MONTAUK, N.Y. — A Medford woman who pleaded guilty in December to killing her twin 2-year-old daughters in 2019 was sentenced Monday, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.
Tenia Campbell, 28, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. pleaded guilty in December 2023 to two counts of first-degree murder after suffocating her twin 2-year-old daughters to death in June 2019.
“These two young lives were cut short by the one person who was supposed to love and protect them,” Tierney said. “While the 20-year sentence here resolves this sad case, it will not bring these girls back.”
According to court documents and Campbell's admission during her trial, on June 27, 2019, at approximately 2:37 p.m., Campbell's mother called 911 to report that Campbell was driving the family van and threatened to kill her daughters. Law enforcement began a large-scale search for Campbell and her daughters between the Medford and Montauk areas, the DA said.
At about 4:00 p.m., an East Hampton police officer spotted the van just off Montauk Highway, a few miles west of Montauk Point, Tierney said.
When the officer approached, he saw Campbell outside the van. the officer went to
van and saw Campbell's 2-year-old twin daughters dead in their car seats, Tierney said. Campbell later admitted to choking the girls to death, the DA added.
On Dec. 13, 2023, Campbell pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Richard Ambro to two counts of first-degree murder, a Class A violent felony, Tierney said.
According to court documents, Campbell was scheduled for sentencing after his original sentencing date was postponed in December. He is expected to be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, Tierney said. He was represented by John Halverson, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to numerous reports at the time of the murders, Campbell was emotionally distraught when she called her mother on June 27 from the car and told her she had killed her babies “with her bare hands” and wanted to join them in heaven.
Suffolk police, assisted by the New York State Police, Suffolk County Rangers, Southampton Police and East Hampton Township Police joined the massive effort to locate her. East Hampton officers spotted Campbell on the road at the entrance to Montauk County's Third House Park Nature Center, police said. Officers arrested Campbell and attempted to rescue her two children.
A Newsday report at the time said Campbell had a history of mental illness and was overwhelmed with raising her twins and older son. “All Tenia would say was, 'It's too late. I killed my babies and now I have to be with them,” the Newsday article quoted Vanessa McQueen, of Mastic Beach, as saying in court records.
McQueen's statement added, “At one point she said she would find the ocean and walk in it and drown to be with my babies in Heaven,” according to Pix 11. That report, and several others, said that the frenzied mum reportedly said she killed the toddlers with her 'bare hands' before asking to die from police gunfire as she was found walking down the road near Montauk Park where her children were found strapped into their car seats .
During a triple call that lasted nearly 12 minutes, Campbell, a domestic help, was “hysterical at times” and would not reveal her location, then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said at a news conference, according to the ABC News. report.
According to Suffolk County Police, Jasmine and Jaida Campbell were found at the Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center on Montauk Highway on Thursday at 4:05 p.m.
Campbell was brought into East Hampton Town Court crying, using her shirt to cover her face.
Then-Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone spoke at a press conference and said that as a father of three young children, the twins' deaths were “incomprehensible… unimaginable and beyond tragic.”
On social media, Campbell said a year before the murders that raising the girls was stressful. “The first year they managed to stress me out as much as possible and still make me extremely happy,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “Such a blessing and a headache to have twins. I love you girls to death.”
“This is such a sad and tragic case. These two little girls looked to this defendant, their mother, for protection and love. Instead, she executed them,” Tierney said. “The defendant has one thing these twin girls will never have again: life. But now, this defendant will spend most of her life behind bars.”
