LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) --- A Long Island mother admitted to suffocating her twin 2-year-old daughters to death in their car seats four years ago, authorities said.
Tenia Campbell, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in connection to the 2019 killings during a court proceeding Wednesday, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
Campbell is expected to get 20 years to life in prison when she is sentenced next month, prosecutors said.
“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,” District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.
Officers found the girls dead in their car seats in a van on Montauk Highway at around 4 p.m. on June 27, 2019, officials said. Authorities launched a wide-range search after Campbell's mother told police Campbell was driving around in her van threatening to kill the toddlers, prosecutors said.
Campbell's attorney could not immediately be reached Wednesday.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the New York City area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
