got justice that they deserved

The defense, led by Nashville attorney Ken Quillen, argued Mosley was acting in self-defense from the tall, athletic former football players in the trio’s friends group.

The victims had gathered that evening with a handful of other classmates and friends from Franklin or who attended BGA with them.

Quillen’s closing arguments were stilted and short.

“I would suggest that when a man angrily walks toward you and points at you, that is a threat,” he said.

Quillen played a video using audio from several initial interviews with witnesses to the fight that were discussed extensively in cross-examination as being out of context.

He thanked the jury for being “attentive” in a statement that lasted less than 10 minutes.

Emily Sanders, who said she is Mosley’s best friend, told The Tennessean after the verdict she still believes in her friend.

“Michael’s a good person,” she said. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Sanders comforted Mosley’s sobbing sister as the pair walked out of the courtroom together.

What took a brawl to a fatal stabbing in the street?

“It seemed to me every time I separated a situation, another escalated,” Jaycie Harper, a friend of the defendant, said on the stand this week. She was subpoenaed by prosecutors and made clear she was unhappy about testifying against Mosley.

Questioning took an unexpected turn on the first day of the trial.

Quillen seemed to thread a narrative that a young woman’s flirting on the night of the stabbing may have kicked off the argument that turned into a brawl.

On the stand Tuesday morning, she denied it.

Prosecutors’ first witness was Emma Yoder, a friend of the three victims and fellow BGA alum, who had been out with them in a large group that night.

She said that a stranger, later identified as Mosley, approached her at least three times at the Dogwood that night, offering to buy her a drink or ask her to dance. She declined multiple times, she said.

t was on the third time that her old friend Sam Folks put an arm around her and told Mosley she had a boyfriend and to leave her alone. Yoder and Folks were not actually in a romantic relationship, she said.

Everyone had been drinking that night, and by nearly 3 a.m. were being ushered out of the bar. The BGA group had called rideshares, she said.

What happened next to escalate Folks’ comment to a fight remains unclear.

Harper testified she heard someone, possibly Mosley or another companion of theirs, say “we’re going to fight them,” about the high school friends.

That man, identified as Sergio Alvarado, was supposed to testify in the case this week. But although he was present Monday, he did not return to court the following day.

Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton issued a bench warrant to find him.

As of Thursday, there were still ongoing efforts to locate him.

Alvarado has been linked to MS-13 gang activity in a federal investigation after a Nashville nightclub shooting in October 2020. Court documents include the allegation he was violating terms of federal parole by being with Michael Mosley at the Dogwood in 2019.

Prosecutors this week allege Alvarado was selling drugs that evening, with Mosley’s help. Mosley is not facing drug charges in the case.

“Only one person knew that people were going to die that night of Dec. 21. Only one person knew Michael Mosley had a knife,” Norman said in the state’s closing arguments.

Jurors were released to eat lunch and began deliberating around 1 p.m. Thursday.

The courtroom was packed each day with friends and family of the victims who have previously declined to comment on the case. Extra chairs were brought in to seat more family members in the gallery.

Mosley’s supporters were more sparse, but family members sat in the courtroom on the day of the verdict together.

As Hunter laid out the state’s rebuttal closing, many of them hung their heads. Their sniffles could be heard across the courtroom.

“Michael Mosley robbed Paul Trapeni and Clay Beathard’s friends and family of these young men, but he robbed all of us. Those men were going places. Those men were going to be incredible,” she said. “He must be held accountable.”

Hunter fired back at Quillen’s framing around Yoder, calling it, “offensive, ridiculous and unconscionable.”

“Saying this had anything to do with…Emma Yoder is just flat out wrong and cruel to do to these people,” she said. “The defense would have you believe that the defendant was being ganged up on by a group of super-tall athletes.”

“He wasn’t being ganged up on by anybody. He started a fight.”

Mosley faces two life sentences on the first-degree murder convictions. Dalton will be guided by statute to determine whether they should run concurrently or consecutively.

If consecutive, Mosley would not be eligible for parole for more than 100 years under Tennessee law.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2022/03/31/michael-mosley-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-2019-stabbing-outside-midtown-nashville-bar/7171451001/

RaDonda Vaught Found Guilty In Medical Death

Former nurse RaDonda Vaught has been found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult in the death of Charlene Murphey. According to court documents RaDonda Vaught was suppose to give Charlene Murphey a sedative Versed before she went for an MRI however Vaught would give her vecuronium which is a powerful paralyzer that caused Charlene to stop breathing and left her brain dead before medical personnel realized the mistake. RaDonda Vaught who has admitted since the beginning that she made a mistake will be sentenced in May 2022

RaDonda Vaught More News

RaDonda Vaught, a former nurse criminally prosecuted for a fatal drug error in 2017, was convicted of gross neglect of an impaired adult and negligent homicide on Friday after a three-day trial in Nashville, Tenn., that gripped nurses across the country.

