Zeldin attack ad against Hochul features 93-year-old NY woman murdered at home by suspect out on no bail

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Zeldin campaign ad features murder of 93-year-old Connie Tuori by suspect released on no bail

New York Republican candidate Lee Zeldin, in a new ad ripping Gov. Kathy Hochul's support for cashless bail, highlighted the murder of 93-year-old Connie Tuori by Victoria Afet in 2021. (Courtesy: Lee Zeldin/ Twitter)

New York’s Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, released a new campaign ad featuring the brutal murder of a 93-year-old woman "tortured and killed" at home by a suspect released on no bail. 

Zeldin, polling just a razor-thin margin behind the sitting Democratic governor less than a week before Election Day, has repeatedly gone after Hochul for refusing to repeal cashless bail. 

The new ad features the story of Connie Tuori, a 93-year-old world traveler, who was followed up to her 12th-story unit in the Skyline Apartment building in Syracuse on Feb. 26, 2021. 

Victoria Afet, then 23, allegedly suffocated Tuori by stuffing items down her throat before stabbing the woman several times. "Her killer had just been released from jail," Zeldin’s new ad reads on the screen. "With no bail." 

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Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-NY, speaks during a Get Out the Vote Bus Tour campaign event at Privé on November 01, 2022, in the Staten Island borough in New York City.  (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Just a week before Tuori’s brutal slaying, Afet allegedly robbed a different elderly woman in an elevator. She also later admitted to stabbing someone with a knife in 2020, according to the plea deal. 

"So Victoria Afet had been arrested 10 times, five of those were either assaults or assault with a weapon," Connie Tuoris’ nephew, Guy Tuori, says in the ad for Zeldin. 

Connie Tuori’s niece, Sue Leone, adds, "That woman, she was like a time bomb, a ticking time bomb." 

"She was released on no bail, on her own recognizance," Guy Tuori says. 

New York congressman and Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin attends the annual Columbus Day parade in New York City on October 10, 2022. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo)

Initially facing the rare charge of murder-by-torture, Afet agreed to plead guilty to a lesser murder charge, robbery and assault and was sentenced to nearly 30 years to life in prison. 

Prosecutors say surveillance cameras captured Afet leaving Tuori’s apartment about an hour after sneaking inside, already wearing some of the elderly woman’s clothing. Afet allegedly draped Tuori’s bloodied corpse with a sheet and left the body in a closed bedroom before bringing friends and drugs into the apartment for days before accidentally locking herself out of the building. Tuori’s body wasn’t found until three weeks later.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul campaigns for the upcoming gubernatorial election on October 26, 2022, at a senior center in Brooklyn. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

"If Kathy Hochul were right here, I would tell her the story of what happened to my aunt and how brutal it was," Leone says, as older pictures of Connie during her youth are shown on the screen. 

"I hold her responsible," Guy Touri says of the Democratic governor. 

Leone adds, "Kathy Hochul let my family down." 

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"We need a governor who is going to do the right thing. We need Lee Zeldin," Guy Tuori concludes. 

"We would be much safer with Lee Zeldin," Leone says. Guy Tuori, visibly emotional, asks for a second before saying, "I would not want anybody to go through what we went through."