Fairfield Woman Gets 40 Years for Strangling Mother

A Fairfield woman was sentenced to four decades behind bars for strangling her 81-year-old mother with a neck tie in 2009.

Tina Lunney, 45, was found guilty of murdering her mother Marie Zoppi on May 24. The jury convicted Lunney of murder after a day and a half of deliberation. 

Judge Thomas M. Moore on Tuesday sentenced Lunney to 40 years in New Jersey State Prison. She is required to serve 85-percent of her sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Simonetti, who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Alex Albu, said Lunney “never showed any remorse” during the trial, according to a press release. 

“Even on the day of her sentencing, she tried to deceive the judge into believing she is mentally ill. All the evidence in the case pointed to the fact that this was a deprived murder of her mother to gain access to money,’’ Simonetti said.  

Lunney strangled her mother, Marie Zoppi, with a neck tie on July 22, 2009, in Lunney's Fairfield home. 

After killing Zoppi, Lunney used her mother's credit cards to pay off debts to a collection agency, PSE&G and to pay for a family vacation to the Outer Banks, N.C. She then fled to Atlantic City. 

It was revealed that Lunney also spent $37,000 of her husband's inheritance and had a three-year affair with a Fairfield police officer. 

After Lunney was found guilty in May, Simonetti said she would seek a life sentence based on the heinous nature of the murder.

“This case was all about the money,” Simonetti said in a press release. “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.’’

Soon after the murder, Lunney was arrested and admitted she strangled her mother. Lunney also confessed to the crime in a suicide note found in her pocketbook when she was arrested.

Lunney maintained her innocence during the trial, and claimed she was suffering from a mental illness from stress when she murdered her mother.