September 11, 2024 • 41 mins
PhD student Nicole Virzi remains in custody on charges of homicide, aggravated assault, and endangering the welfare of children.
While visiting friends in Pittsburgh, Virzi cared for 6-week-old twins to give the mother a break. Both boys ended up in the hospital, and one died. EMTs transported Leon Katz and his father to the hospital shortly before midnight, but Nicole Virzi did not stay long.
She was seen returning to her Airbnb just before 1 a.m., struggling to unlock the door. By 5 a.m., Virzi appeared to be preparing to leave town. Security footage captured her making what seemed to be a hasty exit less than five hours later.
Although she was booked for two more nights at the apartment, Virzi appeared to be leaving. She was seen on security video leaving the building at 5:45 a.m. She reached for her phone and made a call while standing on the sidewalk.
At 5:47 a.m., Leon Katz was pronounced dead. Three minutes later, at 5:50 a.m., police arrived at the Airbnb, and two officers approached Virzi on the sidewalk, quickly placing her in a patrol car. She was then transported to police headquarters, where she agreed to questioning without an attorney present.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Jarrett Ferentino – Pennsylvania Attorney/Homicide Prosecutor; Facebook & Instagram: Jarrett Ferentino; Host: “True Crime Boss” Podcast
- Dr. Shari Schwartz – Forensic Psychologist (Specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy); Author: “Criminal Behavior” and “Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;” X: @TrialDoc”
- Brian Fitzgibbons – VP of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security; Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security, Kingsman Philanthropic’s 2022 rescue missions of women and children in Ukraine, Iraq War Veteranide_security
- Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth) and Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School
- Alexis Tereszchuk - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Early bird or fleeing selling the GLAPIHD babysitter charged in
an infants murder, caught leaving her airbnb around five a m.
Shrouded in darkness. Why I'm Nancy Grace, this is crime stories.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, the Pittsburgh family with newborn twin babies asks a
longtime friend to babysit matters take a turn for the worse.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, that's certainly an understatement.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
One of the infants is dead, the other injured in
the growing area with scratches and swelling. So, knowing that
your good friend's children are in danger, why would you
try to bail out in the dark of the wee
hours of the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Arriving back at her airbnb at twelve fifty three am,
Nicole Ersey is seen on security video less than five
hours later, as she appears to be making a hasty exit,
even though she was booked for two more nights at
the apartment, Bersey appears to be leaving. Bersy is seen
on security video leaving the building at five forty five am.
She reaches for her phone and makes a phone call
(01:21):
and is standing waiting on the sidewalk. At five forty
seven am, Leon Katz is pronounced dead. At five point
fifty am, police arrive at the Airbnb and two officers
approach Fersy on the sidewalk and quickly take her to
the waiting patrol car and transport her to the police headquarters,
where she agrees to be questioned without an attorney present.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Joining me in allstar panwel makes sense of what we
are hearing and what we are learning.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
We know that the.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So called glam glamorous PhDc to a twenty nine who
is studying to get her PhD in a derivative of psychology.
We know that she also led spin classes at at
least one, if not more, cycle centers.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
What more do we know?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
We know her dad is a renowned physician practicing at
Mount Sinai in New York City. We know that she
has many faces, the glad PhD student, the best friend
that travels to visit two infant boys.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But why in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
If this is one of your best friends would she
try to steal away.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
In the dark of the wee morning hours.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Let's analyze that timeline again, straight out to a panel
of experts.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
First, I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
To Alexisterschuk crimeonline dot com investigative reporter joining us out
of La Alexis, thank you for.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Being with us.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I want to analyze the timeline versy is spotted.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Let me back it up.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Back to her Airbnb a few blocks away from the
victim's home, the mom, the dad, the two twin infants.
That is around one am, just before one a m.
Then less than five hours later, in the dark of
the wee morning hours, she's beating a hasty retreat five
(03:23):
forty five a m. At five forty seven a m.
