Jury convicts Memphis, Tennessee, man of raping a woman a year before jogger’s killing

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has been found guilty of raping a woman a year before he was charged with kidnapping and killing a school teacher who was on an early morning run. A jury in Memphis convicted 40-year-old Cleotha Abston of kidnapping and raping the woman in September 2021. According to the Daily Memphian, the jury’s Friday decision found Abston guilty on three counts of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping and unlawful possession of a weapon. Abston was not charged in the 2021 rape case until after being charged with snatching Eliza Fletcher from a street near the University of Memphis on Sept. 2, 2022, and forcing her into an SUV. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex.