The devastated son of the New York mom stomped to death by a ruthless squatter in her Manhattan apartment repeatedly branded the cold-blooded killer an “animal” — stressing he “stole” her life just as she was finally planning a new chapter after years of caring for her ill parents.
Halley Tejada, 21, was hit with the fiery tongue-lashing in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday when he was slapped with a 20-year prison sentence for viciously killing Nadia Vitels before stuffing her in a duffel bag and tossing it in a closet at her Kips Bay pad in March 2024.
“My mom and I were a family of two; it was just us against the world,” her son, Michael Medvedev, said in a heartbreaking statement, describing his slain mom as an entrepreneur with “an infectious laugh.”
“No matter how tough things got, she built her entire life out of nothing. She sacrificed everything so I can have stability, opportunities and a sense of security. She was supposed to be here forever … but on March 12, 2024, this animal took her from me.”
Tejada and fellow squatter Kensley Alston had been holed up for days inside Vitels’ vacant 19th-floor unit at 206 East 31st Street when she showed up on March 12, 2024, to get the place ready for a friend’s visit.
The 52-year-old victim ordered the intruders out of the apartment — once owned by her mother — but Tejada snapped and threatened to kill her. He then chased her as she fled for a bedroom window before throwing her down and ferociously stomping her, prosecutors said.
“What hurts even more is looking back and seeing everything this animal stole from us,” Medvedev fumed, adding that his mother spent the three years before her death caring for her sick parents.
“She was moving into the city, excited to build a life that was truly her own. In an instant, in an instant, all of it was ripped away. This animal didn’t just take her life — he stole the years she had left to live for herself. That sense of safety she’s given me, my rock … is gone forever. That animal stole my mother.”
The heartbroken son said he can’t stop replaying the terror his mother must have felt in her final moments — and the instant he realized something was terribly wrong.
Vitels was found two days later with multiple skull fractures and two broken ribs after Medvedev, unable to reach her, called police for a wellness check.
“She always responded, and I knew right then that something was wrong,” he noted.
Prosecutors said the skull fractures the victim suffered were so severe they are typically seen when someone is “struck by a train or falls from a great height.”
Tejada and Alston, his 20-year-old girlfriend, fled to Pennsylvania in the victim’s car after the killing, then went on a brazen nine-day spending spree – using Vitels’ credit card to buy a PS5, AirPods, clothes, food, and even a diamond ring they used to get engaged.
“They celebrated while Nadia Vitels’ lifeless, bound body remained packed away where the defendants callously hid her in the hopes that nobody would find her,” said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Clerkin.
The twisted duo were arrested about a week later after crashing the victim’s Lexus SUV in Pennsylvania, and eventually extradited to New York and charged with murder.
“Nadia Vitels was about to start a new chapter of her life when Halley Tajada brutally murdered her in the very apartment she was moving into,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement, calling the fatal incident “abhorrent.”
“My thoughts are with Ms. Vitels’ loved ones who continue to mourn her painful loss. I know this sentence will not bring her back, but I hope it can serve as a measure of comfort.”
Alston’s case is still pending.
She is due back in court on May 1.
