Yoselyn Ortega, Manhattan nanny who sliced the necks of two children she was minding with knives , admitted killings in hospital bed confession -Defense want her statement tossed
Manhattan nanny who sliced own neck admitted in hospital to killing two children with knives
Nanny Yoselyn Ortega, 53, admitted to killing two children in her charge on Oct 25, 2012
Marina Krim found Leo Krim, 2, and his sister Lulu Krim, 6, dead when she returned to their Upper West Side apt
Ortega is charged with murdering the tots in their family’s apt while their mother Marina Krim was out of the house with a third child
In her confession, the former nanny admitted that she had killed the children that she had used two knives
Marina Krim, arrived at the W. 75th St. apt to the gruesome scene of her children dead and Ortega in the process of slicing her own throat with a kitchen knife
Ortega claimed to be “mad at the mom” and that she “said something about the mom threatening her, that type of thing” – DA
Her defense team wants the court to exclude her confession, part of which was obtained while she was hospitalized
Yoselyn Ortega admitted to killing two children in her charge, according to testimony from the DA’s office
The Upper West Side nanny charged in the murder of two small children in her care confessed from her hospital bed, a former Manhattan prosecutor testified Tuesday.
The Manhattan nanny accused of viciously slaughtering two small children in October, 2012. Yoselyn Ortega also tried to slit her own throat after allegedly murdering the beloved children.
Ortega, 53, is on trial for the murder the of the two children in their family’s apartment, while their mother Marina Krim, was out of the house with a third child.
“She admitted that she had killed the kids, that she had used two knives,” ex-Assistant District Attorney Gregory Ledonne said at a hearing in Manhattan Supreme to determine the admissibility of caretaker Yoselyn Ortega’s post-arrest statements.
“I think once on the boy, more than twice on the girl,” she added, according to Ledonne’s account of the videotaped comments, which were not played in open court.
Marina Krim, the mother of victims Lulu, 6, and Leo, 2, arrived at the W. 75th St. apartment to the terrifying scene of the dead children and Ortega in the process of slicing her own throat with a kitchen knife after bringing another one of her children to a swim class in October 2012, authorities say.
Marina Krim came home to find her child minder had slayed her children – Leo Krim, 2, [left] and his sister Lulu Krim, 6, [right]
Earlier Yoselyn Ortega, 53, declined an offer by the judge in her case of 30 years to life — a 15 year stint for each slain child — after her attorney said her client was not interested in that. Now her defense lawyers want her post arrest confession where she detailed the murder of the children, tossed.
When she was arrested, Former Manhattan ADA, Gregory Ledonne, who now works as an assistant attorney general in Idaho, said Ortega told her interviewers that she was “mad at the mom” and that she “said something about the mom threatening her, that type of thing.”
In a subsequent interview at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Ortega clammed up and brushed off questions about the horror that transpired, he said.
But Ortega’s attorney, Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, suggests authorities blatantly ignored the fact that Ortega had a lawyer and should not have been interviewed from the hospital.
Ortega told investigators that she did not want that lawyer to represent her, Ledonne said.
The witness said Krim, interviewed shortly after the tragedy, was asked to clarify Ortega’s complaints about being asked to clean the family’s apartment.
Krim told investigators she switched to a milder soap after Ortega complained about the soap they had.
Kevin and Marina Krim with their daughter, 6-year-old Lulu, who was allegedly killed by their nanny, Yoselyn Ortega
This is the latest episode in the fight to bring the defendant to trial in 5 years.
The initial mental instability defense had been over ruled in April, 2013 when a judge ruke that she is mentally fit to proceed with her case. In giving the ruling, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro., said: “Both psychiatrist find the defendant can in a meaningful way assist in her own defense and have found her fit to proceed to trial,” said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro.
Notint that a pair of court doctors examined Ortega’s “rather voluminous medical history” and interviewed her “a number of times,” the judge said.
While the defendant sat stoically through that initial skirmish, he rdefense attorney said she planned to challenge the fitness finding.
Ortega has since been held without bail at the Elmhurst Hospital jail ward.
Ortega’s lawyer is working to get the post-arrest statements tossed
During cross-examination, Tuesday, Van Leer-Greenberg suggested investigators kept Ortega in the hospital under an alias to keep the lawyer her family hired, Lloyd Epstein, and her relatives away until she could be questioned.
She is asking for the statements to be tossed on the grounds that they were taken illegally from her bedridden client, who was intubated for at least some of the communication.
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