A Westchester County girl tortured her lover so mercilessly that the sufferer misplaced 50 lbs. earlier than she was strangled to dying — with the crime scene so sickening the accused killer’s personal cousin turned her in, officers mentioned Wednesday.
Kenya Tilford, 41, is now on trial on first-degree homicide costs in the stomach-turning dying of 27-year-old Concetta Morton, who was allegedly brutalized for months earlier than she was killed in September 2023 and left to decompose for days, prosecutors mentioned.
Tilford allegedly tried to enlist assist to do away with the physique however even her personal kin wouldn’t bail her out.
“He was sick, horrified, and admittedly terrified,” prosecutor Lana Hochheiser informed jurors throughout opening statements on the trial in White Plains. “The cousin checked Tilford right into a motel — then he went to Tarrytown police.”
The horrific case marks the primary time the Westchester County District Legal professional’s Workplace has lodged first-degree homicide costs for a torture killing case, authorities mentioned.
Hochheiser mentioned Tilford, who can also be charged with sexually assaulting two different girls, abused Morton, who’s developmentally disabled, for 4 months earlier than the homicide after which spent 4 days attempting to do away with the physique, prosecutors mentioned.
She even purchased a chainsaw, supplied one pal $1,000 — then reached out to her cousin, who ended the horror, officers mentioned.
Police arrested Tilford at a motel within the village of Elmsford, the place she was holed up on Sept. 15, 2023 — but it surely was what they discovered at her residence in New Rochelle that shocked cops.
“They had been overwhelmed with this horrific odor, and there was that plastic container the place Concetta Morton’s physique was,” mentioned Hochheiser, the workplace’s murder bureau chief. “Concetta was too badly decomposed that you simply couldn’t even see her face.
“Her legs had been tied up with yellow rope,” the prosecutor mentioned. “She was virtually fully bare, carrying a bit of pair of shorts. Her pores and skin was falling off her physique, and there have been plastic baggage by her head and attacked to her again.”
Hochheiser mentioned police additionally discovered chainsaw in an open field subsequent to the physique, alongside a Tyrek swimsuit, surgical gloves, bleach, masks and receipts from Residence Depot and the Greenback Retailer.
Additionally on the scene had been bloody footprints that tied Tilford to the scene, she mentioned.
Hochheiser mentioned Morton was a straightforward mark for the alleged killer — she suffered from “cognitive and bodily improvement points stemming from untimely delivery and narcotics in her system.
“She wished to really feel impartial. She wished to really feel autonomous. She wished to really feel love,” the prosecutor mentioned. “I submit the proof goes to inform you that Concetta Morton’s disabilities, her delays, made her a straightforward goal for this defendant.”
She mentioned Tilford documented the abuse, together with in a brief video simply days earlier than the homicide.
“You’re going to see Concetta sitting on a chair on this defendant’s residence,” she informed jurors. “Her lip is bloody. She has blood dripping down in entrance of her shirt. She’s matted. She’s out of it in an altered state, and there’s a black rubbish bag round her shoulders.
“There’s a piece of pores and skin lacking on her neck.”
Westchester prosecutors preserve Morton’s dying was a part of a sample.
Tilford can also be charged with abusing one other girl, recognized solely as “D,” in 2021, who was allegedly sexually molested, choked and threatened on a number of events.
One other allegedly sufferer, recognized solely as “M,” was choked, overwhelmed and compelled to pose for sexally specific movies, additionally in 2021, in accordance with prosecutors.
Tilford’s legal professional, Rachel Filasto, urged jurors to not be swayed by the horrific particulars put ahead by prosecutors and to concentrate on solely information and proof.
“You promised to resolve this case on the proof and the proof alone,” Filasto informed the jury. “What we haven’t heard but is any proof. You haven’t heard any proof but implication Kenya TIlford.”
