A 19-year-old D.C. man has become the fourth person sentenced in connection with the 2010 kidnapping and murder of Latisha Frazier.
Johnnie Sweet was sentenced Thursday to 52 years in prison by Judge Russell F. Canan.
Prosecutors said Sweet was one of the leaders in a group -- then ages 16 to 23 -- that lured Frazier, 18, to a home on Trenton Place SE on Aug. 2, 2010. They beat and kicked her because they suspected, with little evidence, that she had stolen $900 from one of them, authorities said.
Frazier was bound with duct tape and left in a closet with a pillowcase taped over her head, prosecutors said. One member of the group, Brian Gaither, has pleaded guilty to choking her to death.
Prosecutors said Sweet, Gaither and others attempted to dismember her body in a bathtub the day after her death.
Frazier's body was never found. It's believed to be in a rural Virginia landfill.
In April 2013, Sweet was found guilty of first-degree felony murder with aggravating circumstances; first-degree premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances; kidnapping, and tampering with physical evidence.
Six other people have been charged in connection with the case. The following have been sentenced:
- Brian Gaither, 25: sentenced to 32 years after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.
- Laurence Kamal Hassan, 24: sentenced to 18 years for second-degree murder and kidnapping.
- Cinthya Proctor, 21: sentenced to 21 years for second-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit evidence tampering.
Three others are awaiting sentencing:
- Anneka Nelson, 19: pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping.
- Lanee Bell, 20: pleaded guilty to kidnapping.
- Antoine McCullough: pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit evidence tampering.
Frazier was a young mother who worked in the mornings, attended school in the afternoons and took care of her four-year-old daughter at night, reported News4's Pat Collins.
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"She was a really good mother... Hard worker," said her father, Barry Campbell, in 2011. "It's sad. It's just so sad. It's hurtful."
