A woman in the United States has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder more than four years after suffocating her 2-year-old twin daughters. According to a press release, the mother, identified as 28-year-old Tenia Campbell, pleaded guilty to the charges on Wednesday. She is now expected to be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
"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," they added.
According to People, Ms Campbell was arrested in 2019 after her mother called the cops saying that she was driving around in the family van and was threatening to kill her daughters. Law enforcement then launched a large-scale search for Ms Campbell and her daughters. Hours later, they located her minivan using cell phone tracking. They found the twins unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. They were pronounced dead shortly after at a nearby hospital.
Ms Campbell later admitted to smothering the girls to death. She reportedly claimed that she killed the children "with my bare hands" and that she was "driving to a beach" to "find the ocean and walk into it so she could be with her babies in heaven". Her mother also stated that she had a "very long history" of mental disorder, depression, bipolar and anxiety and that she was "acting very irrational and angry".
Ms Cambell was estranged from the father of her twins. She also has a son who was in his father's custody at the time of the incident.
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The 28-year-old pleaded guilty before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro on Wednesday. She has a sentencing conference on January 25.
"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," the press note read.