RaDonda Vaught faces three to six years in prison for neglect and one to two years for negligent homicide as a defendant with no prior convictions, according to sentencing guidelines provided by the Nashville district attorney’s office. Vaught is scheduled to be sentenced May 13, and her sentences are likely to run concurrently, said the district attorney’s spokesperson, Steve Hayslip.

RaDonda Vaught was acquitted of reckless homicide. Criminally negligent homicide was a lesser charge included under reckless homicide.

Vaught’s trial has been closely watched by nurses and medical professionals across the U.S., many of whom worry it could set a precedent of criminalizing medical mistakes. Medical errors are generally handled by professional licensing boards or civil courts, and criminal prosecutions like Vaught’s case are exceedingly rare.

Janie Harvey Garner, the founder of Show Me Your Stethoscope, a nursing group on Facebook with more than 600,000 members, worries the conviction will have a chilling effect on nurses disclosing their own errors or near errors, which could have a detrimental effect on the quality of patient care.

“Health care just changed forever,” she said after the verdict. “You can no longer trust people to tell the truth because they will be incriminating themselves.”

In the wake of the verdict, the American Nurses Association issued a statement expressing similar concerns about Vaught’s conviction, saying it sets a “dangerous precedent” of “criminalizing the honest reporting of mistakes.” Some medical errors are “inevitable,” the statement said, and there are more “effective and just mechanisms” to address them than criminal prosecution.

“The nursing profession is already extremely short-staffed, strained and facing immense pressure — an unfortunate multi-year trend that was further exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic,” the statement said. “This ruling will have a long-lasting negative impact on the profession.”

RaDonda Vaught, 38, of Bethpage, Tenn., was arrested in 2019 and charged with reckless homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult in connection with the killing of Charlene Murphey, who died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in late December 2017. The neglect charge stemmed from allegations that Vaught did not properly monitor Murphey after she was injected with the wrong drug.

Murphey, 75, of Gallatin, Tenn., was admitted to Vanderbilt for a brain injury. At the time of the error, her condition was improving, and she was being prepared for discharge from the hospital, according to courtroom testimony and a federal investigation report. Murphey was prescribed a sedative, Versed, to calm her before being scanned in a large MRI-like machine.

RaDonda Vaught was tasked to retrieve Versed from a computerized medication cabinet but instead grabbed a powerful paralyzer, vecuronium. According to an investigation report filed in her court case, the nurse overlooked several warning signs as she withdrew the wrong drug — including that Versed is a liquid but vecuronium is a powder — and then injected Murphey and left her to be scanned. By the time the error was discovered, Murphey was brain-dead.

During the trial, prosecutors painted Vaught as an irresponsible and uncaring nurse who ignored her training and abandoned her patient. Assistant District Attorney Chad Jackson likened Vaught to a drunk driver who killed a bystander but said the nurse was “worse” because it was as if she were “driving with [her] eyes closed.”

“The immutable fact of this case is that Charlene Murphey is dead because RaDonda Vaught could not bother to pay attention to what she was doing,” Jackson said.

Vaught’s attorney, Peter Strianse, argued that his client made an honest mistake that did not constitute a crime and became a “scapegoat” for systemic problems related to medication cabinets at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2017.

But Vanderbilt officials countered on the stand. Terry Bosen, Vanderbilt’s pharmacy medication safety officer, testified that the hospital had some technical problems with medication cabinets in 2017 but that they were resolved weeks before Vaught pulled the wrong drug for Murphey.

In his closing argument, Strianse targeted the reckless homicide charge, arguing that his client could not have “recklessly” disregarded warning signs if she earnestly believed she had the right drug and saying there was “considerable debate” over whether vecuronium actually killed Murphey.

During the trial, Eli Zimmerman, a Vanderbilt neurologist, testified it was “in the realm of possibility” that Murphey’s death was caused entirely by her brain injury. Additionally, Davidson County Chief Medical Examiner Feng Li testified that although he determined Murphey died from vecuronium, he couldn’t verify how much of the drug she actually received. Li said a small dose may not have been lethal.

“I don’t mean to be facetious,” Strianse said of the medical examiner’s testimony, “but it sort of sounded like some amateur CSI episode — only without the science.”

RaDonda Vaught did not testify. On the second day of the trial, prosecutors played an audio recording of Vaught’s interview with law enforcement officials in which she admitted to the drug error and said she “probably just killed a patient.”

During a separate proceeding before the Tennessee Board of Nursing last year, Vaught testified that she allowed herself to become “complacent” and “distracted” while using the medication cabinet and did not double-check which drug she had withdrawn despite multiple opportunities.

“I know the reason this patient is no longer here is because of me,” Vaught told the nursing board, starting to cry. “There won’t ever be a day that goes by that I don’t think about what I did.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/25/1088902487/former-nurse-found-guilty-in-accidental-injection-death-of-75-year-old-patient