Squat-slay warning
Don't 'hurt self', gal pal told 'stomper'
A callous teen squatter was more worried about her boyfriend’s feet than the Manhattan mom he was stomping to death inside her own apartment, prosecutors revealed in court Thursday.
“You should put your shoes on,” 18-year-old Kensly Alston allegedly told fellow squatter Halley Tejada, 19, as he viciously pummeled Nadia Vitels in her East 31st Street apartment last month, prosecutors said. “You’re going to hurt yourself.” The duo’s cruelty was so bad, they stuffed Vitels, 52, in a duffel bag and left her in a closet while she was still breathing, the Manhattan DA’s Office said.
The shocking details emerged as the accused killers were hauled into Manhattan Supreme Court Thursday and hit with charges including second-degree murder, grand larceny and concealment of a corpse.
“Kensly Alston and Halley Tejada allegedly murdered Nadia Vitels in her own apartment while she was moving in to start a new chapter in her life,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
Neither suspect spoke in court and both were ordered held without bail by Justice Gregory Carro.
They had just been extradited from Pennsylvania, where they traveled in the victim’s Lexus SUV and enjoyed a nine-day shopping spree with her credit card, prosecutors said.
Corpse in duffel bag
Police found Vitels’ broken body on March 14 during a welfare check after her worried son called cops about his missing mom.
She was found in the duffel bag in a closet with her leg sticking out, a cord wrapped around her neck and another around her torso, prosecutors said in court.
She visited the apartment on March 12 to get it ready for a relative to stay there when she encountered the alleged killer pair.
She demanded that the intruders get out, but Tejada screamed back that he was going to kill her, prosecutors said.
Vitels tried to make a run for a bedroom window, but Tejada allegedly threw her to the ground, where he stomped her. He also allegedly took her into the kitchen, where Alston said she believed Tejada hit the victim with a frying pan.
The two suspected killers then went to Target, where they were caught on surveillance video buying vaping supplies and toiletries with the victim’s credit card before taking off in her SUV.
Vitels’ 23-year-old son, who hadn’t heard from his mother since getting a text from her on the day she was killed, on March 14 called police, who made the made the grisly discovery.
Police said the victim suffered blunt-force head injuries, multiple facial fractures, a brain injury and two broken ribs, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Tejada and Alston were on the run in Pennsylvania, using the victim’s credit card to buy a PS5 game system, AirPods, clothes, food and even a diamond ring, prosecutors said.
The suspects were caught by US marshals in Lower Paxton Township after the stolen SUV got into a crash.