Syracuse, NY -- Victoria Afet lurked in a stairwell at Syracuse’s notorious Skyline Apartments as 93-year-old Connie Tuori returned to her 12th floor apartment.
Afet rushed in to catch the door before it closed, disappearing in to the elderly woman’s home, according to security footage on Feb. 26, 2021.
What happened next may have been more horrific than previously known. Behind a closed door, Afet committed “unspeakable” acts of brutality, a judge said Thursday at Afet’s sentencing.
Afet suffocated the elderly world traveler for unknown reasons, stuffing items down her throat and leaving marks around her neck, Chief Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGunnigle said.
The 23-year-old woman also stabbed Tuori multiple times, though only one of those stabbings occurred before death, according to an autopsy. Tuori’s body wasn’t found for about three weeks.
“Connie, fiercely independent, a world traveler, died alone in her apartment, fighting and struggling for her life as Afet squeezed every last breath out of her,” McGunnigle said in court.
Afet left the apartment again an hour after entering, security footage shows. She was already wearing some of Tuori’s clothing.
But what happened in that hourlong murder? Only one person knows for sure: the killer herself. And she’s going to prison without saying anything more than her guilty plea.
“She won’t tell us what really happened,” one of Tuori’s nephews, Tom Tuori, said in court.
McGunnigle said later that authorities still don’t know the exact details of what happened after Afet snuck into the apartment.
That Tuori could have suffered for as long as an hour is something that her family hadn’t realized before, multiple family members said after court. And that makes the horrific crime even worse.
The hourlong mystery “kind of raises the specter of something more horrible than we’d been thinking about, which is, what what down before my aunt died?” Tom Tuori said after court.
Afet was sentenced to 29 5/6 years to life in prison Thursday under a complex plea agreement that included Tuori’s death, as well as a stabbing in 2020 and a robbery of another elderly woman at Skyline a week before the murder.
Afet has had no problem admitting her guilt: she tried to plead guilty at her murder arraignment three months after Tuori’s murder, but was refused by a judge. After defense lawyers reviewed the evidence, Afet pleaded guilty in January 2022.
Even Afet’s plea was simply an admission to what authorities had already known, based on the autopsy, security footage and statements she made to others she invited into Tuori’s apartment.
After killing Tuori, Afet moved the victim’s body into a bedroom, covered her with a blanket and closed the door.
For several days, Afet came and went from the apartment with food and drugs, inviting others over as though she lived there, McGunnigle said. But she wouldn’t let any of them into the bedroom, other witnesses told authorities, and no one else is believed to have been involved in the murder.
There’s more proof Afet acted alone: the killer’s DNA is the only one found in the bedroom with Tuori’s body, McGunnigle said.
Afet, likely looking for a place to stay after recent trips in and out of jail, might have taken over Tuori’s apartment even longer, if not for her own mistake: she locked herself out two days after Tuori’s murder.
She is accused of stealing Tuori’s purse with $35, some exotic clothing from her world travels and a suitcase with her stuff, her family said after court.
Because Afet killed Tuori during the course of a burglary, she could have been sentenced to life without parole under law. But her plea agreement called for the sentence that will give her a chance before a parole board in roughly 30 years. If she’s denied, she’ll then have another parole hearing every two years after that.
At sentencing Thursday, Afet said simply: “I would like to apologize to the family.”
Her lawyer, Susan Carey, acknowledged that it may be hard for anyone to accept that apology, but said that none of Afet’s defense was aimed at minimizing or excusing her behavior, nor suggesting that she was innocent.
Instead, the legal system requires Afet be afforded a “full and fair investigation of the facts,” Carey said. That’s why Afet couldn’t plead guilty at her arraignment, as she asked to do, the defense lawyer added.
Afet accepted responsibility and spared the family the trauma of a trial, Carey said, calling the sentence the right outcome.
County Court Judge Matthew Doran said that Afet’s actions were “so horrific, so unspeakable, so evil, it was hard to envision a punishment that fits the crime.”
But even in the worst cases, both sides negotiate to see whether a plea agreement can be struck before trial, the judge added. That’s what led to Afet’s punishment Thursday.
While she will one day see a parole board, Doran said that he hopes that Afet will remember what she did to the elderly woman.
Everyone has a right to live, “whether you’re 23 or 93 years old,” Doran said, concluding: “You get to live your life. And I hope you think about this everyday for the rest of your life.”
More on Syracuse.com about Connie Tuori, her murder and the Skyline apartment building
Family IDs 93-year-old woman murdered in Skyline Apartments
Walsh says he’s exploring legal action against Skyline owners: ‘It’s public nuisance No. 1′
Inside Tim Green’s Skyline Apartments: Murder, drugs and filth. Tenants, cops say enough is enough
Police, tenants push football legend Tim Green’s firm to fix nightmare apartments
‘That’s the drug floor’: How 1 apartment is allowed to terrorize the Skyline’s tenants
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-6070.