Left: Nicole Virzi (Heart and Mind Journal). Right: Virzi after her arrest (Allegheny County Jail).
A Pennsylvania judge refused to suppress statements made by a 31-year-old Ph.D. student in which she allegedly admitted to inflicting fatal injuries on one of her best friend's newborn twins while babysitting.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos on Monday rejected defendant Nicole Virzi's request to preclude jurors from hearing her tell investigators she intentionally shook and dropped the infant multiple times in 2024 until she heard a "crack."
Virzi is charged with criminal homicide in the death of 6-week-old Leon Katz, whom Virzi allegedly killed while babysitting as his parents were at the hospital with his twin brother. She is also facing multiple counts of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children, including allegations that she was responsible for injuring Leon's twin brother. Prosecutors have already said they will seek the death penalty.
Virzi's defense attorneys in November asserted that her potentially inculpatory statements to police — including alleged admissions to intentionally injuring Leon and having an uncontrollable compulsion to "hurt kids" — had been unconstitutionally coerced by detectives after she spent more than 12 hours at the station under extreme circumstances, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.
Rangos reportedly reasoned that while in custody, Virzi met with a defense attorney for nearly an hour and spoke with her parents before making the alleged statements.
"The vast majority of time she was in that room, she did not appear to be in any distress," the judge said, adding that Virzi's comments appeared to be "knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made."
Background
Virzi, who was living in San Diego, traveled to Pennsylvania in June 2024 to see Leon's mother, who was her best friend, according to the Tribune-Review.
As Law&Crime previously reported, on June 15, 2024, Leon's parents asked Virzi to babysit the newborn while they took his twin brother to the hospital for injuries authorities now say were inflicted by Virzi.
Just before midnight on June 15, Virzi allegedly called 911 to say that Leon Katz fell 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," court documents said, noting that "all of Leon's injuries were acute."
After Virzi allegedly 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.
According to her version of events, Virzi "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.
While in the kitchen, she heard screams, picked the baby up off the floor, saw a bump on his head, called Leon's parents, and then called 911, the documents described her account.
After detectives repeatedly confronted Virzi over the fact that her explanation didn't match up with the severity of Leon's injuries, since he would have only fallen 18 inches from a bouncer, she allegedly confessed 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 additionally admitted to flipping Leon upside down and onto the tile floor in the bathroom, stating that afterward, "I heard some kind of crack."
A since-deactivated online profile for Virzi's doctoral pursuit 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," the 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."
Virzi's trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.
Matt Naham contributed to this report.