Murder of the Krim siblings

Last updated

Murders of Lucia and Leo Krim
Location57 West 75th Street, Manhattan, New York, United States
Coordinates 40°46′46″N73°58′37″W / 40.7794°N 73.9769°W / 40.7794; -73.9769
DateOctober 25, 2012 (2012-10-25) (EST)
Attack type
Double-murder by stabbing, child murder, attempted murder-suicide
Weapons Kitchen knives
Deaths2
Injured1 (self-inflicted by perpetrator)
PerpetratorYoselyn Ortega
MotiveUnknown; possibily revenge against the children's mother [1]
Verdict Guilty on all counts
Convictions First-degree murder (2 counts)
Sentence Two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole

Lucia and Leo Krim, aged 6 and 2 respectively, were murdered in the late afternoon of October 25, 2012, at the La Rochelle apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The children's part-time caretaker, Yoselyn Ortega, was convicted of stabbing the children to death with kitchen knives while their mother Marina Krim and three-year-old sister Nessie were a few blocks away at a swimming lesson. Upon returning home, their mother and sister found Lucia and Leo dead in a bathtub at the family apartment. Ortega then began stabbing herself repeatedly in the neck and throat. She survived the self-inflicted wounds.

Contents

On February 22, 2018, twelve jurors were chosen for Ortega's trial, and opening statements began March 1 in Manhattan Supreme Court. On April 18, 2018, Ortega was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree murder. [2] Ortega was sentenced on May 14, 2018, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. [3]

Background

The children lived with their parents, Marina and Kevin Krim, in New York City. Lucia was known as "Lulu." [4] The family moved there from San Francisco in 2010. [5] Kevin Krim was a digital content executive at the television network CNBC. Marina Krim, a former kindergarten teacher, was a stay-at-home mother, art teacher, and blogger who chronicled the children's lives. [6] [7] [5] [8] [4] [9] [10]

Discovery of killings

On October 25, 2012, at about 5:35 pm, Marina Krim returned with her 3-year-old daughter, Nessie, from the girls' swimming lesson at a nearby YMCA to her apartment in a 10-story doorman building at 57 West 75th Street and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. [4] [11] [12] [5]

The 36-year-old mother returned to the apartment earlier than scheduled because Ortega had failed to show up at Lulu's ballet lesson where they had agreed to meet. She entered the apartment but, as it was dark and quiet, found no one. After returning to the lobby and consulting with the doorman, who had seen Ortega and the children return to the apartment shortly before, Marina and her daughter Nessie returned to the family apartment. In the bathroom, she discovered her motionless two-year-old son, Leo Krim, and six-year-old daughter, Lucia "Lulu" Krim. They were clothed; each had multiple stab wounds and were in a bathtub, filled with blood. [6] [7] [13] [5]

After seeing Marina Krim discover what had happened to her children, Yoselyn "Josie" Ortega, their caregiver of two years who was on the floor next to the bathtub, slashed her own wrists and began to violently stab herself in the neck and throat with a kitchen knife. [4] [5] [14]

This scene was also witnessed by the apartment building's superintendent and his 10-year-old son. The bodies of the two children were removed from the building on a single stretcher. [4] Kevin Krim, 37 years old at the time, learned of the events that night from police at John F. Kennedy Airport upon returning from a business trip to San Francisco. [4] [6] [15]

Ortega told police investigators Lucia, who suffered defensive wounds, had fought back when she was attacked. [16] She said 2-year-old Leo was sleeping when the attack started. [16]

Nanny

Ortega, a naturalized U.S. citizen for 10 years at the time, was originally from Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, and was 50 years old at the time she murdered the Krim children. [5] [4] She was living on Riverside Drive in Manhattan's Hamilton Heights neighborhood with her 17-year-old son Jesus, her sister, and her niece. [5] [4]

In interviews with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Ortega, who was paid $18 an hour, [17] claimed she was upset that her employer, Marina Krim, responded to her inquiry about needing more hours (due to money troubles) by suggesting she could do housework. The NYPD and friends of the nanny said she indicated that she was upset because the Krims would not pay her more money.[ citation needed ] However, family and friends who knew the Krims, as well as Ortega's own family, said that Ortega was close to the children and was treated very well by the Krims. The Krims paid for her plane tickets to see her family in the Dominican Republic and, on one occasion, accompanied her on vacation there. [18]

Ortega survived her self-inflicted wounds, and was later deemed by two New York State psychiatrists mentally competent to stand trial. [19] She was incarcerated at a New York City psychiatric hospital without bail while she prepared for her trial with a private attorney contracted by NY State to serve as Ortega's public defender.[ citation needed ]

