Tenia Campbell of Medford admits smothering her 2-year-old twins, Jasmine and Jaida

A Medford mother admitted in court Wednesday she smothered her twin 2-year-old girls in June 2019 before driving their bodies to a Suffolk County park in Montauk, where she was met by police who had frantically searched for her hoping to prevent the tragedy.

Tenia Campbell, 29, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder before state Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro in Riverhead in exchange for a minimum sentence of 20 years to life.

“My thoughts and prayers go out to the two children, obviously,” her attorney, John Halverson of Patchogue, said following the hearing. “She took responsibility for what she did and she's going to have to live with that. And I think that's going to be the most difficult thing for her.”

Campbell, who had been charged with two counts each of first- and second-degree murder, appeared in court shackled and wearing a spit mask under court order. When asked by Assistant District Attorney Frank Schroeder if she smothered her two children, she responded with one word: yes.

Campbell was found with the deceased toddlers on June 27, 2019, at the entrance to Third House Nature Center in Montauk. The discovery ended a desperate 90-minute search by State police, county park police, Suffolk police, Southampton Town police and, ultimately, the East Hampton police, who found her. The search had started when a woman called 911 and said her daughter was suicidal and intended to kill the twins.

As part of the plea agreement, Campbell will also plead guilty next month to attempted assault for two incidents that occurred in the county jail since her arrest. The sentences on all counts will run concurrently, meaning she could be eligible for parole in less than 20 years. She will be sentenced early next year.

“This is such a sad and tragic case,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement. “Those two little girls looked to this defendant, their mother for protection and love. Instead, she executed them.”

Prosecutors previously said autopsies of Jasmine and Jaida Campbell showed the twins died of “manual asphyxia” when their mother covered their mouths and noses.

Campbell made admissions to police that she killed the girls with her “bare hands,” prosecutors said at the time.

Halverson indicated from the start in 2019 that he would rely on his client’s history of mental illness for the defense. A mental health evaluation prepared by a doctor for the district attorney found her competent to stand trial.

“I think this gave her some closure,” Halverson said of the decision to not go to trial.

No family members attended Wednesday's hearing in the nearly empty Riverhead courtroom.

Campbell’s mother, Vanessa McQueen of Mastic Beach, told police on the day of her arrest that her daughter, a home health care aide, had a history of bipolar disorder and depression, and that she had been acting irrationally in the days leading up to the killings. In a statement included in court records, her mother said her daughter called her to tell her it was “too late” and that she was driving to find the ocean to “walk into it and drown so she could be with her babies in heaven.”

“I tried to convince her to take a break from the kids and let me have them so she could recharge herself but she always says she can handle it,” McQueen told police.

Photos on Campbell’s Facebook page showed her daughters celebrating their first birthday in April 2018, dressed in matching pink and purple tutus and sucking on lollipops, Newsday reported in 2019. They were surrounded by multicolored balloons.

In that post, Campbell writes that her children “have managed to stress me out to maximum capacity and still make me extremely happy. Such a blessing and a headache it is to have twins. I love you girls till the death of me.”

Campbell is due back in court Jan. 25.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.