L.I. KILLER MA GETS 20 TO LIFE
Smothered her 2-yr.-old twins to death, then begged cops to shoot her
A Long Island woman who smothered her two daughters to death in 2019 was sentenced Monday to 20 years to life in prison.
Tenia Campbell, now 28, pleaded guilty in December to killing her 2-year-old twin daughters, Jasmine and Jaida Campbell.
“These two young lives were cut short by the one person who was supposed to love and protect them,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement. “Although the 20-year sentence here resolves this sad case, it will not bring back these girls.”
The sentence had been anticipated as part of Campbell’s plea deal.
Jasmine and Jaida were found dead in their mother’s vehicle at the entrance to Montauk County Park Third House Nature Center on June 27, 2019. The park near the eastern tip of Long Island is about 60 miles east of where the family lived in a Medford apartment.
About 2:30 p.m. that day, Campbell’s mother, Vanessa McQueen, called 911. She told operators that Campbell was driving around with the twin girls and threatening to kill herself and them.
“All Tenia would say was that it’s too late, I killed my babies and now I have to be with them,” McQueen told police. “At one point she said she was going to find the ocean and walk into it and drown so she could be with her babies in heaven.”
When officers caught up with Campbell, she begged them to shoot and kill her, according to authorities. However, she was safely taken into custody, and the young girls were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
Neighbors and acquaintances were shocked by the crime, but McQueen told police that Campbell had “a very long history of mental disorders.” She said her daughter had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and also battled depression and anxiety.
Additionally, Campbell was facing eviction from her apartment. An eviction hearing had been scheduled for July 10, 2019.
Aguide to current Broadway shows by Daily News theater critic Chris Jones. & Juliet: A savvy jukebox musical from London offering a feminist reworking of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” with added bits and songs made famous by Pink, Britney and Kesha, et al. This nonstop party-empowerment show is derivative, over-confident and fun. Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 124 W. 43rd St.
A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical: Wanna be transported back to when you swayed to “Song Sung Blue,” seduced to “Red, Red Wine,” sniffled to “Love On the Rocks” or were stirred by “Play Me,” before you actually got played in life? Then this biographical jukebox tribute to the gravel-voiced singer-songwriter is your show. But if the idea of a “Sweet Caroline” audience singalong sounds hellish, move on down the list. Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44th St.
Aladdin: Disney’s “Aladdin” is a bit too frenetic, gag-heavy and overly anxious to please — but it has settled in as an entertaining family attraction featuring a diverse cast, a fun genie whose antics will always remain a tribute to Robin Williams, and the requisite magic carpet ride against a backdrop of the glittering lights of a utopian Arabian night. New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 W. 42nd St.
Appropriate: Not since Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s “August: Osage County” has Broadway seen such a blistering display of ensemble acting as to be found at director Lila Neugebauer’s ruthless and riveting production of “Appropriate,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ ironically titled play about a combative, wounded and self-loathing family who rip each other into little pieces over their dead patriarch’s legacies. Sarah
Paulson, the lead performer, is on fire all night long. Second Stage Theater, Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44th St,
Back to the Future: The Musical. Closer to a thrill-park ride than a traditional musical, this frenetic new spectacle from London showcases a flying DeLorean car essentially re-creating the role played, years ago, by the helicopter in “Miss Saigon.” The show is attracting a family and tourist audience and Roger Bart at peak eccentricity is fun to watch. But unlike the film, the show makes you feel very little. Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway.
The Book of Mormon: A relic of an era when satirists had more guts, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s show lampoons the LDS religion with the same sharp edge familiar from “South Park.” Go enjoy a wicked musical from before America lost so much of its sense of humor. Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 W. 49th St.
Chicago: This long-lived show celebrating real-life killers of prohibition-era Chicago has been pulling in Broadway suckers since 1996. The real stars here are John Kander and Fred Ebb, who penned a score that drips with melodic aspiration and lyrical cynicism, and Bob Fosse, whose erotically muscular choreography is the perfect match. Ambassador Theatre, 219 W. 49th St.
Days of Wine and Roses: It’s a good thing Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel‘s melodious and meticulous musical about an alcoholic marriage has only one act. There would not be a lot of
profit in hiring a bartender for intermission. But Guettel’s music is beautiful, the stars (Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James) are superb and the direction unstinting. The show could use to let loose more, emotionally speaking, but it’s still a potent combination of beauty and dead, Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St.
Hadestown: This dystopian 2019 musical is rooted in the 2010 concept album by Anaïs Mitchell and updates and retells the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice via a compellingly theatrical blend of steampunk, “Westworld” and selfaware Bourbon St. sensuality. It’s a thrillingly alarmist show, albeit potentially jarring to those who prefer warmer or more traditional musicals. Mitchell’s music variously evokes gospel, blues, blue collar work-song and the ravings of a rabid cult. Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St.
Hamilton: Still a tough and expensive ticket, this Lin-Manuel Miranda global cultural phenomenon employs a young, diverse cast to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father with the longterm berth on the ten-spot, but also a scrappy immigrant who wrote like he was running out of time. The music is eclectic and often gorgeous, the emotional intensity still capable of blowing all else away. Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St.
Harmony: A moving and earnest new musical about the Comedian Harmonists, a real German singing group destroyed by the Nazis in the 1930s, “Harmony” is a big musical achievement for Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman and is filled with old-school songs driven by melodic hooks and lyrical simplicity. Familiar as its structure may be, “Harmony” deserved its long-delayed berth on Broadway at what has turned out to be both the perfect and a truly awful moment. You will feel all that emotion in the theater. Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: An epic commitment requiring two tickets and six hours has now been reduced to a more manageable single show. We purists lament the change, which cut much of the subtlety and fun in the text but left all the spectacular theatrical effects. Even in this version, though, Harry Potter fans leave fully satiated. Lyric Theatre, 214 W. 43rd St.
How to Dance in Ohio: The most remarkable thing about this new musical is not that it features seven autistic actors as its stars, although that’s a Broadway first. It’s whose stories it tells: a group of real, young, neurologically atypical persons in Columbus, Ohio, all preparing for prom, a proxy for the passage into adulthood.