New York nanny convicted in stabbing deaths of two young children

 

Yoselyn Ortega (L), nanny who is accused of killing Lucia and Leo Krim, ages 6 and 2 respectively, arrives for a hearing for her trial at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York nanny was found guilty on Wednesday of stabbing to death two children in her care at their luxury Manhattan apartment, in a case that drew national headlines.

 

A jury unanimously rejected the insanity defence of Yoselyn Ortega, 55, whose lawyer said she hallucinated a devil's order "to kill the children and herself" when she plunged a kitchen knife into Lucia Krim, 6, nicknamed Lulu, and her brother Leo, 2, and left their bloody bodies in a bathtub.

 

The Oct. 25, 2012 killings were discovered when Marina Krim returned to the family's Upper West Side apartment to find her children dead and their nanny standing over them stabbing her own neck with a knife. Krim had come home with the children's 3-year-old sister, Nessie, after Ortega failed to show up at Lulu's dance class.

 

Ortega was charged with two counts each of first- and second-degree murder, punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.

 

"We hope now that this verdict will give the Krim family an opportunity to heal, to find some closure and to move on in their lives," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance told reporters following the verdict, as a teary-eyed Kevin Krim, the children's father, stood beside him. Krim declined to take questions.

 

Insanity defences rarely succeed in New York, where proving mental illness is not enough to find a defendant not responsible for a crime. Defence attorneys must demonstrate that the suspect could not understand the consequences of his or her actions.

 

Only six people were cleared of criminal charges due to insanity out of 5,111 murder cases tried between 2007 and 2016 in New York, according to Janine Kava, spokeswoman for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state does not track how often the defence is raised, she said.

 

During the trial at state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Ortega's lawyers argued she was too psychotic to comprehend what she was doing.

 

But prosecutors said the evidence showed she had thought through her actions and thus understood the consequences, including grabbing Leo from behind and slitting his neck so he would not fight back as his sister had.

 

Ortega's attack was prompted by her anger at being asked to work too hard, prosecutors said. Ortega, who had brought her 17-year-old son from the Dominican Republic and enrolled him in a private school, was overwhelmed by financial concerns, they said.

 

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Joseph Ax; Editing by Susan Thomas and Richard Chang)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-19

Have to say she looks the part !

Personally, I would NEVER allow a person who looked like that to be in a position where they were taking care of my children. Face reading does have a basis !

I know today is all about PC and not profiling but I agree with phantomfiddler, I wouldn't hire somebody who looks like like that to take care of anyone. Very sad.

How can any sane person do that?

 

My heart goes out to the poor mother.

Dreadful and tragic story.

No doubt the fox network will be all over this pandering to the xenophobia being fomented by trump and his red necked hordes. 

Fact is the woman is a disturbed individual but don and his mates will look at her colouring, her name etc etc.

 

Its a sick sick world we live inRIP to the poor kids and family

21 hours ago, Expatthailover said:

Dreadful and tragic story.

No doubt the fox network will be all over this pandering to the xenophobia being fomented by trump and his red necked hordes. 

Fact is the woman is a disturbed individual but don and his mates will look at her colouring, her name etc etc.

 

I guess it could be argued that anyone who commits a serious crime is "disturbed".  So would you argue that we should demolish the jails and build more hospitals  for them instead?  Some people are simply evil and the PC crowd should merely acknowledge that and stop always making excuses for them.

sad indeed.