SISTER OF ROCKLAND’S CRAIGSLIST KILLER PROCLAIMS: “I HOPE HE NEVER GETS OUT!”

Sister Shock! Lentini sibling says he’s capable of murder; wants him to stay behind bars

BY CAROL MCILMURRAY

*This article is based solely on Ashara Smith’s account of her brother Dylan Lentini, 19, and her recollection of the months leading up to Lentini’s move from Vacaville, California to New York.

Ashara Smith, 21, is the half-sister of Dylan Lentini, 19, and says the two were raised together as a family with Lentini’s father, Vincent, being the only father she ever knew. Vincent and Stacey Lentini, went on to have one more child together before divorcing when Smith says she was about 14 years-old.

On Dec 1, 2015, Clarkstown police arrested Lentini and charged him with second-degree murder for the stabbing of Michael Wimbert, 66, a man Lentini is alleged to have met Wimbert for the first time on Craigslist’s Hudson Valley roommate wanted section.

Lentini claimed Wimbert made him engage in unwanted sex acts over the three-day stay at his West Nyack home and Lentini says he acted in self-defense when Wimbert woke him up from sleeping.

But according to Smith, “Dylan was playing that old man. He figured he would smoke weed all day and do whatever he wanted to do.”

“If anybody knows my little brother, it’s me, we shared bunk beds until I was 9 years old… He had the bottom bunk, I had the top,” said Smith. Smith continued, “One thing people don’t understand about my brother is he had absolutely nothing to lose.”

Smith says she fears for her life and she doesn’t want her brother to ever to get out of prison.

“I know in my heart he is guilty. Me and my mother were talking about it just a few months before it happened. We were wondering how long until he kills somebody,” said Smith.

“No amount of prison time is ever going to change him. He has been like this for as long I can remember. It’s sad to think about, he was this happy little baby and then when he was around two years old everything changed,” Smith said.

“He could get away with anything. He was really smart and he knew exactly how to manipulate people. He could be so charming, but when nobody was looking he was just evil,” Smith recalled.

If Smith could say one thing to her brother, it would be this, “You manipulated people your whole life, and then you killed those two baby kittens, and now you killed an old man! You killed an old man! I hope you feel terrible about yourself.”

And she does not buy for a second that he engaged in any sexual encounters with Wimbert. According to Smith, “No way he performed [oral sex] on that old man. You lay one finger on Dylan and he is the first one to call the cops!”

“When I heard my brother killed somebody, I wasn’t shocked, but when you tried to say that my brother might be bisexual that is when I said,

no way!” stated Ashara Smith.

Smith continued, “My brother is 100 percent straight, he was the type of guy who would always talk about females [in an overtly sexual way]. I would have to tell him, that’s gross! I am your sister, and I don’t want to hear you talk like that!”

TIMELINE TO CRAIGLIST KILLING; ACCORDING TO LENTINI’S SISTER

MARCH-JUNE 2015

Lentini moved to Carmicheal, California to live with their mother Stacey Lentini and her boyfriend in a one-bedroom apartment from the end of March until the end of June.

Lentini’s behavior drastically changed during this time and Smith suspects drug use. Smith says Lentini habitually smoked and sold marijuana since high school but she suspects harder drug use ‘like meth’ during this time.

Lentini brought home two kittens while living on his mother’s couch and had no plan to care for them or feed them.

Beginning of June, Smith says she calls cops on Lentini after he broke into their Grandmother’s house at 3 a.m. as Lentini broke into the sliding doors in the room Smith rented from her grandmother.  Smith says she was scared for her life since she was only person home while Grandmother was away on vacation. Smith says Dylan knew that was the room she rented, and he was acting out of sorts. Smith told Lentini to leave. Smith says Lentini got within an inch of her face and pushed her aside and turned on the television. Smith called cops and according to Smith Lentini made up a story on the spot about how Smith attacked him first. Cops made a call to Grandmother confirm Lentini was not welcome on property and after much heated debate, Lentini left the property.

JULY-AUGUST 2015

Lentini moved back in with his father in Vacaville, California. Lentini tries to put two kittens in his father’s car trunk for transport.

Lentini does not have a phone or Internet access. Lentini spent his days at the Vacaville public library looking at Craigslist ads on the Internet trying to buy things or get things for free and then sell them for money.

Lentini and his father are not getting along. They are fighting almost daily. Lentini allegedly kills two baby kittens and tells multiple family members it was because the kittens were not listening to him.

Lentini’s father kicks him out and gives him $5,000 from settlement money from a scooter accident as a child.

SEPT-DECEMBER 2015

Lentini had no place to call home and made a sudden and unannounced journey across the United States. Lentini makes a Craigslist deal for a car to travel cross-country.

A week later the car owner comes to Vincent Lentini’s home and knocks on the older Lentini’s door looking for the money. Family says he left town.

Dylan gets arrested in Utah and calls Grandma for bail money. Grandmother says she will not pay bail and family assumes he does time in a local jail. Smith assumed the arrest had to do with driving an unregistered car.

Smith says nobody in the family knows how he got to New York from Utah. Dylan Lentini’s Facebook account announces he is in Queens, New York on November 8.

In less than a month, Dylan Lentini responds to a craigslist ad posted by Michael Wimbert seeking a roommate in his West Nyack home. Dylan Lentini was telemarketing for Opinions Access Corp. in Queens, Ny and says he couldn’t afford to continue to live in the city and only had a $140 dollars to his name.

Lentini boards a train in Queens and travels to White Plains Train Station where he is picked up by Wimbert in his car on Nov. 27.

Dec 1 Lentini is found on a dark road with a cut on right hand and weapon is recovered nearby. Police break in Wimbert’s apartment to find him lifeless and laying in a pool of his own blood.

Lentini arrested, arraigned, and remanded to Rockland County Jail without bail on the same day. Rumors and speculation about the victim Michael Wimbert, who was once a fish store operator and teaching assistant forin Westchester for two years, have been making the rounds.

The case is expected to go to trial this summer.

This article was originally published on www.rocklandpost.com. The author works for both publications.