Admitted “Skyline Killer” Victoria Afet attempts to apologize to Connie Tuori’s family on April 28, 2022.
Months after pleading guilty to murdering a retired teacher and “world traveler” in the 93-year-old victim’s apartment, a 24-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday to spend at least the next three decades of her life in prison.
Victoria Afet was sentenced Thursday in an Onondaga County, New York, courtroom for the brutal February 2021 strangulation and stabbing murder of Concetta “Connie” Tuori.
The murder shocked the conscience of the local community and drew attention to—and inspired litigation over—unsafe conditions at the Syracuse-area Skyline Apartments where Tuori was killed. Afet, who had been arrested at least 10 times in the year leading up to the murder, even took up residence in the victim’s apartment for weeks after the killing. Prosecutors said that there was also evidence that Afet invited others over to the apartment while the victim’s body was hidden in a bedroom.
Afet was dubbed the “Skyline Killer” thereafter.
In the indictment, an Onondaga County grand jury accused Afet of an “especially cruel and wanton” murder, intending to “inflict and inflicting torture upon the victim” by “restrict[ing] the breathing of the victim, who was 93 years old, by stuffing items in her mouth and throat and […] stabbing her” over and over.
Prosecutors also called the killing a “torture murder.”
In January 2022, Afet pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, third-degree robbery, and second-degree assault—creating the possibility that the convicted killer may one day be paroled. The plea agreement reportedly included admissions to both a separate 2020 stabbing and an unrelated robbery of an elderly woman committed by Afet at the Skyline apartments a week before the Tuori murder.
Connie Tuori led an incredible life. It didn’t deserve such a mindless, violent end. https://t.co/DV2lJvHwwu
— Chris Baker (@chrsbakr) March 18, 2021
An obituary said that Tuori was born in Syracuse and traveled all over the world and to each of the continents:
She enjoyed talking about her travels to family and friends, who enjoyed listening. Connie was a librarian and a teacher. She taught in Italy, Turkey, Syracuse, and California before retiring in 1982. She continued traveling until she was in her late 80’s. Connie was also an avid reader.
Connie Tuori’s nephew Tom Tuori previously said following Afet’s guilty plea that there’s is “no real justice” for families who “went through something like this.”
“I think we’re going to do everything we can to make sure Ms. Afet stays in custody hopefully to the end of their days,” he said.
Syracuse.com reported that Afet offered an apology to Tuori’s family before she was sentenced to 29 and 5/6 years to life in prison. Afet will have to serve roughly three decades in prison before she is eligible for release on parole, which would be when she in her fifties. She would then have to make her case to a parole board.
Judge Matthew Doran reportedly slammed the defendant for committing a murder that was “so horrific, so unspeakable, so evil, it was hard to envision a punishment that fits the crime.”
Tuori’s great nephew Owen Tuori told Syracuse.com the family will not forgive Afet, whom he called a “monster.”
“She can’t take back what she did. She changed our family’s life and change the lives of everyone involved in this case,” he said of Afet. “She is a monster who deserves to spend the rest of her life in jail.”
“I don’t think the people of Syracuse will forgive her for this. My family definitely won’t,” Tuori added.
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[Image via Syracuse.com/YouTube screengrab]
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