Trial

In November 2012, Ortega was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. [20] Over the next five years, prior to trial, Ortega made approximately 90 court appearances. [20] In April 2016, Judge Gregory Carro made a plea offer to Ortega over the objection of the prosecution (who said the only appropriate sentence would be life without parole) of 30-years-to-life-in-prison, the minimum sentence for the two murder counts, in exchange for her guilty pleas. Ortega rejected the offer. [16]

On February 22, 2018, 12 jurors were chosen for Ortega's trial as Judge Carro presided, and opening statements were scheduled for March 1 in Manhattan Supreme Court. The trial was expected to last four months, but ended after less than two. Ortega faced the possibility of life in prison. [21] She pleaded not guilty to murder, and pursued a "psychiatric defense". [22] [23] Her lawyers argued that Ortega was mentally ill and should therefore not be held responsible for her acts, while the prosecutors argued that she was sound-minded and was in fact responsible. [21]

Ortega was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree murder on April 18, 2018. [24] On May 14, 2018, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In his ruling, Judge Carro said Ortega was "pure evil", blaming Ortega and her family for not seeking medical treatment for Ortega's depression and anxiety, and for hiding her condition from the Krims. [25] [26] [27]

Lulu & Leo Fund

The Krims subsequently set up the Lulu & Leo Fund, a non-profit charity that provides creative education programs for disadvantaged children, under an initiative called Choose Creativity. The Krim family posts photos and memories of their children on the Lulu & Leo Fund public Facebook page, including fundraising events and photos of art made by their children. In 2014, the Fund served 2,300 children. [28] Since the killing of their two children, the Krims had two more children, Felix and Linus, who made cameos in a video related to the fund. [29] [30]

Lulu & Leo's Law

The New York State Assembly and State Senate passed Lulu & Leo's Law in June 2018; New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it into law in August 2018. It is the first of its kind in the US, making it a crime to knowingly and materially misrepresent the qualifications of a person applying for work as a child caregiver. [31]

Kevin Krim said in the bill signing announcement, "We hired the woman who murdered our children based on a deliberate set of lies. Thanks to Governor Cuomo's support and the hard work of sponsors Assemblyman Otis, Senator Lanza and their co-sponsor, there is now a strong deterrent to that kind of deception.” [32]

French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani wrote a novel inspired by the killing of the Krim children. The original French title was Chanson Douce; in the UK the title was Lullaby , and in the U.S. The Perfect Nanny. [33] [34] It was well received in France, where it won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2016, but it did not achieve similar success in the United States. [35] [36] [37]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women</span> Prison in Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York, US

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a women's prison in the town of Bedford, New York, is the largest New York State women's prison. The prison previously opened under the name Westfield State Farm in 1901. It lies just outside the hamlet and census-designated place Bedford Hills, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Kitty Genovese</span> 1964 murder in New York City, associated with the bystander effect

In the early hours of March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender, was raped and stabbed outside the apartment building where she lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. Two weeks after the murder, The New York Times published an article erroneously claiming that 38 witnesses saw or heard the attack, and that none of them called the police or came to her aid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Davis (born 1966)</span> American criminal from the Bronx, New York, United States

Larry Davis, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Alcala</span> American serial killer (1943–2021)

Rodney James Alcala was an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979, receiving an additional sentence of 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two further homicides committed in New York State in 1971 and 1977. While he has been conclusively linked to eight murders, Alcala's true number of victims remains unknown and could be much higher – authorities believe the actual number is as high as 130.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of violence against LGBT people in the United States</span>

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals (LGBT), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. The people who are the targets of such violence are believed to violate heteronormative rules and they are also believed to contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted for violence. Violence can also occur between couples who are of the same sex, with statistics showing that violence among female same-sex couples is more common than it is among couples of the opposite sex, but male same-sex violence is less common.

The Maksim Gelman stabbing spree was a 28-hour killing spree lasting from February 11 to 12, 2011, in New York City, New York, United States, which involved the killing of four people and the wounding of five others. Maksim Gelman was arrested and pleaded guilty to the crimes.

Susan Lucille Wright is an American convicted murderer from Houston, Texas, who made headlines in 2003 for stabbing her husband, Jeff Wright, 193 times in an act of mariticide and then burying his body in their backyard. She was convicted of murder in 2004, and was given a 20-year sentence at the Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas. She was denied parole on June 12, 2014, and July 24, 2017. She was granted parole in July 2020 and released from prison on December 30, 2020.

