Mark Abbott sentenced to more than 3 years in prison

Federal Senior District Judge Rodney Sippel sentenced Mark Abbott to 37 months in prison Thursday, Nov. 16, following Abbott's guilty plea for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Abbott, 53, of Cape Girardeau was indicted May 3, 2022. The search of Abbott's home was conducted March 22, 2022. The maximum sentence, according to the guilty plea he signed, was 10 years.

Abbott has been in federal custody for 18 months. He will be given credit for time served, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Willis.

In Abbott's guilty plea agreement, he admitted he knowingly possessed a firearm as a felon. The agreement stated a "reliable confidential informant" told officers Abbott had drugs at his residence. During a search of Abbott's home, officers located "a distributable amount of methamphetamine and cocaine in the residence," along with a loaded Taurus .45 pistol. Abbott was not charged with a drug crime.

Abbott admitted to officers he had a gun in his possession, and they found it where he described, under a safe in a bedroom.

Abbott had previously served a federal sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the mid-1990s, in a historically significant federal drug investigation called Operation Speed Bump. Later, in 2015, he was convicted on forgery charges, in which he tried to convince police he was his twin brother; and then received another drug conviction, this time for possession in 2019.

During the sentencing, Abbott told the court he has always hated guns, and had previously contacted local police when he found a gun in his house. On that occasion, he said, it took officers a month to come retrieve the weapon.

In this case, he was arrested after a man showed up to his house asking him to store the gun for three hours. Abbott said he never saw the man again. Abbott's attorney argued he should get a light sentence because he had family support and employment with his family business to create stability upon his release. He also stated Abbott cooperated with officers who performed the search, and acknowledged his guilt to the court.

Abbott has long been considered a person of interest in the murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless, who was found shot to death Nov. 8, 1992, on the exit ramp of Interstate 55 in Benton, Missouri. He was the lead witness in the 1994 trial that wrongly convicted Josh Kezer of the crime. Kezer was exonerated in 2009 after proving his innocence.

Abbott testified in court he found Lawless slumped over in her car the night of the murder, reached into the window and pulled her up, and then let her go after seeing her face covered with blood.

In 1997, while in jail awaiting sentencing for his drug charge, Abbott told former narcotics officer Bill Bohnert that he saw his friend Kevin Williams shoot Lawless. Williams told friends that Mark Abbott was involved in the murder, according to a witness who testified in Kezer's exoneration. Another witness told the court Mark Abbott told him in a fishing cabin that he "took care of the bitch," referring to Lawless.

The Lawless case has received new attention lately with the announcement that Allen Moss has been appointed special prosecutor and retired Cape Girardeau County detective David James has been called upon to investigate the case.