North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter For The 2020 Death Of His Girlfriend

A North Carolina man reached a plea agreement on Thursday, just four days into the start of his second-degree murder trial for the 2020 death of his girlfriend. 

John “Jay” Tolson, 32, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the death of Amanda LeeAnn Fletcher Hartleben. He received a 56 to 80-month sentence, and the three years he has already spent behind bars counts toward the sentence. 

Superior Court Judge Jeff Foster said that Tolson’s decision to accept the plea “in some way…shows compassion in your heart,” according to Island Free Press. 

Hartleben, 38, was found unresponsive in the bathtub of her Kitty Hawk home on July 22, 2020. The mother of two was taken to a hospital with significant injuries and died three days later. 

Tolson had placed a 911 call at about 9:24 a.m., telling dispatch that his friend was “laying in the tub and won’t wake up.” He claimed Hartleben had been drinking the night before and fell. 

The family was immediately suspicious about Hartleben’s death, and their suspicions were confirmed by an autopsy. The cause of death was ruled as “complications of blunt force trauma to the head with hepatic cirrhosis with clinical hepatic failure contributing,” according to the medical examiner. The manner of death was listed as undetermined. 

After public backlash about how the case was handled, Tolson was arrested in Bangor, Maine, on October 26, 2020.