18-year-old Tayshawn Sellers of Washington, D.C., is headed to prison for 12 years after pleading guilty to a savage attack on a woman in a secluded wooded area of Benning Park last spring. The assault, which left the victim naked, bleeding, and unable to speak, shocked the tight-knit community and exposed the brutal reality lurking in the city’s public spaces.
On the evening of April 21, 2016, Sellers and his 18-year-old cousin lured the woman to the trees behind the baseball field at 5100 Southern Ave SE. What followed was a relentless beating—kicks, punches, and blows across her body until she collapsed, unconscious and stripped from the waist down. They left her for dead in the dark, surrounded by debris and silence.
Sellers didn’t stop there. He returned alone to the scene, where the victim remained motionless on the ground. Armed with a glass bottle, he smashed it repeatedly into her face, escalating an already vicious assault into something far more grotesque. When officers found her around 7:30 a.m. the next day, she was surrounded by broken glass, drenched in blood, and unable to communicate. Doctors later confirmed severe head trauma, massive facial swelling, and permanent disabilities.
The teenager was arrested the same day, April 22, 2016, and has been in custody ever since. In September 2016, he pleaded guilty in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia to assault with intent to kill while armed. Today, Judge Michael Ryan handed down the sentence: 12 years behind bars, followed by five years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, who announced the sentence, praised the relentless work of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit. He specifically recognized Victim/Witness Advocate Lezlie Richardson, Paralegal Specialists Tierra Nanches and Angelina Slagle, and Special Counsel for DNA and Forensic Evidence Litigation Michael Ambrosino for their critical roles in building the case.
The prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julianne Johnston, Kenya Davis, and Anwar Graves—three names now tied to one of the most harrowing violent crimes in recent D.C. memory. The case stands as a grim reminder: justice may move through the courts, but the scars of violence endure long after the sentence is read.
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Key Facts
- State: Washington DC
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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