Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Nicole Virzi Pleads Guilty to Killing Friend's Baby, Gets 35 to 80 Years

The Pittsburgh case of six-week-old Leon Katz ended on Wednesday, October 28, when Nicole Virzi pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in his June 2024 death and was sentenced to 35 to 80 years in state prison.

Virzi, 32, of San Diego, entered the plea in Allegheny County Court before Judge Jill E. Rangos. She pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children in the death of Leon Katz and in the injuries to his twin brother, Ari, who survived. The plea ended a capital case in which Virzi had faced a possible death sentence.

A visit that ended in a hospital

Virzi, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of California, San Diego, was an old friend of the twins' parents, Savannah Roberts and Ethan Katz, and was visiting the family in Pittsburgh.

On June 15, 2024, Virzi pointed out scratches and bruises on Ari, and his parents took him to a hospital. The injuries were later determined to have been inflicted by Virzi, according to WTAE. Roberts said in a victim impact statement that the couple had arranged for someone else to watch Leon that night, but Virzi insisted on caring for him, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Virzi called 911 at about 11:17 p.m. and reported Leon was having difficulty breathing and had a lump on his head, according to TribLive. He died in the hospital early the next morning. An autopsy found that he died of blunt force trauma to the head, with multiple skull fractures, and investigators ruled out her first account, a fall from a baby bouncer.

What she told detectives

After a police interview that ran about 13 hours, she admitted that she had shaken the baby, dropped him and flipped him upside down on the tile bathroom floor, according to TribLive. "Something just came over me I couldn't control," she told investigators in the recorded interview.

She told detectives she had felt urges to hurt children for years, described them as a compulsion, and said anger built up because she felt her friends treated her like a nanny. Her lawyers asked the court to throw out her statements, arguing she had been questioned for hours with little sleep or food. Judge Rangos refused and found the statements were made knowingly and voluntarily. She was charged on June 16, 2024, and has been held at the Allegheny County Jail since then. In August 2024, prosecutors filed notice that they would seek the death penalty, which Pennsylvania has not carried out since 1999.

The family asked for no trial

Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel told the court the plea followed the parents' request: a resolution that kept Virzi in prison for most of her life without a public trial where the family would relive their son's death. "This office has decided to invest in their healing," Schoedel said, according to TribLive.

In her victim impact statement, Roberts described holding her dying son for hours and telling him, "You are loved," the Post-Gazette reported. Leon's grandfather, Larry Katz, wrote that he never got to see Leon smile.

Virzi did not speak at the hearing. Her attorney, Tina Miller, said she stayed silent out of respect for the family and had written them a letter they could choose whether to read. The District Attorney's Office said Virzi used her trusted place in the family to commit the crimes, and the family asks for privacy while they heal, WTAE reported.