Updated: Sept. 18, 2:20 p.m.
In a negotiated deal with prosecutors, Zahmir Mason has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, abuse of corpse, attempted murder, and related offenses in the death of 22-year-old Darius Cheesboro, and the assault and mutilation of another man. He was sentenced to 32 to 84 years behind bars. Co-defendant Zamir Burton rejected a plea deal and opted to go to trial.
The original story follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia woman on Tuesday morning admitted to her role in beating, stabbing, strangling and mutilating two men in 2019, one of whom died.
Lashawna Dantzler, 28, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, abuse of corpse and related charges stemming from the torture and killing of Darius Cheeseboro, 22, and for the attempted murder of another man.
Dantzler admitted to luring the two men separately in December of 2019 to a home on Fairhill Street in Logan, for a planned attack.
They say Dantzler and three young men — Zahmir Mason, Zamir Burton and Jordan Oliver-Williams — stabbed Cheeseboro dozens of times throughout his body, cut off his genitalia while he was still alive, and then burned, strangled and beat him. He died from those injuries.
Dantzler said they put Cheeseboro’s naked body in a trash can, which they dropped off a bridge. Prosecutors say they have it all on video.
Prosecutors said the other man Dantzler lured over, also 22 years old, was similarly attacked. Dantzler and her alleged accomplices slashed his neck and tried to set his genitalia on fire — and when he tried to fight back, they attempted to cut off his hand.
They say the group threw his bloodied body in the backyard, thinking he was dead. However, the man lived, and he escaped.
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Both Cheeseboro and the second man were Dantzler’s ex-lovers. Prosecutors have said the group was laughing as they recorded both attacks on video.
Authorities say Burton’s 15-year-old girlfriend, who witnessed the brutality, told a school counselor about it days later. She was in the house at the time of the attacks, and she says she had been ordered to clean up the blood. The teen also led police to Cheeseboro’s body.
Oliver-Williams, the man Dantzler was with at the time, pleaded guilty to similar offenses last year and, in March, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Dantzler will be sentenced after Mason and Burton go to trial, which is expected to begin next week.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Darius Cheeseboro and the other unidentified victim were not tortured on the same date.