Nanny Gets Life Without Parole In 2012 Stabbing Deaths Of 2 Children
A nanny convicted in New York in the stabbing deaths of two small children in her charge in 2012 has been sentenced to life without parole.
Yoselyn Ortega, 55, wept as she addressed the courtroom upon her sentencing for the deaths of the Krim children, 2-year-old Leo and 6-year-old Lucian, also known as Lulu.
“I’m very sorry for everything that happened, but I hope that no one goes through what I have gone through,” Ortega told the court in Spanish.
“I ask for forgiveness from God, from Marina, from Kevin,” she said referring to the parents.
Judge Gregory Carro described Ortega’s actions as “pure evil” and praised jurors for rejecting her insanity defense.
As we reported in October 2012, the bodies of the children were discovered in a bathtub by their mother, Marina Krim, in the family’s apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Ortega was found standing over the children stabbing her own neck. Ortega used a kitchen knife on the children and herself.
“Your planning and forethought regarding your suicide plan on that day was certainly unmistakable,” Carro said, according to The New York Times. “What’s unclear, and it’s unclear mainly because you claim you have a lack of memory, is why you decided to take the lives of the children.”
The children’s parents asked the judge for the maximum sentence.
“The defendant may think she destroyed Lulu and Leo, but she is a failure in this, too. Lulu and Leo are powerful forces,” Marina Krim said through tears, according to The Associated Press. “They are two stars now who will always lead us forward.”
“We miss hearing them call out my name and run to hug me when I got home from work,” Kevin Krim, who was a CNBC executive at the time of the children’s deaths, said according to AP. “We miss feeling their soft skin in our arms.”
According to the Times, “The Krims have said that Ms. Ortega and her family deceived them, claiming that Ms. Ortega was an experienced nanny when she was not. The couple is pushing for legislation that would make lying on child care applications a crime.”
