The pair eventually started exchanging sexually-explicit messages on Instagram before Cummins then got her alone in a classroom and forcibly kissed her. 'And he told me no and not to do it 'cause it’d change who I was,' she recalled. 'I was feeling real low, and I was wanting to get on anti-depressants and try to go to a therapist,' she revealed to ABC. She said she even avoided therapy over his advice.

However, things quickly took a turn for the worse, and Thomas said she fell for Cummins' charade because he made her feel like no one else could care for her as he did. Jill had even come out to say they thought of Thomas as their third child and that she believed the relationship between the teen and her husband was that of a parent and child. Cummins went on the run with Thomas in March 2017 (Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)Īccording to the Daily Mail, Thomas previously revealed in an interview with ABC's 20/20 that she became close with the teacher and his wife of 30 years, Jill Cummins, because the couple took her in after her mother was charged with child abuse and neglect over her and her sister. His defense team's argument that he should be given the minimum 10-year sentence because of his lack of a previous criminal record failed, though he did avoid the maximum possible sentence of 30 years. Those were her words, what she had to say she felt she had been betrayed by somebody she trusted who turned out to be a predator who used her, and so we understand the strain she was under,' Cochran said.Predatory school teacher Tad Cummins, 52, has been sentenced in the abduction case that saw him coerce then-15-year-old student Elizabeth Thomas to run away from home with him and force her to have sex with him every day.Ĭummins, who had previously pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and taking a minor across state lines for sex, was sentenced to 20 years in prison this past Wednesday, January 17, by US District Judge Aleta Trauga in Nashville. Sarah Beth did a good job reading her statement. 'It's an emotional time to come face-to-face with a perpetrator like that so it's perfectly understandable. Attorney Sarah Beth Meyers read the statement for the victim.

She was supposed to make a statement, but when that time came, she started sobbing and didn't say anything through the tears. His victim also sat in the crowded courtroom. Attorney Don Cochran held a press conference following the sentencing, saying 'This is a case of a vulnerable little girl who trusted somebody she thought was a special teacher but turned out to actually be a sexual predator.'

He mouthed 'hi' and waved to family and supporters sitting in the crowd as he walked in. He was later charged with transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual conduct and obstruction of justice.Ĭummins walked into Wednesday's sentencing hearing wearing shackles and a gray and black jumpsuit. Cummins was initially charged in a criminal complaint on April 20, 2017, after he was found in Cecilville, California with the 15-year-old victim. He became the subject of a nationwide search by law enforcement after leaving the Columbia area on March 13, 2017. However, prosecutors pushed for a 30-year sentence.Ĭummins was a teacher at Culleoka Unit School when officials said he took off with a 15-year old-student with the intention of having sex with her. Tad Cummins appeared in federal court Wednesday, where he faced a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison. (WTVF) - A former Maury County teacher who admitted to kidnapping a student, which prompted a nationwide manhunt in 2017, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison with lifetime supervision.

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