PhD Student Nicole Virzi Faces Death Penalty in Deaths of Best Friend’s Twin Infants

PITTSBURGH, PA — A California doctoral student accused of fatally injuring one of a pair of six-week-old twin boys she was babysitting at a Pittsburgh home in June 2024 is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 1, 2026, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.

Nicole Virzi, now 30, faces charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children in connection with the death of Leon Katz and the alleged injuries to his twin brother, Ari Katz. The case centers on recorded statements prosecutors say Virzi made to Pittsburgh police detectives after more than 12 hours of questioning — statements her defense attorneys argue were coerced and should be thrown out. A judge has ruled the jury will hear the recordings. The trial, set to begin in Allegheny County’s Court of Common Pleas before Judge Jill Rangos, has drawn widespread attention because of Virzi’s academic background, the victims’ ages and the nature of the alleged admissions prosecutors plan to present at trial.

According to prosecutors, the events unfolded on the evening of June 15, 2024, when Virzi, then 29, was visiting her close friend Savannah Roberts and Roberts’s husband, Ethan Katz, at their home in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. Virzi had flown from California, where she was weeks away from completing her doctorate in behavioral medicine at the University of California San Diego, to spend time with the family. During the visit, Roberts asked Virzi to help watch the twin boys. That afternoon, while Roberts napped, Virzi offered to change Ari’s diaper, according to court documents. Virzi told police she noticed blood and swelling on the infant and photographed the injuries, sending the images to Ethan Katz. Roberts and Katz said they had never previously observed such injuries on the child and had no explanation for them. At around 6:30 p.m., the couple rushed Ari to the hospital, leaving Virzi alone in the apartment with Leon.

Virzi initially told police that Leon had fallen from a bouncer seat positioned roughly 12 inches off the floor while she dozed off nearby, according to the criminal complaint. She said she called 911 at approximately 11:15 p.m. after discovering the baby on the floor with a visible bump on the left side of his head. Leon was pronounced dead several hours later at the hospital. An autopsy found a severe skull fracture and bleeding in multiple areas of the brain. Doctors described the cause as blunt force trauma. A physician and child abuse specialist who reviewed both children’s injuries later told investigators that the wounds were “consistent with having been sustained as a result of child abuse, as these are inflicted injuries that are not natural and not accidental,” according to court documents. Detectives told Virzi that Leon’s injuries were medically inconsistent with a short fall, but for hours she maintained her original account.

Pittsburgh police arrived at Virzi’s Airbnb shortly after 6 a.m. on June 16, 2024, and asked her to come in for questioning after she provided what officers described in the criminal complaint as no plausible explanation for the infant’s wounds. She agreed to accompany them voluntarily and surrendered her phone and purse. She was not handcuffed or formally arrested at that time. Detectives twice read Virzi her Miranda rights at police headquarters, according to prosecutors, and she continued talking. After more than 12 hours in the interview room, Virzi asked to speak again with lead investigator Detective Janine Triolo. In a recorded conversation, she told Triolo: “Um, I’m going to tell you the truth. The biggest part of that truth is that I did not want him to die.” Prosecutors say she went on to describe shaking and dropping Leon “hard” on multiple occasions and said she heard “some kind of crack.” She also allegedly told detectives she had felt urges to hurt children since early childhood and described the encounter as something “that came over me I couldn’t control.” Later in the same recorded session, she said: “I did not want him to die. That was not my goal. I just wanted him to feel a little pain.” That same day, she was formally charged and denied bail. She has remained in custody since June 2024.

Virzi grew up in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, the daughter of a New York cardiologist, and attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, as an undergraduate before pursuing graduate studies. She and Roberts met in 2021 while both worked as research coordinators in the graduate psychology department at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Virzi’s doctoral research at UC San Diego focused on how depression, stress and trauma in vulnerable populations affect physical health outcomes such as heart disease. Roberts later went on to become a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Friends and former colleagues who spoke with the Daily Mail described Virzi as controlled and high-achieving but noted what they called an “underlying anger.” Elin Lantz Lesser, a fellow graduate student at Drexel, said she felt she needed to “mind my p’s and q’s around her a little bit.” Another former psychology colleague said: “There always seemed to be some underlying anger — some colleagues that I’ve spoken to have had similar thoughts about it, that there was this bottled-up rage or something that never came out but you felt it was right there.” Cindy Miller-Perrin, a clinical child psychologist and professor at Pepperdine who knew Virzi as an undergraduate, described her as “an incredible student” who “was very high-achieving.”

Virzi has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Her defense attorneys filed a motion to suppress the recorded police statements, arguing she was subjected to an “overly-long and oppressive” detention and that investigators “utilized nearly every trick in the book to manipulate Ms. Virzi into making a statement.” Virzi alleged she was shackled to the floor, denied a phone call and forced to urinate in front of police escorts during the interrogation. Judge Rangos rejected the suppression motion in February 2026, ruling that the statement was “knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made” and noting that Virzi had met with a defense attorney and spoken with her parents before giving the recorded account. “The vast majority of time she was in that room, she did not appear to be in any distress,” Rangos said at the February hearing. Defense attorney Bill Difenderfer said as recently as June 2026 that plea negotiations with prosecutors were “ongoing,” and defense attorneys have hinted a guilty plea remains possible before trial begins.

Prosecutors in Allegheny County are seeking the death penalty, citing aggravating factors including the victim’s age and evidence they say indicates the infant was tortured. No one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999, and Gov. Josh Shapiro has declined to sign death warrants during his tenure, but the district attorney’s office said it believes the circumstances of the case justify pursuing capital punishment. The Katz family has not publicly commented on the proceedings but previously described Leon in a statement as “a happy, smiley, goofy baby boy” and called Virzi a “trusted family friend.” Shortly after Leon’s death in 2024, Virzi’s then-attorney David Shrager called her a “loving person” who “would never harm anyone’s children” and said she was “devastated” by the infant’s death. Leon died on June 16, 2024 — Father’s Day, and also the Katz family’s wedding anniversary.

Jury selection and opening arguments in Virzi’s trial are scheduled to begin Oct. 1, 2026, in Pittsburgh. The recorded police interviews are expected to be a central element of the prosecution’s case, while defense attorneys are expected to again challenge their admissibility and reliability before and during trial. No trial date has been set for any charges related solely to Ari Katz’s alleged injuries.