I think this one is also helpful with background/ record too (I included snippets of the text w/ link below):
"Cleotha Abston was only 11 years old when he first entered the Shelby County Juvenile Court as a delinquent, according to juvenile court records exclusively reviewed by Action News 5.
Over the next five years, he would be detained 16 times for charges ranging from aggravated assault to rape.
Abston’s first charge was filed in June 1995 for theft of property $500 or less. From October 1995 to May 2000, Abston was convicted of rape, aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon.
His juvenile court records show Abston was part of the “LMG” gang, which stands for “Lemoyne Gardens Ganstas,” and that his father was incarcerated at the time of his first arrest.
Records also show that Abston’s rape victim, a male, was asked to testify in court. The rape charge was sustained and Abston was placed in the custody of Shelby County’s Youth Services Bureau.
In fact, Abston was placed in the custody of Youth Services multiple times as a young teen.
However, two weeks after he was released to his mother after a six-month stay, Abston committed his last juvenile crime before he was transferred to adult court.
Abston kidnapped Memphis Defense Attorney Kemper Durand at gunpoint in May 2000. Durand was able to yell for help while Abston was forcing him to withdraw money from an ATM.
Abston, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was tried as an adult and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
In 2009, Abston asked the court for an early release citing, in part, “ineffective counsel.”
However, a victim impact statement written by Durand discouraged Abston’s release saying he felt “extremely lucky” to have escaped and that Abston felt “absolutely no remorse for the crime.”
Abston served 20 years of his 24-year sentence for the Durand kidnapping, 85% of his term, and was released from Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility in November 2020.
According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, he was released early due to credits he received for serving jail time before his sentence and for participating in the prison’s job program where Abston worked in the kitchen, laundry, cleaner, and as a cook.
Cleo Henderson, Abston’s father who was incarcerated when Abston was first arrested, is currently in prison for second-degree murder and is scheduled for release in 2044."
Cleotha Abston was only 11 years old when he first entered the Shelby County Juvenile Court as a delinquent, according to juvenile court records exclusively reviewed by Action News 5.
www.actionnews5.com