Ceasar Lorenzo Wilson was convicted after prosecutors said a burglary turned into a fatal attack inside Haleh Abghari’s Colorado Springs home.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado man was sentenced to 224 years in prison after jurors found him guilty in the stabbing death of University of Colorado Colorado Springs professor Haleh Abghari, who was killed inside her home in 2024.

The sentence against Ceasar Lorenzo Wilson, 54, ended a case that stretched from an east-side Colorado Springs crime scene to a February trial and a May 6 sentencing hearing in El Paso County. Prosecutors said Wilson entered Abghari’s home through an open garage while planning to steal, then attacked her after finding her in a bathroom as she got ready for bed. The case drew attention because of Abghari’s role at UCCS, the evidence police said tied Wilson to the scene and the long prison term ordered after jurors convicted him.

Police found Abghari, 54, dead on Aug. 7, 2024, after officers responded shortly after 7 a.m. to a home in the 6400 block of Caddy Point, near Powers Boulevard and North Carefree Circle. Early reports said she had at least one stab wound, and her death was later treated as a homicide. At trial, prosecutors gave a fuller account of what they said happened inside the home. They said Wilson slipped in through the garage, moved through the house and encountered Abghari in the bathroom. A struggle followed. Prosecutors said Wilson stabbed her five times, including a fatal wound to the chest, before leaving with her car, credit card, cellphone and other property. El Paso County Senior Deputy District Attorney Brien Cecil told jurors Wilson’s later movements showed purpose, saying he was “using Haleh’s credit card, using her car to drive around.”

The evidence that led investigators to Wilson included a bloody palm print on the bathroom counter and DNA recovered from under Abghari’s fingernails. Prosecutors said the findings placed Wilson in a struggle with Abghari and undercut his claim that he was only a witness to the killing. The defense argued that Wilson did not kill Abghari and suggested he had seen events unfold without being the attacker. Cecil told jurors that theory did not fit the physical evidence, including the DNA and the injury pattern described in court. Surveillance and financial records also became part of the case. Prosecutors said Wilson used Abghari’s card at gas stations and stores after the killing, and that cameras showed him moving through public places while looking uneasy and checking his surroundings.

Wilson was not arrested in the Abghari case that day. Authorities later said he was arrested Aug. 23, 2024, in Lincoln County after stealing another vehicle and trying to flee law enforcement. Prosecutors said someone was injured during that attempt. At the time, officials had not publicly connected Wilson to Abghari’s death. The murder charge came months later, after investigators linked him to the Colorado Springs home. Some reports said investigators also had to sort through questions about names because Wilson and his brother had been known to use each other’s names. By the time the case moved forward in El Paso County, Wilson was already in custody on other matters, and prosecutors prepared the homicide case for trial.

A jury found Wilson guilty on Feb. 26 after a multi-day trial. The convictions included second-degree murder, aggravated robbery, second-degree motor vehicle theft, identity theft and theft. Jurors also found sentence enhancers tied to the violent nature of the crime. Separately, the court found Wilson qualified as a habitual criminal based on 14 prior felony convictions in North Carolina from the early 1990s, a finding that increased the punishment he faced. The final sentence of 224 years means Wilson is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. The sentencing followed a hearing that had already been delayed after Wilson did not appear for an earlier court date, according to local reports.

Abghari’s death shook the UCCS arts community, where she had worked for about a decade. She joined the university in 2015 and served as head of the voice program in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet wrote in a campus message after Abghari’s death that she was an important part of the music program, served on Faculty Assembly and helped mentor students who were struggling. “Beyond all of this, her close colleagues will also remember her as an incredible artist,” Sobanet said. Friends and family described Abghari, a native of Iran, as a singer, actor, voice-over artist, teacher and advocate whose work reached audiences in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The killing came during a difficult period for the campus. Abghari’s death was at least the third UCCS-related death investigated as a homicide within about a year, following the fatal shootings of student Samuel Knopp, 24, and Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, in a campus dorm room in February 2024. Police said Abghari’s death was Colorado Springs’ 26th homicide of 2024 at the time it was reported, compared with 18 at the same point the year before. Those figures gave the case wider local weight beyond the courtroom. For UCCS, the loss was personal and professional, reaching students, faculty members and performers who knew Abghari as both an instructor and a working artist.

El Paso County District Attorney Michael J. Allen said after sentencing that the prison term matched the violence of the crime. “The violence perpetrated by the defendant against Haleh Abghari, an innocent woman alone in her own home, deserved the harsh sentence issued today in court,” Allen said. He said Abghari’s death was a devastating loss for her family, the UCCS community and the 4th Judicial District. Allen also thanked the Colorado Springs Police Department and UCCS for helping see the case through from start to finish. In court reporting from the sentencing, Wilson was described as defiant, including asking whether he had to listen during part of the proceeding.

The case now stands in the post-sentencing stage, with Wilson convicted and sentenced to 224 years in the Department of Corrections. No further trial date is pending in the murder case, though any appeal would move through the Colorado appellate courts. As of May 28, 2026, the sentence remains the latest court action in the killing of Haleh Abghari.

Author note: Last updated May 28, 2026.