MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee man was sentenced to 80 years in prison Friday for raping a woman, a year before he was charged with kidnapping and killing an early-morning schoolteacher.
Cleotha Abston, whose history of criminal prosecution dates back to the 1990s when he was a juvenile, received 40 years in prison for aggravated rape, 20 years for aggravated kidnapping and another 20 years for being a felon in possession of a gun . The sentences will run consecutively, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee ruled.
Abston, 40, was convicted on April 12 of raping a woman while holding her at gunpoint in September 2021. The victim said she was raped after meeting Abston on a social dating site and agreeing to meet him at his apartment. A jury found that Abston covered the woman’s face with a T-shirt, made her walk out of the apartment and raped her in the backseat of his girlfriend’s car.
Coffee said Abston treated the victim with “exceptional cruelty.”
Abston waived a hearing in which witnesses could have testified for or against him. His lawyer, Juni Ganguli, said waiving a sentencing hearing meant they could avoid a “circus” in court. Prosecutor Paul Hagerman said Abston received “effectively a life sentence.”
Ganguli said he plans to appeal the conviction and will file a motion for a new trial.
“We had a strong defense,” Ganguli told reporters outside the court on Friday. “I don’t believe for a second that he raped that woman or kidnapped that woman or had a gun, that he pointed a gun at that woman.”
Abston was only charged in the 2021 rape case after he was accused of snatching Eliza Fletcher from a street while she was jogging before dawn near the University of Memphis on September 2, 2022, and putting her in an SUV forced. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex.
Abston was not arrested on rape charges before Fletcher’s murder because of a long delay in processing the sexual assault kit, authorities say. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say they will pursue the death penalty if Abston is convicted of first-degree murder in Fletcher’s death. No trial date has been set in that case.
The killing of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community and led to an outpouring of support for her family. Runners in Memphis and several other cities held an early morning running event in her honor a week after she was kidnapped. A second run in Fletcher’s honor was held last year.
Abston, who also goes by the name Cleotha Henderson, was arrested after police discovered his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit. An autopsy report found that Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head. She also had injuries to her right leg and jaw fractures.
After Fletcher’s death, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to issue a quarterly report on sexual assault kit testing times.
The rape victim in the 2021 case sued the city of Memphis over allegations that Memphis police failed to properly investigate her case, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge.