The trial of a New York nanny accused in the stabbing deaths of two children in her care has revealed, through hand-written notes, amounting resentment towards the children’s mother in the weeks leading up to the brutal murder, the New York Post reports.
Yoselyn Ortega, 55, is accused of murdering siblings Leo Krim, 2, and Lucia Krim, 6, in October 2012 when she worked for their mother, Marina Krim, as a babysitter. According to hand-written notes dictated from Ortega to NYPD Sgt. Yoel Hidalgo in the days just following the murder, Ortega had grown increasingly frustrated with Marina Krim over an inconsistent schedule and additional responsibilities over her two years of employment.
“I had to do everything and take care of the kids,” Ortega told Hidalgo in that first conversation with police, communicating via alphabet board while hooked up to a breathing tube. Ortega is accused of waiting until the children’s mother returned home before stabbing herself in the neck, intending, according to the prosecution, to assure that she could witness Marina Krim’s reaction to the aftermath of the killings.
“I worked as babysitter only and she wanted me to do everything,” the note goes on to read. “She wanted 5 hours of cleaning every week.”
Ortega claimed at the time that she did not like cleaning, “because of soap,” pointing to a bleach burn on her pinky when discussing it with Hidalgo. According to her statement in court last week, Krim claims to have paid Ortega $100 a week for cleaning, as well as purchasing all natural cleaning products after seeing the burns to Ortega’s pinky in the days leading up to the killings.
Ortega has pleaded not guilty, claiming insanity and, more specifically, that she was “touched by the devil” in the weeks leading up to the murders and her own attempted suicide. According to Dr. Thomas Caffrey, the therapist who met with Ortega for the first time only three days before the killings, there were no present signs of tactile or visual hallucinations when the two spoke. Instead, McCaffrey claims Ortega wanted to speak about feelings of anxiety, depression, and guilt.
“Her concerns seemed to be about her heart, her anxiety, her son, her sister, her money,” McCaffrey told the Manhattan Supreme Court, according to the New York Post. “She impressed me as a worried, anxious, frightened person.”
The sight of the Krims’ Upper West Side apartment was enough to bring multiple jurors to tears, according to the Daily Mail. The jurors were shown photos of the two knives used in the murders, as well as photos of the blood-stained bathtub where the children’s bodies were found.
If convicted, Ortega could receive a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life without parole. If found non-guilty by way of insanity, she could still spend the rest of her life in a mental institution.