Infant child twin boy, Leon is pronounced dead.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So let me understand this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Tell me if I got the timeline correct, Alexis. So
she leaves her one of her best friends, Leon's mom,
and the dad, the father of the twins at the hospital.
Absolutely she leaves them there with Leon with horrific head
injuries and the other baby, Ari had genital swelling and scratches.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So instead of going back to.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
The hospital to check on the babies, she tries to leave.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
She did.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Here's the thing it actually she is the one that
called nine to one one about the baby, about Leon
at eleven fifteen pm. So then the next time you
see her is at shortly before one am, so less
than two hours she is already back in her airbnb.
She's not at the hotel with her friends. She has
(04:32):
been friends with the mom for I think almost ten years,
very good friends. They've traveled together. She was here babysitting
the children. She was trusted enough by the parents to
babysit the baby, and so she's back at the airbnb.
A few hours later, she goes outside. She hesitates outside
the front door, and she takes for about three minutes.
She then takes a phone call. At the time that
(04:53):
she's on the phone, the baby is reported dead three
minutes later. Just three minutes later, least surround her and
take her into custody. So they must have been absolutely
waiting outside, waiting to hear, watching her worry that she
was going to flee, knowing that this wasn't her regular
home was in airbnbb. She lives in San Diego, California,
(05:14):
so they were waiting for her for this exact reason.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I'm very very curious about the behavior and joining me
is an esteem forensic psychologist specializing in capital mitigation and
victim advocacy at panthermitigation dot com. Author of Criminal Behavior
and author of Where Law and Psychology Intersect, Doctor Sherry
(05:39):
Schwartz is with us. Doctor Sherry, I've got a problem
with this. She is the one that calls nine to
one one just a few hours before baby Leon is
raced to the hospital. Now this is after baby Ari.
She is the one that notices that baby Ari's penis
is swown and read and there are multiple scratches in
(06:03):
his growing area. She says, look at this, and the
parents rush to the hospital with baby Ari. They're in
the hospital with baby Ari and they get a call.
Leon is unresponsive and the dad says.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Called nine one one, and she does.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
But within hours she is spotted leaving her airbnb in
about five hours, fully dressed, makeup, hair, everything, jetting out
of town.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
What does that mean if anything.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Well, right off the bat, if she's trying to flee,
which is what it appears she was trying to do.
Innocent people don't run away when they know that they're
going to need to answer some questions and help further
along an investigation. But to me, it's even deeper, because
this is a clinical psychology PhD studs and during that training,
(07:01):
and she's not new in that training. So during that training,
we are taught about legal investigations, we are taught about ethics,
We are taught about things that make us know that
we don't need to call somebody to figure out if
we need to call nine to one one.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So this is extra troubling.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
There's an added layer here.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Jared Farantino is joining us try a lawyer and co
host a primetime crime on YouTube. You can find them
at Jarrettfarantino dot com. Jared and a lot of jurisdictions,
judges no longer give a jury instruction to the jury
about evidence of flight. That's no longer allowed for the
(07:46):
judge to instruct the jury that flight can doesn't have
to be, but can be construed as evidence of guilt
when someone tries to flee the same. However, the prosecution
can still argue it. Let me give a good example,
Scott Peterson. That's a great example. Remember when Lacy's body
(08:09):
had washed ashore as well as its unborn son Connors.
Scott Peterson dyed his hair, loaded up on viagra and
condoms and a fake ID and tried to skip town.
He was caught he also had a water purifier and
camping gear.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
In my mind, that's evidence of flight equals evidence of guilt.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So in this case, how would you differentiate the glam
PhD student Versey with Peterson.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
So Nancy consciousness of guilt is admissible in Pennsylvania. What
Nicole Versy would have to do in this case is
explain away that conduct. She would say her plans for
some reason changed anything to rebut the fact that she
was trying to high tail it out of town would
be something she could rebut the argument that in fact
she was leaving, she was on her way out of
(08:59):
ten to avoid responsibility for these charges.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Hey, Fertina, I love what you just said. Her plans changed?