On March 20, 2017, Timothy Caughman, a black 66-year-old man, was collecting cans for recycling in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City when James Harris Jackson, a white 28-year-old man, approached him and stabbed him multiple times with a sword. Caughman later died of his injuries. Jackson subsequently turned himself in to police custody and confirmed that he traveled from Maryland to New York with the intention of killing black men in order to prevent white women from having interracial relationships with them.

The 2017 Jerusalem Light Rail stabbing was a stabbing attack and suspected act of terrorism that occurred on Good Friday, 14 April 2017, on Jerusalem Light Rail's car. In the attack, a 20 year old British student was stabbed to death by Jamil Tamimi, a Palestinian man. Two others, including a pregnant woman, were injured in the incident. The attacker was arrested and was deemed competent to stand trial.

Mireille Knoll was an 85-year-old French Jewish woman, and Holocaust survivor who was murdered in her Paris apartment on 23 March 2018. The murder has been officially described by French authorities as an antisemitic hate crime, which has since been on the rise in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Botham Jean</span> 2018 murder case in Texas

On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.

The Rzeszowski family homicides occurred on 14 August 2011 in Saint Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands. Damian Rzeszowski stabbed to death six people including four members of his family. He was found guilty of manslaughter with diminished responsibility and sentenced to 30 years in prison for each victim. He died in a suspected suicide in HMP Full Sutton on 31 March 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine Campione</span> Canadian murderer

Frances Elaine Campione is an Ontario woman who murdered her two children in Barrie, Ontario, on October 2, 2006. Canadian prosecutors argued that she wanted to get revenge on her ex-husband and was afraid he would receive custody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Tessa Majors</span> Murder of a college student in New York City

The murder of Tessa Majors occurred near Morningside Park in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, on December 11, 2019. Majors, an eighteen-year-old student at Barnard College, was attacked and stabbed by three teenagers as part of a robbery. Majors was discovered collapsed and bleeding on a staircase exiting Morningside Park and transported to a nearby hospital, ultimately succumbing to the injuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Baldi</span> Deceased American serial killer

Joseph Baldi, known as The Queens Creeper, was an American serial killer who, from 1970 to 1972, stabbed four women and girls to death in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York City. His case, along with those of Charles Yukl and Ricardo Caputo, garnered notoriety due to the fact that Baldi had been erroneously released after he was deemed mentally ill, allowing him to claim more victims. For these crimes, he was found guilty and sentenced to a 25-year-to-life sentence at Sing Sing, which he served until his death in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Granviel</span> Executed American serial killer and mass murderer

Kenneth Granviel was an American serial killer and rapist who was responsible for the sexually-motivated murders of seven people in Fort Worth, Texas from 1974 to 1975, most notably the mass murder of three women and two children. After willingly admitting to the crimes, he was convicted, sentenced to death and executed in 1996, after several delays and challenges to his sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ruthell Henry</span> Executed American serial killer

John Ruthell Henry was an American serial killer who was convicted for the 1985 murder of his second wife and stepson in Florida, a few years after being paroled for the 1975 murder of his first wife. After he was sentenced to death in three separate trials, Henry was executed for the latter murders at the Florida State Prison in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony LaRette</span> Executed American serial killer

Anthony Joe LaRette Jr. was an American serial killer and rapist. Convicted of one murder in St. Charles, Missouri in 1980, he later confessed to thirty-one murders in eleven states dating back to the late 1960s, fifteen of which were closed based on information provided by him. Sentenced to death for his sole conviction, LaRette was executed in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel O. Jones</span> American serial killer

Daniel O. Jones is an American serial killer who raped and stabbed four young women to death in Kansas City, Missouri, between 1998 and 2001. He was arrested shortly after the final murder, and DNA evidence linked him to the previous crimes, after which he confessed and was given multiple life sentences.

On 25 June 2018, at Singapore's Choa Chu Kang, 17-year-old Zin Mar Nwe, a foreign maid from Myanmar, used a knife to stab her employer's mother-in-law, who was alleged to have abused the maid. The 70-year-old elderly victim, an Indian national, sustained 26 knife wounds and died from acute haemorrhage caused by the stabbing. Zin was arrested not long after the killing and charged with murder. Although the victim was initially named in the local and international media, her name was subsequently not reported to protect the identity of one of her family members who was underage.

