Tad Cummins To Change Plea Thursday

NASHVILLE, TN -- A change of plea hearing for Tad Cummins, the ex-Maury County teacher accused of kidnapping a former student and taking her on a five-week cross-country escapade, is set for Thursday afternoon.

In a court filing last week, Cummins' attorney said his client will change his plea after a period of "personal reflection." The former Culleoka Unit School teacher is charged in federal court with transporting a minor across state lines for sex and obstructing justice. He also faces state kidnapping and sex charges.

Cummins was arrested in a remote area of northern California April 20, 2017, after more than six weeks on the run with the 15-year-old girl.

According to an affidavit filed by Maury County Sheriff's Department Detective Jonathan R. Hardison, on March 13, 2017, Cummins told his wife was going to a job interview at the Williamson County Medical Center.The hospital said no interview had been scheduled. That night, Cummins' wife found a note from her husband that said he was going to the Washington, D.C. area or Virginia Beach to "clear his head" and urged her not to call police. She did not contact law enforcement.

That morning, a friend dropped the girl off at a Shoney's in Columbia and Cummins' Nissan Rogue was spotted on surveillance footage at a nearby gas station around the same time, according to the detective.

After the girl's father filed a missing-child report and told investigators he feared his daughter was with Cummins, detectives subpoenaed Cummins' financial records and learned that Cummins had taken out a $4,500 loan against his car. According to his wife, that money was missing, along with clothes, toiletries and two handguns.

Cummins' wife also said that her husband had been prescribed erectile-dysfunction medication Cialis and had obtained a seven-pill refill a few days prior to the disappearance.

The detective said that employees of Super 8 Motels and its corporate parent determined that Cummins had checked into two Oklahoma Super 8 locations, using his real name both times and both times renting a room with a single queen-sized bed.

Cummins and the girl also spent time on at least two communes.

Cummins was apprehended in remote Siskiyou County, Calif. after the caretaker of the property where he and the girl were staying - coincidentally, a Brentwood native - recognized them and contacted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement.

Photo via TBI