Indy Man Who Filmed Himself Raping Woman and 12-Year-Old Sentenced
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis man is getting over 70 years behind bars for filming himself raping a woman and a 12-year-old girl two years ago.
On Thursday, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears announced that Teshon Gardner, 23, has been sentenced to 76 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of child molestation and rape. Gardner is now deemed a sexually violent predator under Indiana law.
The sentence for Gardner stems from a rape that occurred at a home on S. Worth Avenue in late June of 2024. Police said Gardner went into the home on the west side of Indianapolis and sexually assaulted a woman and a child.
The woman told officers that Gardner came to the front door wearing an American flag mask with a gun, demanding that he be let inside. He then raped the woman and her 12-year-old daughter while recording the assaults on his cell phone.
Officers arrested Gardner during a traffic stop after they tracked him to a blue Ford F-150.
Gardner was later charged in Marion Superior Court 30 with 19 counts of rape, child molestation and sexual battery. On Thursday, Gardner entered a plea deal in which he pled guilty to just two of those charges, each of them for 38 years.