When at three am? When did her plans change? But
I do want to follow up on something that Jarrett
Farantino says. And look, he's between a rock and a
hard spot. You take your client the way you find them.
What do you think you're going to get a nun,
a priest, aversion, Sister Teresa, That's not happening, okay, mothers.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Ruisa is not going to be your client. You're stuck
with Versi.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So you've got to somehow Ruppel Stileskin, you got to
spend that straw that hay into Gold Defense Gold. So
he just said that she could argue her plans had changed.
Alexis Tereschuk, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, What were
(09:53):
her plans? I thought she was going to stay in
the airbnb a few blocks away from where the children
and were apparently assaulted.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
What plans changed? Her plan was to be there for
multiple days.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
After exactly she had at least two more nights on
the Airbnb reservation. She was going to stay with her friend,
hang out with the babies. She had emailed the owner
of the Airbnb and said, you know, I'm going to
be here, just so excited to stay in your lovely place.
Nothing about oh, I'm only staying one night after I
was in the hospital with my friend's baby. She had
definitely not planned to leave the airbnb.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Earlier Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So taking a look at this timeline to Brian Fitzgibbons
direct to Operations USPA Nationwide Security leading a team of investigators.
You can find him at uspasecurity dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Bryan Fitzgibbons, what do you make of it?
Speaker 8 (10:57):
Listen, you look at the timeline when she makes that
call to nine one one at eleven fifteen. All Right,
she already knows what's occurred inside of that house and
what's happened with that baby. All Right, at this time,
a horrific thing has already happened.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Police.
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Now by the time she's absconding in the early morning,
over that six hour span, right, police have had a
chance to process that crime scene. That's why they were
waiting outside the airbnb when she was trying to make
her escape.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So let's backtrack it to her coming home from the hospital,
leaving her friend, the mom, and the dad at the
hospital with baby Leon hoping he survives.
Speaker 9 (11:42):
Listen EMT's transport Lyon Cats to the hospital shortly before midnight,
and his father, Ethankats, and Nicole Versy drive to the
hospital separately. Savannah Roberts is still at the hospital with
Leon's twin brother, Ari, who is being treated for mysterious
injuries to his groin area. Nicole Versy doesn't stay at
the hospital long. She's seen arriving back at her airbnb
shortly before one am, appearing nervous as she struggles to
(12:04):
unlock the door, grim faced with her cell phone in
one hand. She enters the door code to enter the
apartment building. Versy has to enter the code a couple
of times before getting the number right and entering the building.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I don't know what I could read into that or
translate out of that. Let me go to you, doctor
Sherry Schwartz joining us. Of course, there's nothing I can
glean from that. She gets back, leaving one of her
best friends and the husband at the hospital with baby Leon.
(12:36):
I can't determine any consciousness of guilt. Of course, she's upset.
It's late at night. She comes home, she can't quite
get back into the door.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
She struggles with it.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That means nothing to me because it's not her home code,
it's the code from the airbnb, so she's trying to
remember that. I can't really glean anything from that, however,
leaving in the cloak of darkness the next morning at
five am to leave town.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That tells me a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And I'm wondering jump into Alexas Treshak if you know
is she leaving by car or has she called for
an uber or a lyft? And what was her destination?
That's what I'm getting at. Do we know where she
was headed?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Such as the airport doctor Sherry Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I can't really read anything into her entry into the
airbnb the night before.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
No, However, it is troubling because this is such a
good friend to her, that this friend she traveled across
the country to help this friend take care of the babies.
I read that it was the young couples, the parents
wedding anniversary. It was also Father's Day or around Father's Day,
(13:56):
I believe, So why aren't you at your friend's side?
