Tad Cummins Pleads Guilty

NASHVILLE, TN -- Tad Cummins, the former Culleoka Unit School teacher charged with transporting a minor across state lines for sex and obstructing justice, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday, as his victim and her family looked on.

Cummins filed notice last week he intended to change his plea with his attorney saying he came to the decision after "personal reflection."

Prosecutors said Cummins cultivated a relationship with the student over a period of months and had been intimate with her in a closet at the school prior to him taking her from Columbia and disappearing for more than six weeks.

Cummins was arrested in a remote area of northern California April 20, 2017.

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.

Cummins faces up to 10 years in federal prison. His sentencing has yet to be scheduled. He also faces state kidnapping and sex crimes charges.

Photo via TBI