Nanny denies killing children with knife

Colleen Long

A NANNY accused of stabbing to death two children in her care has pleaded not guilty from her hospital room, where she is being treated for self-inflicted stab wounds.

Yoselyn Ortega (50), lying handcuffed in her New York hospital bed, entered the plea through her lawyer.

"My client . . . sustained serious medical injuries and mental trauma.

"She's lying in a hospital bed. She has a neck brace, and her hand that you can see is shaking. She is in a very debilitated condition," said lawyer Valerie Van Leer-Green.

The judge, like two prosecutors and everyone else crowded into the room, wore a hospital gown and a blue hair net.

He ordered Ortega held without bail while she undergoes a psychiatric examination.

The unusual bedside arraignment came as District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr announced an indictment charging Ortega with multiple counts of murder.

Authorities allege that on the evening of October 25, while the children's mother was out with a third child, Ortega repeatedly stabbed six-year-old Lucia Krim and her two-year-old brother, Leo Krim.

When their mother, Marina Krim, returned to the family's Manhattan home with her three-year-old daughter, she found their bodies in the bath. Ortega was lying on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck, authorities said.

A kitchen knife was nearby.

hnews@herald.ie