Marina Krim testifies in Yoselyn Ortega court trial: the mother of two slain children faces their killer almost six years after the family nanny slashed them.
Marina Krim the mother of two young children who were butchered at the hands of the family nanny, Yoselyn Ortega on Thursday confronted her children’s killer in court.
Krim’s testimony appearance comes five and a quarter years after a fateful October 25, 2012 evening when she returned home to the family’s Upper West side, Manhattan apartment with her then middle child, Nessie, only to find Ortega had knifed her two other children, 20 month year old Leo and six year old Lucia.
Slung next to their bodies in the bathroom was Ortega, who by then had taken the knife she had sliced the two children, while Krim ran errands with Lulu and sliced at her neck. It was with the assistance of the delirious mother that Ortega managed to stay alive as she stopped the flow of blood from her neck.
Standing there for the first time in almost six years against her children’s killers, Krim listened as Assistant District Attorney Courtney Groves spoke to jurors as Ortega’s Manhattan Supreme Court trial got underway.
Told the assistant DA, ‘On Oct. 25, 2012, Yoselyn Ortega, this defendant, intentionally and savagely slaughtered Lucia Krim and Leo Krim’.
Groves said the then-50-year-old caregiver waited until Krim, left the family West 75th Street residence to murder Lucia, 6, and Leo, 2.
‘For the 90 minutes she was alone with Lulu and Leo … she brutally butchered both children, slitting their throats,’ Groves said in her opening statements. ‘Leo was too small to struggle. But Lulu, 6 years old, fought back.’
Lucia was slashed almost 30 times – and both kids suffered such severe neck wounds that emergency responders believed they’d been decapitated, the prosecutor said.
Marina Krim rips nanny Yoselyn Ortega, who is accused of killing her children: “You’re disgusting.” https://t.co/NHFNwOELqH pic.twitter.com/UFe9Dis3wI
— Inside Edition (@InsideEdition) March 1, 2018
Marina Krim testifies, ‘She killed my best friends’.
In outlining a motive for the killing, the prosecutor told of Krim being livid with jealousy towards her employer.
Ortega ‘resented Marina Krim for everything she was and everything she had,’ Groves said.
‘She seethed that Marina would ask her to do additional work.’
Told Krim as she faced jurors and her children’s killers, ‘It’s like a horror movie,’
‘I go down, I walk down the hall and I see the light on under the back of the door, and I’m like, ‘Oh God it’s so quiet in here, oh God. Why is it so … quiet?’’
‘And I open the door … And I open the door, oh God!’
Reiterated the mother who by now was weeping, ‘She killed my best friends.’
As Marina Krim went to leave the courtroom, the mother turned to Ortega, saying, ‘You’re gross. You’re disgusting.’
Noted the washingtonpost, ‘The central mystery of the trial isn’t whether Ortega killed the children, but why she did it — and whether she was too mentally ill to be held responsible.’
The 56-year-old nanny confessed to the murders in subsequent hospital interviews, saying the ‘devil’ made her do it.
‘She knew what she was doing when she killed them,’ Groves said, ‘and she knew what she was doing was wrong.’
Trial proceedings commenced as Ortega is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and second-degree murder. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Heading into trial, Ortega’s defense lawyer mounted an insanity defense claiming she had no memory of the fatal slashings.
The former nanny’s assertions contradict with those of prosecutors who say Ortega had ‘carefully planned’ the attacks, asking her sister to cook for her son Jesus when he got home from school and leaving behind her identification in an envelope.
‘She was putting her affairs in order. Her plan that day was to kill the Krim children and to kill herself,’ Groves said.
Trial is set to continue Friday.
Killer Upper West nanny heading to trial: Will jurors believe her insanity plea?
#NANNYTRIAL Mother Marina Krim testifies she hired #YoselynOrtega after a recommendation from the nanny’s sister. Prosecutors say former employer reference turned out to be fake/Ortega’s relative.
— Hazel Sanchez (@HSanchezTV) March 1, 2018
After lunch, Marina Krim continues testifying. Her description of Ms. Ortega’s duties elicited a rare sign of emotion from Ms. Ortega, who leaned over and whispered something to her defense lawyer, then shook her head at Ms. Krim.
— Ashley Southall (@AshleyAtTimes) March 1, 2018
Marina Krim walks into courtroom and stops and stares at #YoselynOrtega. “She’s a liar.” says her hands are tingling. “I’m trying really hard to get there.” #nannytrial
— Jan Ransom (@Jan_Ransom) March 1, 2018
