Man acquitted in his mother’s north-central Kan. shooting death

BELOIT, Kan. (AP) — A jury has acquitted a man who was charged with his mother’s murder nearly 15 years after she died.

Charles Fleming. Photo from Johnson County Sheriff’s Office

46-year-old Chuckie Fleming was found not guilty of first-degree murder Monday after a trial in Mitchell County.

Fleming was arrested and charged in July in the death of Carol Fleming. She was found in August 2003 shot to death as she slept in her Beloit home.

His defense attorney, Julie Effenbeck, said the decision came down to a lack of evidence and a lack of credibility with the state’s witnesses.

Mitchell County Attorney Mark Noah argued during the trial that Carol Fleming was killed with a shotgun from one of her son’s trucks, and that he received $370,000 from his parents’ estate.