MEDFORD WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO 2019 MURDER OF TWIN TODDLER DAUGHTERS

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Tenia Campbell, 28, of Medford, pleaded guilty to two counts of Murder in the First Degree, after suffocating her twin two-year-old daughters to death in June 2019. 

“This is such a sad and tragic case. Those two little girls looked to this defendant, their mother, for protection and love. Instead, she executed them,” said District Attorney Tierney. “The defendant has one thing those twin girls will never have again: life. But now, this defendant will get to live out the majority of her life behind bars.” 

According to court documents and the defendant’s admission during her plea allocution, on June 27, 2019, at approximately 2:37 p.m., Campbell’s mother called 911 to report that Campbell was driving around in the family van and was threatening to kill her daughters. Law enforcement launched a large-scale search for Campbell and her daughters between the areas of Medford and Montauk. At approximately 4:00 p.m., an East Hampton Police Officer spotted the van just off Montauk Highway, a few miles west of Montauk Point. 

When the officer approached, she saw Campbell outside of the van. The officer walked over to the van and saw Campbell’s two-year old twin daughters dead in their car seats. Campbell later admitted to smothering the girls to death. 

On December 13, 2023, Campbell pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Richard Ambro, to two counts of Murder in the First Degree, a Class A violent felony. Campbell is due back in court on January 25, 2024 for a sentencing conference, and is expected to be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. She is being represented by John Halverson, Esq.  

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Frank Schroeder of the Homicide Bureau, with investigative assistance from Detective Ron Tavares of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.  

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Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. 

Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law. 

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