A Westchester County woman is charged with the “cruel and wanton” months-long torture of her partner before strangling her to death – and stashing her body inside a storage bin, prosecutors said Monday.
Kenya Tilford, 41, also sexually abused and threatened three other intimate partners before she was nabbed in a hotel by cops last year, Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah announced.
Tilford is charged with the September murder of 27-year-old Concetta Morton in New Rochelle.
“In a first for this office we are charging the defendant for not only murder but also for allegedly acting in an especially cruel manner and inflicting torture upon Ms. Morton before her death,” Rocah said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Tilford spent three months torturing the victim inside her Franklin Avenue apartment before strangling her to death – then went on a shopping spree to pick up bleach, rubber gloves, tarps and a chainsaw after stashing the bod inside a storage bin in the apartment.
She was busted on Sept. 15 while hiding out at a hotel in Elmsford after cops got a tip about the body.
According an eight-count indictment filed against Tilford, she tortured Morton between June 1, 2023 and Sept. 14 “in an especially cruel and wanton manner,” although no details were provided.
The indictment charges her with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree strangulation, concealment of a human corpse and tempering with physical evidence in Morton’s death.
Tilford is also charged with kidnapping, intimidating a victim or witness, third-degree assault, menacing, unlawful imprisonment, aggravated sexual abuse and coercion against the other intimate partners.
She is being held without bail at the Westchester County Jail pending a return to court on July 16.