Left: Nicole Virzi (Heart and Mind Journal). Right: Virzi after her arrest (Allegheny County Jail).
A 32-year-old doctoral candidate from California will avoid the death penalty in Pennsylvania for killing her best friend's newborn son while babysitting him two years ago as his parents took his twin brother to the hospital.
Nicole Elizabeth Virzi pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of third-degree criminal homicide in the 2024 death of 6-week-old Leon Katz, according to courtroom reporting from the Daily Mail. The conviction carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in state prison.
As Law&Crime previously reported, prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against Virzi, who was initially charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and child endangerment. Her trial had been scheduled to start earlier this month, but her defense attorneys sought a continuance, citing the immense workload of a death penalty case.
Leon's mother, Savannah Roberts, reportedly read a victim impact statement during Wednesday's hearing, crying as she referred to Virzi as her "former best friend."
"[Leon's death has] eradicated my sense of safety across every domain of my life. I will never fully understand the torture and murder that Nicole inflicted on my twins," Roberts said, according to the Daily Mail. "My own self-confidence is completely shattered. Nicole's actions have completely changed me as a person."
She reportedly added, "I've learned that the bogeyman is real and monsters really do live under the bed."
The case began when Leon's parents on June 15, 2024, asked Virzi to babysit the newborn while they took his twin brother to the hospital for injuries authorities now say Virzi inflicted, Law&Crime reported.
Just before midnight that evening, Virzi called 911 to say that Leon had fallen from a bassinet and hit his head. Several hours later, on Father's Day, doctors pronounced the baby dead at a hospital.
Investigators said they learned that Virzi was the only one taking care of Leon at the time, since the victim's parents had taken their other son, Leon's twin brother, to the hospital after Virzi "discovered" an "injury to the genital area."
A doctor who examined the injuries of both twins determined that they were "consistent with having been sustained as a result of child abuse, as these are inflicted injuries that are not natural and not accidental," the probable cause affidavit said, noting that "all of Leon's injuries were acute."
After Virzi agreed to speak with detectives and was read her Miranda rights, she was "unable to provide any plausible explanation for the cause consistent with the extent of the injuries that Leon Katz sustained while in her care," the affidavit continued.
Virzi claimed she "fell asleep for a period of time, while Leon was in the bouncer seat," woke up, saw that the baby was not strapped into the seat, and got a bottle for him from the kitchen.
She said that while she was in the kitchen, she heard screams, found Leon on the floor, saw a bump on his head, called Leon's parents, and then called 911, according to the affidavit.
After detectives repeatedly confronted Virzi over the fact that her explanation didn't match up with the severity of Leon's injuries, she confessed, according to court documents, to intentionally harming Leon.
"Um, I'm going to tell you the truth. The biggest part of that truth is that I did not want him to die," she reportedly told detectives. "From a very, very young age, I don't know what it is, but I always had this urge — almost like a compulsion I can't control — to hurt kids."
She said she "kind of grew angry" after coming to Pennsylvania to see her best friend and then "being put to nanny work."
"Something about that built up a lot of anger in me," she said. "So when I was alone with [Leon], I shook him a couple times — hard. And I dropped him a couple times — hard."
She also admitted to flipping Leon upside down onto the tile floor in the bathroom, saying afterward, "I heard some kind of crack."
A since-deactivated online profile for Virzi's doctoral program said that her research at San Diego State University focused on the "complex interplay between psychological factors—such as depression, stress, negative affect, and trauma—and critical health outcomes and behaviors—such as metabolic syndrome, heart disease, obesity, eating behavior, and exercise."
"I am particularly interested in exploring these relationships within female and trauma-exposed populations," her bio said. "By concentrating on these relationships, my research aims to shed light on the unique challenges and opportunities for intervention within these vulnerable groups."
Follow Law&Crime:
Comments