Woman at center of 2019 torture-murder case sentenced to 16 to 32 years in prison

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The case of a horrific torture and killing of a 22-year-old, found mutilated in a trash can five years ago in the city’s Logan neighborhood, reached its final chapter on Thursday as the woman who started it all was sentenced to at least 16 years behind bars.

In December of 2019, Lashawna Dantzler lured Darius Cheesboro to a house in Logan, where three men beat, burned, stabbed and mutilated him — then dumped his dead body in a trash can .

At her sentencing hearing on Thursday, Dantzler deeply apologized to the court during the hearing, saying she felt extreme remorse. She read a letter saying how sorry she was for Cheeseboro’s death, as well as the brutal attack and torture of another man, who somehow escaped after his neck was slashed. Both men had a prior relationship with Dantzler, 28.

She pleaded guilty last year to third-degree murder, admitting she led both men, on different dates, to the Logan house where they were tortured.

The judge took note of her horrific upbringing, filled with severe abuse from men in her family, and abandonment, followed by a violently abusive relationship.

The Cheesboro family asked for the maximum sentence, saying the harm she caused destroyed their lives and the lives of Cheesboro’s two children.

In the end, Judge Giovanni Campbell called the case “horrific” and “unspeakable” and sentenced Dantzler to 16 to 32 years in prison, noting she took responsibility and helped with the investigation and prosecution of the other defendants, Zahmir Mason, Zamir Burton and Jordan Oliver-Williams. All three men have been convicted and sentenced to decades behind bars