References

  1. Jr, James C. Mckinley (February 11, 2018). "A Question Hangs Over a Trial: Why Did a Nanny Kill 2 Children in Her Care?". The New York Times.
  2. "Manhattan nanny found guilty in deaths of two children in her care," CNN.com, April 18, 2018, Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  3. Ransom, Jan (May 14, 2018). "Yoselyn Ortega, Nanny Who Killed 2 Children, Is Sentenced to Life in Prison". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Police: Nanny stabbed herself upon mother's arrival," CNN.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The Krim Children Stabbings: Read PEOPLE's Original 2012 Story," PEOPLE.
  6. 1 2 3 "Distraught Dad of Children Allegedly Slain by Nanny Tries To 'Be Strong'", Archived February 23, 2018, at the Wayback Machine DNAinfo.
  7. 1 2 "Deranged nanny kills 2 kids: NYPD", nydailynews.com; accessed May 17, 2018.
  8. "Little Miss Lucia". livejournal.com.
  9. "New York nanny suspected of killing two children". BBC. October 27, 2012.
  10. Weisensee, Nicole (October 27, 2012). "Kevin Krim, Marina Krim: Police Investigate Nanny Yoselin Ortega". People.
  11. "Nanny Accused of Fatally Stabbing Two Children on Upper West Side and Then Slitting Her Own Throat", New York Magazine; accessed May 17, 2018.
  12. "Parents Of Toddlers Allegedly Stabbed To Death By Nanny Seek ‘Positive Creativity’ As Trial Starts", CBS New York; accessed May 17, 2018.
  13. "Trial begins for nanny accused of killing 2 children as parents channel grief into charity," ABC News.
  14. "Krim Murders: Kevin Krim, father of NYC children allegedly killed by nanny, texts he is "heartbroken"". CBS News . October 29, 2012.
  15. "New York mother in nanny horror kept detailed family blog", Fox News; accessed May 17, 2018.
  16. 1 2 3 "New York nanny accused of stabbing kids to death faces life sentence as trial begins", Fox News; accessed May 17, 2018.
  17. "Yoselyn Ortega, Nanny Accused Of Killing Children, Had Money Problems And Was Stressed About Son", The Huffington Post; accessed May 17, 2018.
  18. "Kevin Krim, Marina Krim: Police Investigate Nanny Yoselin Ortega". PEOPLE. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  19. "Nanny Charged in 2 Killings Is Found Mentally Fit for Trial". The New York Times. April 6, 2013.
  20. 1 2 "Crime: A Question Hangs Over a Trial: Why Did a Nanny Kill 2 Children in Her Care?", The New York Times.
  21. 1 2 "12 jurors chosen in trial of NYC nanny charged with killing kids," NY Daily News.
  22. Jacobs, Shayna (January 8, 2018). "Upper West Side nanny charged with killing two kids may face trial this month". New York Daily News. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  23. McKinley, James (July 18, 2017). "Nanny Admitted Killing 2 Children, Former Prosecutor Testifies". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  24. "Manhattan Nanny Is Convicted in Murders of Two Children," New York Times, April 18, 2018, Retrieved April 18, 2018
  25. "Nanny Gets Life Without Parole In 2012 Stabbing Deaths Of 2 Children". NPR .
  26. Krim, Kevin (May 21, 2018). "My Statement at the Sentencing Hearing for Lulu and Leo's Convicted Murderer". Medium.
  27. Krim, Marina (May 21, 2018). "My Statement at the Sentencing Hearing for the Murderer of Lulu and Leo". Medium.
  28. "Kevin Krim to Leave CNBC," TVNewser.
  29. "Parents who lost 2 children in alleged nanny attack explain how creativity helped them heal," ABC News.
  30. "Painfully in the News Again," [ permanent dead link ] WFIN.
  31. "Governor Cuomo Signs Lulu and Leo's Law to Protect Children". Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. August 16, 2018.
  32. "Lulu & Leo's Law". www.facebook.com.
  33. "Leïla Slimani's 'The Perfect Nanny' Is an Eerie Novel of Manners," The Atlantic.
  34. "The Killer-Nanny Novel That Conquered France," The New Yorker.
  35. Bellafante, Ginia (February 23, 2018). "Nanny Case Is a Parent's Nightmare, Too Horrifying to See Up Close (Published 2018)". The New York Times via NYTimes.com.
  36. "On the Imperfections of the Perfect Nanny by Khalid Lyamlahy". World Literature Today. January 30, 2018.
  37. Solheim, Jennifer. "The Monstrous Complicity of Leila Slimani's The Perfect Nanny".