Memphis man gets 80 years in prison for raping a woman a year before jogger’s killing

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — 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 a school teacher who was on an early morning run.

Cleotha Abston, whose history of criminal charges 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 weapon. The sentences will run consecutively, or one after the other, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee ruled.

Abston, 40, was convicted April 12 of raping a woman while holding her at gunpoint in September 2021. The victim said she had been raped after meeting Abston on a social dating site and agreeing to meet him at his apartment. A jury found Abston covered the woman’s face with a T-shirt, walked her outside the apartment and raped her in the backseat of his girlfriend’s vehicle.