MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The man accused of raping a Memphis woman and then kidnapping and killing another woman a year later will soon face a jury.

On Wednesday, a judge denied the final motion from Cleotha Abston's lawyer in the rape case.

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In question Wednesday: a gun recovered when Abston was arrested in September 2022.

That arrest came days after the kidnapping and murder of Eliza Fletcher.

RELATED: Eliza Fletcher’s cause of death revealed

But it's evidence the Shelby County District Attorney's Office plans to present in Abston's other case, in which he's accused of raping Alicia Franklin a year earlier, in September 2021.

"The court cannot allow that," argued Juni Ganguli, Abston's defense attorney. "It's not the same gun. It's a gun that was recovered maybe a year later."

Ganguli asked a judge to exclude the evidence from the upcoming rape trial. The judge denied the request, ruling it's up to a jury to decide if the gun found in Fletcher's murder case is relevant to Franklin's rape case.

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"Defense counsel filed a motion to exclude certain evidence in this case, and we believe that evidence to be relevant, and we intend to present it in trial, and the judge today agreed with us and is going to allow us to present the evidence at trial," Assistant Shelby County District Attorney Paul Hagerman.

Abston's trial for the rape case will begin Monday, April 8.

Attorneys expect the trial to last for a couple days.