The New York nanny who was charged with fatally stabbing two children in her care was found guilty by jurors on Wednesday.
Yoselyn Ortega, 55, the New York nanny charged with fatally stabbing Lucia Krim, 6 and Leo Krim, 2, in October 2012, was found guilty in a Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 18, according to the New York Post.
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“Today, a jury rightly held Yoselyn Ortega accountable for the horrific slayings of Leo and Lulu Krim, and I thank the members of that jury for their diligence throughout this incredibly difficult and heartbreaking trial,” Manhattan DA Cy Vance said.
The panel of 12 jurors had reportedly deliberated for upwards of 13 hours over the course of two days before finally reaching a verdict a little after 4 p.m. Wednesday. At one point during the deliberation, they had asked Judge Gregory Carro to let them review testimony from Ortega’s sister.
“We could not find a strongly credible proof that the defendant was not aware and did not recognize what was going on,” juror David Curtis told reporters in a rare post-decision press conference.
Ortega had been working for the Krims for two years at the time of the murders, which occurred in October 2012.
The children’s mother grew worried when she went to pick Luciana, who went by Lulu, up from her dance studio but discovered that she wasn’t there. After receiving no replies to her calls and texts, Krim returned to her apartment, where she discovered the lifeless bodies of her two children lying in the bathub. Ortega, who had been waiting for Krim to return home, then stabbed herself in the neck.
Leo Krim had suffered five stab wounds, while his sister, Luciana, had been stabbed more than 30 times after she attempted to fight back.
In her first statements to police, Ortega complained about Marina Krim, claiming that she made her clean up to five hours a week. She also claimed that she had been “touched by the devil.”
During her trial, Ortega’s sister, Miladys Garcia, claimed that Marina and Kevin Krim should have done more to prevent the fatal stabbings of their children.
“Why didn’t those parents realize and take her out themselves — they were seeing it,” Garcia said when asked by a Manhattan prosecutor why she didn’t do more following a troubling phone conversation with her sister on Oct. 25, 2012, the day of the murders.
Garcia had earlier told jurors that her sister “had become something evil” and was “gnashing” her teeth near the receiver about five hours before she slaughtered Lucia and Leo with a kitchen knife in the bathtub.
“So the Krims should have seen her unraveling and given her vacation, is that what you’re saying?” Assistant District Attorney Stuart Silberg asked.
“Yes, because they were the ones seeing her. Give her a vacation if you see she’s losing weight, say ‘Yosie, you’re not yourself.’ Even a week of vacation. Say, ‘Go, Yosie, you’re very thin,” Garcia had said.
Ortega’s sentencing is scheduled for May 14. She faces the possibility of life in prison.
