Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, which reported the plea. The former teacher from Columbia, Tennessee, will be sentenced later this year and faces at least 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. The Associated Press contributed to this report.Tad Cummins has pleaded guilty to kidnapping his teenage student, taking her across state lines and sexually assaulting her. It was an experience I’ll have to live with the rest of my life.”īefore Cummins transported the teen out of state, witnesses and students claimed the pair were spotted kissing in the school, and that he groomed her. He also told the victim's family, "If someone had done this to one of my girls I would want to hurt them, and I fully understand if you feel that way about me."Ĭummins was married when he fled town with Thomas.īack in 2017, not long after the teen was rescued, an editor at the Columbia Daily Herald spotted Thomas at a fast food restaurant and started up an impromptu interview in which she reportedly said, “I don’t regret it, nor do I say it was the right thing to do. Prior to sentencing, Cummins broke down crying as he apologized for the harm he caused the victim, now 17, and his own family, some of whom were in the courtroom, including his two daughters.ĭressed in a gray-and-black-striped prison uniform, Cummins repeatedly said he had no idea why he did what he did, calling it a "misguided attempt to help that went sideways in a way I don't know I'll ever understand." Cummins had asked for the minimum sentence of 10 years. District Judge Aleta Trauger acknowledged that Cummins committed a "pretty despicable crime" but said there were also mitigating factors, including that he had no criminal record, that he was unlikely to re-offend, and that he promptly admitted to his crime and pleaded guilty. In arguing for a stiff sentence, Meyers focused on the preparation that Cummins put into his flight with the girl, including taking his wife's car, which he thought would be less conspicuous than his own filling a prescription for an erectile dysfunction drug and taking out a loan so that he could pay for everything in cash. Cummins left the state with her in March 2017 and during that time, the teen girl’s Instagram appeared to claim that she became Cummins’ wife. The former teacher allegedly admitted to having sexual contact with the teen during “most nights” during their time on the run. The statement also said that Thomas was convinced Cummins would have eventually discarded her had he not been captured.Īfter a national weeks-long manhunt in 2017, the two were discovered hiding out in a remote California cabin where they posed as husband and wife. The victim's statement said Cummins saw "a broken girl who was lonely, scared and traumatized." She needed protection, the statement said, but Cummins only wanted sex. "What you did to me was unspeakable," Meyers read. Attorney Sara Beth Meyers read the girl's statement. After a discussion with the prosecutor and the judge, Assistant U.S. The victim, Elizabeth Thomas, was in the federal courtroom in Nashville, but when the time came for her to speak, she did not come forward. Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year sentence after Cummins pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines for sex and obstructing justice. A Tennessee teacher who was on the run for weeks with a 15-year-old student was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison.Ī statement from the victim called 52-year-old Tad Cummins "disgusting" and said the effects of his actions on her were "devastating and permanent."
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