Why aren't you at the hospital to control your friend
and be there for your friend? And again not to
beat the drum. This is a clinical psychology PhD student
whose training would prepare her to be there and hold
space for somebody in a traumatic situation. And I understand
(14:17):
that she may also have been experiencing anxiety and the
sense of trauma herself. But she was with these babies
and the one who noticed their injuries, and with the
one child, the deceased child. She was with him when
he sustained life taking injuries. So that part is troubling
(14:38):
to me.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
In last hours, we learned that the so called glam
glamorous PhD student called Verzi tries to leave her Airbnb
in the cloak of darkness at around five o'clock in
the morning. What if anything, does that mean That will
be up to a jury whether that can be construed
as flight or evidence of guilt. But we do know
(15:02):
she was a no show at her arraignment. First of all,
let me go straight out to Jarrett Fiarantino explain in
a nutshell, what is an arrangment?
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Basically, Nancy, in Pennsylvania, you're read your charges and you
at that point enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.
Typically defendants appear for that, but if they don't appear
or waive that process, a plea of not guilty is
entered on their.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Behalf, automatically entered by the judge. Straight out to Alexis Tereschak,
crimeonline dot Com investigative reporter, Alexis, what happened? Because the
state goes to great pains to ensure a criminal defendant
has transportation, timely transportation to get to an arrangement. It's
(15:49):
an important part of the justice system. It's guaranteed in
our constitution that within x hours of you being charged,
you will be brought before a judge.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It could be a magistrate.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It could be a fail in the court trial judge,
and you will be formally read the charges against you,
and at that time, if the state's witnesses are known,
those witnesses are given to you and you have a
chance to state in court guilty or not guilty. Why
was she a no show? Am?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I corrected, saying she was a no show?
Speaker 5 (16:24):
One hundred percent. She was a no show. She sent
her look, she sent her lawyer. Her lawyer appeared on
her behalf. She did not show up, She did not
face the judge, and she did not appear in court.
This would have been the first time that she would
have been seen since being arrested for the felony against
this six week old baby, but she did not. She
(16:44):
chose not to appear. And then he entered the not
guilty plea. Well, she was given enough guilty plea on
her behalf in the court, which she is still in jail.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
So what does it mean if anything?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Of course, if this ever comes to a jury trial,
which I do believe will, they'll never know she was
a no show in court? Why did she hide out?
Why does she not want to come in and state
not guilty? I point A phrase is called a statement
plea where you try to make statement with the few
(17:20):
words you're given, be it guilty or not guilty in
court in public?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Perfect example, OJ Simpson.
Speaker 10 (17:28):
Matter of People versus Orienthal James Simpson, how do you
plead to count one and two?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Absolutely, that's some of my friends at CBS. Those words
will ring in my head forever. Absolutely, one hundred percent
not guilty. I wonder how many times my old co anchor,
Johnny Cochran practice that with Simpson before he could deliver
it in that manner in open court, knowing that it
(17:54):
was going to be televised, knowing that the world would
see it. Absolutely what percent not guilty? So why did
VERSI pull a no show? Then? Of course there's let
me think, Scott Peterson, listen.
Speaker 11 (18:10):
Is that correct, mis Com Peterson?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
You're feeding actilly?
Speaker 11 (18:12):
Is the true charges of murdered plus the special deny
any special allegations for episodes?
Speaker 7 (18:18):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's my friends at Court TV.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And can I tell you Mark Garrigo say what she
might about geargos He is a wizard at defending criminals.
I guarantee you he had Scott Peterson decked out looking
his best at ease in court, insisting I am hey,
(18:44):
I want to see that one more time. Scott Peterson
saying I am innocent.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
Is that correct?
Speaker 11 (18:49):
Mis Com Peterson, you're feeding Acchillia. Is the two charges
of murdered plus the special deny any special allegations episodes?
Speaker 7 (18:56):
That's correct?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Geges, please do you have to give him cues in
open court?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
That's for our friends at Court TV.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
He's like absolutely, say absolutely, Okay, So.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That wasn't a rehearsed.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You know what, I love looking at defendants when they
say absolutely one hundred percent not guilty. I just like
to look at them while they're lying. Speaking of lying,
Can we watch O. J. Simpson just one more time
just to say we did matter.
