The trial of a nanny who stabbed two siblings to death five years ago is finally underway.
Yoselyn Ortega, 55, appeared in court on Manhattan on Thursday to face two murder charges.
She stabbed six-year-old Lucia Krim and her one-year-old brother Leo while looking after them at their Upper West Side apartment in October 2012.
Her attorney has been trying for years to convince a judge to declare her unfit to stand trial and their unsuccessful efforts have delayed the legal process.
On Thursday morning, the proceedings began with testimony from the children’s mother Marina.
She turned to face Ortega as she took the stand, saying: ‘I just need to take a good look at you. You are out of this world.’
She later called her a ‘liar’ and described how she found her children dead in the bathtub after Ortega stabbed them multiple times on October 26, five years ago.
Cameras captured Ortega as she arrived in court and her lawyer was photographed but live streams were turned off and no photographs were taken of Mrs. Krim as she spoke.
Yoselyn Ortega, 55, appears in court in Manhattan on Thursday to face murder charges for the 2012 killings of Lucia and Leo Krim, two siblings who she stabbed while they were in her care. She was photographed but the children’s mother Marina, who testified on Thursday, was not
Lucia, six, and Leo, one, were stabbed multiple times in the neck and torso on October 26, 2012
As she began her testimony, Marina, 41, asked the court for its patience.
‘My god you are such a liar,’ she said at Ortega before composing herself.
‘My hands are tingling right now. I need you to be patient with me,’ she said.
She then described the events of the day of the children’s death and how she knew something was wrong when Ortega did not appear with Lulu for her 5.30pm ballet lesson on October 26, 2012, as they had arranged.
She rushed home to the family’s apartment to find it eerily quiet, she said.
‘First, I see Lulu. And I instantly know that she’s dead ‘cause she’s lying in the bathroom and her eyes are open like this. And I see Leo and they have blood on them,’
Marina Krim, the children’s mother
‘I run in. I get home. I unlock the door. It’s just dark, super dark and super quiet. It’s just eerie,’ Marina said.
Heartbreakingly, she said she felt ‘relieved’ when she saw Leo’s stroller and Lulu’s ballet bag in the hallway but felt doom again when she realized just how quiet it was.
‘It’s so awful, it’s like a total horror movie. I go down, I walk down the hall … and I see a light on under the back of the door. Oh my god.
‘It’s so quiet, oh my god. Why is it so f****ng quiet?’ she recalled thinking, according to The New York Post which attended the trial.
With three-year-old Nessie’s hand in hers, she opened the bathroom door and saw the children in the bathtub.
‘First, I see Lulu. And I instantly know that she’s dead ‘cause she’s lying in the bathroom and her eyes are open like this. And I see Leo and they have blood on them,’ she said.
Marina then fled downstairs, with Nessie in tow, and told her doorman what had happened.
‘I told the doorman, “My babysitter killed my kids,”‘ she sobbed. I’ll never talk to them ever again. They’re dead. My kids are dead,”‘ she said.
Addressing the court, she said the two children were her ‘best friends’.
‘I just wanted to wake up from this nightmare, that I knew wasn’t a nightmare. It was real,’ she said.
‘She killed my best friends. These two kids were my best friends,’ she said before requesting a break.
Ortega, 55, was emotionless on Thursday as she appeared before the judge in a beige shirt. She wore her glasses and a headband
When she went into the bathroom and found Leo and Lulu dead along with Ortega injured, she said she screamed: ‘I hate you!’ at the woman.
The mother recalled thinking it was a ‘nightmare’ that she could not wake up from.
As she left the stand, Marina snipped at her the nanny: ‘You’re gross. You’re disgusting.’
Prosecutors told on Thursday how Lulu was stabbed 30 times as she tried to fight the nanny off. Leo was stabbed five teams.
Lulu knew what was happening. She understood what the defendant was doing and she fought to live
Assistant District Attorney Courtney Groves
‘Lulu knew what was happening. She understood what the defendant was doing and she fought to live.
‘But the defendant was bigger and stronger,’ Assistant District Attorney Courtney Groves said.
Both children had their throats slit and were found lying on top of one another. Prosecutors said Ortega placed them that way to watch them bleed out.
They also said that the nanny waited until Marina was home to try to kill herself ‘so she could see Marina’s reaction to the carnage in the bathroom before she attempted to kill herself,’ Groves added.
During jury selection earlier this week, judge Gregory Carro told jurors to be prepared for a traumatic, months-long trial.
‘If you don’t get emotional during this trial then maybe you need to check your pulse,’ he said.
Among the jurors are three people with children, five who live on the Upper West Side and three who have relatives with mental illness, according to The New York Times.
Marina Lulu and Leo the bathtub of their family’s home after returning home to with their sister who had been at a swimming lesson.
Ortega was next to them and had tried to kill herself by plunging the knife she used to stab them into her own neck.
Ortega’s attorney Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg is fighting for her to be found not guilty of murder by way of insanity. On Thursday, she told jurors: ‘There was no planning to this’
Assistant District Attorney Courtney Groves (right in green) is pictured addressing the jury on Thursday
The woman, who is from the Dominican Republic, was rushed to hospital and survived but both Lulu and Leo died. Marina and her husband Kevin have since had two other children.
They coped with the tragedy by launching the Lulu and Leo Fund which raises money for art and creative-based children’s educational programs.
They spoke out last month ahead of Ortega’s trial to say they were prepared for the looming court proceedings but asked the public to focus their attention on the charity instead of the grisly details which the ordeal will reveal.
‘Over the next few months, the story of Lulu and Leo and our whole family will be painfully in the news again.
‘This trial will be very hard for us, and for a lot of you. We feel like this community … all of you … have been with us all along, through this whole experience,’ Kevin said as their two youngest children Feliz and Linus played in the background.
Marina Krim spoke on Thursday but was not photographed in court. She turned to look at her children’s killer, saying: ‘I need a good look at you’. She is pictured with Leo before his death
Lucia, who was six when she died, suffered defense wounds trying to fight Ortega off. Their sister Nessie was out at a swimming lesson when they were killed
Ortega (pictured with Nessie and Lulu) said she was angry that the Krims had asked her to clean the house in addition to looking after the children
In a video released last month, Marina and Kevin appear in the foreground as Nessie (left) and the two sons they have had since the killings, Linus and Felix (right) played behind them
Marina added: ‘We thought about it, and we realized that we’re going to handle this the way we’ve handled everything.
‘We’re going to focus on the positive and the goodness that has come out of all of this.
‘This is the legacy of Lulu and Leo, and this is what matters, so this is how you can help us,’ she said.
Ortega’s attorney is expected to argue that she is not guilty by reason of insanity and that she had no control over her actions when she killed the children.
According to previously cited court papers, Ortega used two knives in the killing.
The nanny previously rejected a plea deal which would have seen her go to jail for 30 years. She has been in custody for the last five years.
After the killings, she told police she was angry that the Krims had asked her to start cleaning their apartment as well as looking after the children.
She complained that she had to ‘do it all’ and said that the extra work caused her to miss an appointment ‘with the psyche’.
The Krims said they only offered her the extra work to give her more money because she had been complaining about her financial situation.
Nessie was three at the time of the killings. She is now eight
It is not known how old Felix (left) and Linus (right) are. Both are shown in the video released by their parents last month to raise awareness about the charity launched in their late siblings’ name and memory