Fairfield Woman Convicted for Murder of 81-Year-Old Mother

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced today that an Essex County jury convicted Tina Lunney, 45, of Fairfield for murdering her 81-year-old mother, Marie Zoppi.

Zoppi was found dead in July 2009 in the home she shared with Lunney and Lunney’s family in July 2009.  Zoppi was found face down, with blood and vomit spilling out of her mouth and a necktie wrapped tightly against her throat.

“This case was all about the money,” said Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Simonetti. “Tina Lunney is a heartless killer who crushed her frail mother’s ribs and brutally strangled her with her husband’s necktie. Why? To pay off the tremendous debt she, and she alone, created.’’

Lunney had tried to make the death look like a suicide, leaving behind a note that read, “Tell the kids I love them. You don’t need me anymore.”

After killing her mother, said prosecutors, Lunney used her mother’s credit card to pay off debts and to pay for a previously planned vacation with friends to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She then fled to Atlantic City.

At trial it was revealed that she had also spent her husband’s $37,000 inheritance and had a 3-year extramarital affair with a Fairfield police officer.

Lunney gave police a statement admitting she strangled her mother. She also confessed to the crime in a five suicide notes found in her pocketbook when she was arrested.

At trial, the defense attorney, Albert Kapin, argued Lunney did not commit the murder and that she confessed to the crime because she suffered from a mental illness brought on by stress.

“Her circuits were overloaded. The stresses began to add up. The guilt of the affair began to add up. She was susceptible to the powers of suggestion,” he said.

The jury deliberated for a day and a half following a three-week trial at the Superior Court in Newark. Sentencing is scheduled for July 26.