PhD Student Accepts Plea Deal in Newborn's Death

Nicole Virzi, a 32-year-old PhD student, has accepted a plea deal in the death of a six-and-a-half-week-old infant whom she was babysitting. Virzi pleaded guilty on Wednesday to third-degree criminal homicide in the killing of Leon Katz in June 2024.

Virzi was also accused of injuring Leon's twin brother, Ari, while caring for the infants at the family's Pittsburgh home. She had initially pleaded not guilty to charges including criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. Her trial had been scheduled for earlier this month but was postponed to allow her defense team more preparation time.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but a conviction for third-degree criminal homicide in Pennsylvania carries a maximum sentence of 40 years. Virzi, the daughter of a New York City cardiologist, was reportedly weeks away from completing her PhD in clinical psychology at UC San Diego at the time of the incident.

Virzi confessed to police that she repeatedly dropped Leon on his head, hearing a "crack," because she was angry about having to babysit. In a police interview, she stated, "Something just came over me I couldn't control," and admitted to an urge to hurt children from a young age.

Virzi and the babies' mother, Savannah Roberts, met while working as research coordinators in Drexel University's graduate psychology department. Virzi was visiting Roberts and her partner, Ethan Katz, in Pittsburgh when the incident occurred. On June 15, 2024, after Roberts and Katz took their other son, Ari, to the hospital for a reported injury, Virzi was left alone with Leon. She later called 911, claiming the baby had fallen from his bouncer chair.

Leon was pronounced dead hours later from a severe skull fracture and multiple brain bleeds, which an autopsy report attributed to blunt force trauma consistent with child abuse. Virzi was arrested the following morning at her Airbnb and interrogated for over 11 hours, during which she initially denied involvement before confessing.

She stated that she shook and dropped Leon hard, causing the "crack," and also flipped him onto the bathroom floor. Virzi said her goal was not to kill the baby but to inflict pain, driven by anger over the babysitting duties. A judge ruled that her confession, made during a 13-hour interrogation, could be used as evidence, despite defense arguments that it was involuntary.