A pair of cold-hearted teen squatters who allegedly stomped a New York mom to death in her family’s Kips Bay apartment should never been able to get into the building in the first place, the victim’s son said.
Suspects Kensly Alston and Halley Tejada were squatting in a vacant 19th-floor pad at 206 East 31st Street for days before cruelly killing Natalie Vitels, stuffing her in a duffel bag and tossing it in a closet, authorities said.
The apartment, once owned by Vitels’ mother, was vacant for months. The Long Island woman stopped by March 12, 2024, to get it ready for a friend’s visit and found Alston and Tejada inside. They went beserk when she demanded they leave, authorities said.
The squatters were able to get into the building because of lax security that included a faulty front door, intercom and elevator, according to the the victim’s son, Michael Medvedev, in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Building management knew about the security issues because there had been a “history of trespassers gaining access to the building and/or complaints,” Medvedev said in court papers.
The buzzer and intercom also allowed unauthorized people to get inside the building, he said in the legal filing against HS Three LLC, management company 443 Third Avenue LLC and others.
The body of Vitels, 52, was found two days later. She had broken bones in her face and two broken ribs, authorities said.
The two suspects allegedly used Vitels’ credit card to buy a PS5 game system, AirPods, clothes, food and even a diamond ring.
Alston and Tejada fled to Pennsylvania in Vitels’ car after the killing, authorities said.
The teens, who are also being sued, were arrested about a week later after crashing Vitels’ Lexus SUV in Pennsylvania, and eventually extradited to New York and charged with murder.
Tejada pleaded guilty in December to a second-degree murder charge and is set to be sentenced next month to 20 years to life in state prison, while Alston’s case is pending.
The management company could not immediately be reached for comment.
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