Nicole Virzi, a 32-year-old former doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego, has pleaded guilty to killing her best friend’s 6-week-old son and injuring the baby’s twin brother. During questioning, she told investigators she had felt an urge to hurt children from a very young age.
Virzi had initially faced a capital murder charge that carried the possibility of the death penalty. Under a plea agreement, she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of endangering a child’s welfare. She faces a prison term of at least 35 years and up to 80 years.
Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel said prosecutors agreed to the deal after consulting with the family and considering its wishes. The district attorney’s office said the family had endured profound grief throughout the case.
Virzi did not speak at the plea hearing. Her defense attorney, Tina Miller, said that no apology could be enough.
Virzi traveled from San Diego to Pittsburgh in June 2024 to visit her friend, Savannah Roberts. While Roberts and her partner took one of their infant twins, Ari, to a children’s hospital, Virzi stayed with the other twin, Leon.
According to the criminal complaint, Virzi noticed an injury to Ari’s genital area. Leon later suffered serious head injuries while in her care. Virzi told investigators she had gone to the kitchen to get a bottle and heard the baby screaming. When she returned, she said, Leon was on the floor, outside his bouncer seat.
Leon was taken to hospital, where he died. An arrest report described a severe skull fracture and multiple brain bleeds. A doctor told police that the injuries to both boys were consistent with inflicted abuse, rather than an accident. Leon’s death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
During a 13-hour interrogation, Virzi admitted to shaking and dropping Leon hard several times. She also told investigators she had flipped him upside down onto a bathroom tile floor.
“Something just came over me. I couldn’t control it,” she told detectives, adding that she could no longer keep lying. She also said that, from a very young age, she had felt an urge—“almost like a compulsion I can’t control”—to hurt children.
Roberts said she had not intended to leave Virzi alone with the boys, but had to go because of Ari’s injuries. She said she had never suspected that Virzi, whom she considered family, could harm a child.
In a letter to the judge, Roberts wrote that the crime had changed her and left her confidence shattered. She said she would never forgive herself for not protecting her sons.
Roberts said being Ari’s mother brings her great joy and comfort. But, she added, each milestone and birthday he reaches is shadowed by the knowledge that Leon should have been there beside his brother.
