A Pennsylvania mother is heading to state prison after admitting she handcuffed her 11-year-old son to a home heating oil tank and a bed frame to control his behavior and eating habits while she was at work.
Chazzity Candelario, 33, was sentenced Wednesday to serve 16 months to five years behind bars. The sentence was handed down by Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Charles Jones following Candelario’s no-contest plea in November to felony charges of unlawful restraint and false imprisonment of a minor, as well as misdemeanor child endangerment.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Jones expressed disbelief at the situation. “No way… should that have happened,” Jones told the defendant, according to the Lebanon Daily News, adding that she must now do whatever possible to make it up to her children.
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Prosecutors detailed a pattern of harsh restraint, noting that on one specific occasion, Candelario kept her son shackled for 17 hours after he ate “too many hot dogs.”
The abuse was discovered on Jan. 11, 2025, when the Lebanon County Regional Police Department dispatched officers to Candelario’s home on East Kercher Avenue. While Candelario was away at work, her children directed the officers to a bedroom where the 11-year-old was found handcuffed to the railing of a top bunk bed.
According to police reports, the boy told investigators he had originally been locked in the basement, tethered to the oil tank. He managed to escape the basement but, while loose in the house, accidentally handcuffed himself to the bed.
When authorities contacted Candelario, she initially demanded they not speak to her children until she returned. Upon questioning, she admitted she had been struggling to control her son while she was employed. Her solution was to lock him in a 3-by-8-foot utility room, securing him to the tank or a post for hours at a time.
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“She’s been very sorry, very remorseful throughout the time I’ve represented her,” Candelario’s attorney stated in court. Candelario declined to make a statement herself.
Lebanon District Attorney Pier Hess Graf condemned the mother’s actions in a statement following the hearing.
“As a mother, the defendant’s sole duty is to care for, love, and protect her children more than anyone else in this world,” Graf said. “This defendant instead chained her children up to suffer at her own hand and subject to her own evil will.”
Court records indicate this is not Candelario’s first criminal offense involving her children. In 2017, she faced charges for endangering the welfare of children and drug possession in an incident involving her partner at the time.
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