Jury trial moves forward for man charged with killing Outer Banks mother of 2

MANTEO — Following the denial of a bench trial, the jury trial of John “Jay” Curtis Tolson, who is charged with the second-degree murder of LeeAnn Fletcher, will move forward as scheduled on Aug. 28.

Tolson’s lawyers made a motion on Aug. 25 to waive his right to a jury trial and to hold a bench trial instead, given the wide publicity of the case. Judge Jeff Foster of Pitt County denied the motion in the pre-trial hearing in Dare County Superior Court.

In a bench trial, the judge alone would determine guilt or innocence.

Foster said he only knew of one murder bench trial in the state, which took place in Gaston County, and stated his belief in jury trials. He said he practiced criminal defense for 30 years before becoming a judge.

“I have seen how smart 12 people can be when they sit down in a room together and decide an issue,” he said. “I have a great deal of confidence in our jury system.”

Fletcher, a 38-year-old mother of two, was found unresponsive in her Kitty Hawk home on July 22, 2020. She died three days later.

Fletcher was in a relationship with Tolson at the time of her death, according to her Facebook profile.

Tolson was arrested in October 2020 in Bangor, Maine, following an autopsy report from the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office citing Fletcher’s cause of death as “complications of blunt force trauma to the head with hepatic cirrhosis with clinical hepatic failure contributing,” according to articles in the Outer Banks Voice.

His arrest also came after a steadfast social media campaign by Fletcher’s family members and friends, the articles noted.

The trial date originally set for March 6, 2023, was continued until Aug. 28 because of the unavailability of a medical witness from Virginia, according to District 1 District Attorney Jeff Cruden.

During Friday’s hearing, which started around 1 p.m. and lasted about half an hour, Tolson sat between his lawyers in an orange Dare County Detention Center jumpsuit. His hands were uncuffed.

Both Fletcher’s mother, Mary Ann Fletcher, and cousin, Trisha Cahoon, attended the proceedings. They sat with two local victims’ advocates.

Toward the end of the hearing, Foster announced a “gag order” prohibiting members of the family from conducting any new media interviews until the trial concludes.

“I want to be sure we don’t do anything to poison the well,” he said.

Christan Routten, assistant public defender with the First Judicial District Public Defender’s Office and one of Tolson’s lawyers, requested five pre-trial motions.

Foster granted Routten’s motion for “complete recordation, including jury selection,” as well as her motion prohibiting any display of Fletcher’s name or photographs in or around the courthouse during the trial.

Routten said she didn’t want anything visible “that could improperly influence potential jurors at a critical stage in the trial.” Foster agreed.

“We’re not going to have anything disrupt this trial,” Foster said. “It’s going to be a fair trial provided for this defendant.”

Foster said he will not tolerate outbursts or anything attempting to influence jurors during the trial. He said he will find anyone “in contempt” who displays “any visual representations of the victim,” including shirts, placards, signs or bumper stickers.

“I understand there’s some bumper stickers, perhaps, that may be on cars; they need to come off,” he ordered.

In explaining the request for a bench trial, Routten cited the abundance of information related to the case, much of which she called “false,” that may make finding jury members not exposed to this information “difficult to impossible.”

She said there is a “Justice for LeeAnn” Facebook page with thousands of “friends,” and a recent local media article about the trial date had “hundreds of comments, reactions, shares and hashtags that reference that same Facebook name.” Many locals have posted their opinions of Tolson’s guilt on the article and on social media, she said.

Additionally, she said a “Coffee and Crime Time podcast” on YouTube has hundreds of thousands of views; there is a YouTube channel with “videos of the residents in question;” and there has been coverage of the case by People Magazine, Court TV and 48 Hours.

“Also, at one point in time, there was a banner that was flown over the beach, which had the same hashtag of ‘Justice for LeeAnn,’” she noted.

While District 1 Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Bland — one of the lawyers for the state in this case—said a motion requesting a change of trial setting “would be more properly made rather than a bench trial,” she consented to the motion before Foster denied it.

No motion was made to change the trial setting.

Foster agreed to Routten’s motion to sequester witnesses before they testify, meaning they must stay outside the courtroom until they are called to testify, but denied the exception she sought for one medical witness.

Bland said the state objected, as that would give the witness an opportunity to change her position and also defy “the whole purpose of sequestering the witnesses. It’s either all or none.”

Foster said he’d never seen “an opposing expert…reviewing the doctor’s testimony as it’s happening,” and denied the exclusion Routten sought.

Foster held open Routten’s motion to prohibit identification of Fletcher in the case, including during jury instructions. That will be decided Monday.