A US student accused of killing a newborn baby and injuring the victim’s twin brother could be sentenced to life in prison.
Nicole Virzi allegedly crushed the skull of six-week-old Leon Katz. The incident took place at the victim’s family home in Pittsburgh, where the woman was looking after the baby so that his parents could go to hospital with their other child, the victim’s twin.
The suspect allegedly claimed that the baby fell out of its safety seat when she stepped away for a moment. However, doctors came to the conclusion that the injuries sustained coincided with injuries ‘consistent with child abuse’ and that they were neither natural nor the result of an accident.
What’s more, the reason the children’s parents had gone to hospital with one of the babies that day was because he had also suffered injuries, which were later attributed to Nicole.
The woman, originally from California, was living in a rented house in Pittsburgh and was a doctoral student in clinical psychology when the incident happened in June.
The young woman, described as ‘a close family friend’, is being charged with murder, aggravated assault and child endangerment.
Prosecutors have already given notice of their intention to apply the death penalty in the 15 June murder, citing several aggravating factors for this measure, including the fact that the murder was allegedly committed by means of torture.
It should be noted that no woman is currently on death row in Pennsylvania and Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has promised not to sign any death warrants while in office.
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