Speaker 10 (19:29):
Of people versus Orienthal James Simpson, how do you plead
to count one and two?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Absolute?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That down from our friends at CBS. Absolutely one hundred
percent not guilty. And then I guess you could take
the coburger approach. Okay, and we all know while we're
hearing them say absolutely one hundred percent, I swear to
the Lord in Heaven not guilty.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That they're guilty. Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So I look at them and they seem so believable. Hey,
what stunt did Coburger.
Speaker 12 (20:03):
Pull Miss Taylor?
Speaker 13 (20:04):
Who's mister Coberger prepared to plead to these charges?
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Where I feel all the same.
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Because mister Coberger is Sandy silent.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I'm going to answer.
Speaker 13 (20:16):
An ideals you police, I've been she charged as one, two, three, four,
and five.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That's my friends at East Idaho News. Hey, let me
go to you, Jarrett Farantino. Do you see that the
defendants are totally rehearsed. They know exactly what to do
and not do when they are asked when the judge
pops the questioning court, how do you plead?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Coburger was his call as a.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Pickle in court and knew that his lawyer, Ann Taylor
was going to jump up and say he's going to
stand silent, and there's a trial strategy to standing silent.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But what do you think about the rehearsals?
Speaker 7 (20:54):
Well, I think clearly those individuals were rehearsed. They had
prepared statements to just kind of a slip in there
when the judge asked them for their position. But it's
worth noting Nancy Colberger, Simpson, and Scott Peterson all have
video cameras in the courtroom, so the games start. Then
they're laying the foundation to get this defense out. In Pennsylvania,
(21:15):
where this case hails from, there are no cameras in
the courtroom, so there's no cameras to play to. If
she skips arraignment, she simply gets a not guilty plea.
At this point, I.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Guess you've heard of court reporters, reporters in court taking
down and writing about every single move Jarrett Varantino. In
our country, according to the founding fathers, we have open courtrooms,
no secret proceedings like you hear about in other countries,
(21:45):
you know, like China or Russia, where everything's done behind
closed doors.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Not here. As much as we can, I.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Guarantee you reporters would have been there to write down
everything she said, she did, what she was ring, her demeanor,
whether she stuttered, whether she.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Paused, you name it.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Now here is a strategic approach, and that would be
Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin. The judge just threw out the
charges against him. So in that case, Alexis Tereschuk refreshed
my recollection. Didn't he send in his lawyers to plead
(22:26):
not guilty? And he did not go to court?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Correct? He did not appear in court.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Famous Alec Baldwin, you know, super recognizable movie star, has
insisted that he well, he even said I think I
didn't pull the trigger. But he has insisted that he
was not at fault for the gun that fired in
his hand that killed Helena.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
But he didn't appear in court that first time.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
So why didn't Ersey at least show up to court
and let her lawyer do the talking like Coburger Take
a look from east side her news.
Speaker 13 (22:55):
Miss Taylor, he's mister Colbert and prepared to three to
the starges tyld sin sid.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
Because sim mister Koberber, he is sind silent.
Speaker 7 (23:07):
I'm going to answer.
Speaker 13 (23:08):
An idealty police, I'm fish charge guts one, two, three, four,
and five.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
As parents of newborn Savannah and Ethan wait in the
er with the baby Ari, they receive an even more
worrying call. Baby Leon has fallen and is unresponsive.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Okay, what do we know about the movements of everyone
the night? Baby Leon gets such extreme injuries to the
head that he dies.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Listen.
Speaker 14 (23:42):
Calling nine one one around eleven fifteen pm, Nicole Versey
tells the dispatcher that Leon has fallen from a bascinette
and bumped his head and is becoming unresponsive. When police
arrive at Versey tells police she falls asleep with the
baby in his bouncer seat. When she wakes up, she
goes to get a bottle from the kitchen for the baby.
While she is out of the room, she hears Leon
screaming and finds him on the floor with a bump
(24:04):
on his head. She tells police he fell out of
his bouncer seat.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Let me just analyze that.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We all know straight out to you, Brian Fitzgibbons, Director
usp USPA Nationwide Security. We know that, she tells police
at one point, he fell out of a bouncy seat. Later,
she says, out of a bacinet. Those two are very
different pieces of baby furniture. A bacinet is higher up
(24:29):
off the ground that there is a bouncy seat. But
what about this fact, Brian Fitzgibbons. She says, she falls asleep,
she wakes up, the baby is in the bouncy seat.
She leaves the baby in the bouncy seat, which is
supposed to be seat buckled, to go get the bottle,
(24:50):
and it's then she hears Leon's scream finds on the
floor of the bump on his head. She says, he
fell out of his bouncer seat. Now, you have interesting
information about the height of the bouncer seat, and I
want to talk to you about the timing.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And even on that bouncer.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Seat, you see a spot for the baby to put
its legs through, which is like a really soft type
of a cotton slide in for the baby so it
doesn't fall out.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Okay, what are your thoughts on the bouncy seat injury.
Speaker 8 (25:27):
First of all, Nancy, we have to understand police have
already reported that the tallest height on this bouncy seat
that the baby could have fallen from is eighteen inches.
So Nicole, her defense is going to have to explain
how a baby falls eighteen inches to its death.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Are you on a first nating basis with VERSI? Now
sorry called her, Nicole? Are you expecting to go over
for dinner after the acquittal?
Speaker 7 (25:54):
I forgot the last name.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Sorry about that, Nancy, Versy state versus, go ahead, say
whatever you want. But to elisis Terrisschuk. Let me talk
to you about the timing. He's right, the investigators measure
it is eighteen inches. I can see doctor Kimdall Crown's
is just recoiling right now that a baby would eject
(26:16):
itself from an eighteen inch bouncy seat and die.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
But that said, the.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Timing, the timing, she sees the baby in the bouncy seat,
she goes to the kitchen, she hears a scream. So
the timing, So am I supposed to believe that in
those forty five seconds the baby kills itself?
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Well, Andy, she did say he fell out of a
bascinet first, and then changed her story to the bouncy seat.
So a bascinet, as you showed the picture there, they
have sides on them, and a six week old baby
cannot fall out of that bascinet. He can't stand up,
he can't move, he can't grab the side. You can't
fall out of that bassinet unless it was a swinging
one and it flipped over, which I don't think.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
The timing, the time, and Jarrett Farentino helped me out,
help me out, forty five seconds, How in that timing,
in that short time.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Does the baby kill itself?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's quite the coincidence, Jarrett Farantino, And I guess even
you taking the side of the COVERSI will admit there
is no coincidence in criminal law. In the forty five
seconds it takes her to walk to the kitchen, the
baby kills itself.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
That's an extremely narrow window for an opportunity like something
of this nature to happen. I mean, the charge is
non accidental. So there are injuries that have been observed
that have allowed the examiners to conclude this was not
an accident. There are injuries that are not consistent with
a fall. That's exactly what brought about these charges. So
(27:50):
that version in that timeline doesn't make sense when compared
to the injuries.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Okay, listen to this.
Speaker 9 (27:56):
Rush to the hospital, doctors discovered Leon Katz has a
severe skull fracture to the left side of his head
and multiple brain bleeds. The entry suffered by the six
week old baby proof fatal, and he's pronounced dead the
next morning at Children's hospital. Police say Versy has no
plausible explanation for the severity of Leon's injuries. Examining the
bouncer seat, the detectives report that it's about eighteen inches
(28:18):
from the tallest point of the seat to the floor.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, this is what matters.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
What the medical examiner says, I can argue, hey, she's leaving,
She's fleeing in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
This that the timing, the coincidence.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's all about the CD cause of death. Nobody can
tell it like Kendle Crowns. Excuse me, doctor Kendall Crowns,
Chief Medical Examiner, Terrance County.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
That's Fort Worth.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
He cringes every time I say this, but never a
lot of business at the Fort Worth Morgue, esteemed lecturer
at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, literally thousands
of autopsies under his belt, Doctor Kendall Crowns, what do you.
Speaker 10 (29:14):
Think so the description of the injuries of fracture the
skull brain bleed is not from an eighteen inch fall,
especially with these bouncy seats if they're not buckled in
and they usually kind of roll out of them, they're
not even falling eighteen inches at that point. The type
of force that would be necessary to fracture the skull
like that the bouncy seat would have been had to
(29:35):
have put on the second story of a building and
the child rolled off and fell to the ground that way.
So to me, that sounds more like the child was
had their heads slammed against a solid surface.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Crime Stores with Nancy Gray.
Speaker 9 (29:59):
Investigators Nicole Versy about the injuries to Ari Katz, and
she immediately points out that she was the one who
spotted the injuries to Ari and alerted the parents. Versy
says the infant scratches his own face as he's flailing
about when he's being put in his car seat. Investigators
are also made aware Leon was alert, conscious, and not
injured when he is left with Versy watching over him
(30:21):
while the parents leave the home to take Ari to
the hospital for his mysterious genital injuries to be examined.
Versy tells officers she had fallen asleep with Leon in
his bouncy seat, and when she woke up, she went
to the kitchen to get him a bottle. Versy claims
while in the kitchen, she hears a thump and Leon crying,
and she finds him laying on the floor with a
horrible bump on the left side of his head. She
(30:42):
calls the parents, who tell her to call nine one one,
and that's.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
What she does.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Okay, already, this case is generating a lot of controversy.
I'm wanting to hear what I read someone had written
last night. I'm sorry, this is an absurd story. The
fact that people assume she's the baby murderer is effing terrifying.
Nothing suggests this was not an accident. They go on
(31:08):
to say, Neeborns are so effing fragile they break ribs
when they're born.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
They come out not.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yet completed, gest stating that's why they have a gigantic
hole in their.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Skull, the soft spot.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It goes on to say, one hard fall, the baby's dead,
and that's what happened here.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Doctors claim every bruise on a baby means abuse.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
It's almost always wrong, they write, Please stop believing these
absurd headlines.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
People who kill babies have histories of problems.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Countless arrests, violent histories, drug addictions, alcohol problems, none describe
Nicole Versey.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Okay, can I go to doctor Kendall Crown's that's just
so much.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I'm just a trial law you're the medical examiner. So
babies just die all the time when they fall.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 10 (32:09):
I neither did I, because if we die, if babies
died all the time when they fall, I'd have a
lot more business, which I don't have, so that's a
very inaccurate description. Also, the falling, we get a lot
of child abuse cases where the child fell from something,
and it's usually because that's how they're covering the damage
to the head that was caused. Then you can add
(32:32):
on there that ribs are broken. Okay, occasionally ribs are
broken during the birth process, but not to the extent
that you see damage from child abuse. The head not
being fully formed, well, that's so your brain can expand,
and that actually means your skull is more appliable. As
you get older, it becomes more hardened or more bony,
(32:53):
so it won't fracture as much. So again, all those
statements are completely inaccurate. And finally, you know, child abuse
theres are bad people. It's usually a parent or a
boyfriend that has just a bad moment, can't handle the
child and loses it. It's not that they have a history.
It's often it's just that one moment and they lose
(33:16):
control and they kill the kid.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, the writer is.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Suggesting that you have to have a history of abuse
or criminal convictions in order to kill a baby. That's
simply not true. And I'm trying to think back and
practically every child murder case I had that did not
(33:44):
have a criminal history. Let's see, there's so many different
directions to go. What about Benson Gardner had their.
Speaker 9 (33:51):
Gardener dromsof for a two month old baby and an
older son with the babysitter, Marisa Titzer. When the mom
returns to pick her children up, the baby is already
in his seat. He's already got his winter parka on,
and his hat is pulled down over his eyes, and
the sitter says, hey, he's asleep. It's only after they
get to the laundromat when Heather takes the baby out
of the car seat and realizes he's perfectly stiff. His
(34:13):
legs are bent in the shape of the car seat.
Her sister calls nine to one one and mom begins CPR,
but it's too late. The baby's already dead. By the
time rescue workers arrive. They declare the baby dead at
the laundromat.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
In that case, like in the current case of the
so called glam PhD student, the babysitter was known to mommy,
and of course we have and did not have a
criminal history.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
My point, what about Fallon Fridley.
Speaker 10 (34:41):
They were horrific.
Speaker 12 (34:43):
The child had injuries all over her body that were
definitely not consistent with just hitting her head on a
slide of the playground. They found contusions all over her body,
terrors to some of her internal organs, which we're definitely
inconsistent with hitting your head on a slide as well.
(35:04):
So just horrific, horrific injuries.
Speaker 15 (35:06):
When we were at the hospital, you know, the doctor
had mentioned that he had never seen a child with
injuries this severe actually recover, so hearing that was really
a heavy blow, but we were all optimistic. I think
it was around one fifteen one twenty in the morning
that we got the hard news.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Doctor Tendal Crowns is just over and over and over,
a child, an infant, or taught dies of extreme head
injuries that just can't happen from an eighteen inch fall.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You just don't fall and die.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Everybody on earth would be dead because we all fall
at some point or another.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
You don't just die when.
Speaker 10 (35:49):
You fall, correct, I mean especially children, because they their
heads aren't completely ossified or they're not completely formed bony
bone wise, so they do have some beendability to them.
And also they're not at an adult height if they
fall from a standing height, they're two foot three foot,
(36:10):
it isn't going to cause a fracture. When you see
fractures like this, especially in a six week old, it's
someone pounding their head on something. It just can't happen
from a fall. And also you have to think about
how would they get bruises. They're not even crawling around,
they're not really even standing yet, So any bruises that
you're seeing on a six week old is more than
(36:31):
likely an inflicted trauma.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
In the case of Nicole Versey, the District Attorney's office
is providing four reasons for seeking the death penalty. One
is that the defendant committed the killing well in perpetration
of a felony. The second is the offense was committed
by means of torture. The third reason given for seeking
the death penalty is the defendant has a significant history
of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence
(36:54):
to a person. And the fourth reason is the child
was under twelve years of age.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
The cal Verzi does not have any criminal history.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
That particular aggravating circumstance only comes into play once a
guilty verdict is handed down.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
And the death penalty is being sought.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
But I want to address Alexis Tereschuk that the prosecution
says one reason they would see the death penalty in
this case.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Is because of torture.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Explain, they feel like it wasn't that the baby fell
out of the bassinet or the bouncy seat, that he
was repeatedly injured, repeatedly hit or repeatedly slammed against something,
and this was torturing. He is six weeks old, tiniest
little thing like those little boys are so small, and
he was torture. They believe that his injuries were so
(37:41):
severe and so dramatic that this is they are considering
this torture.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's really hard to reconcile what we know about this
so called glamorous PhD student studying psychology and the fact
that torture is alleged by the prosecute.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Let's get it from the horse's mouth.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
My name is Nicole Ersey and I'm the first author
on the article titled Depression symptom patterns as predictors of
metabolic syndrome and cardiac events.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Again, it reminds me of Scott Peterson.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Oh, by the way, that's my friends at Heart and
Mind Journal, and that's Nicole Versey speaking about her PhD project. Again,
I use Peterson because it's very hard to look at
him and reconcile not in that big true exactly, but
in court. It's hard to reconcile him in court at
the time of the trial with what he was facing
(38:33):
in his charges of murdering Lacy.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And the baby. So what does it mean? Is the
eye tricking the mind or vice versa? Can we believe
what we see?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Or on the other hand, and let me throw this
to doctor Sherry Schwartz joining us. I was reading all
the online comments quite controversial, where another observer states, after
reading about Nicole Versey's PhD aspirations like Coburger, is she
(39:09):
living out some other trauma or some fantasy that she
was developing as she wrote her psychology PhD?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Is it far fetched? Is it real? Those are the
same questions we're trying to.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
Answer and co Burger, Well, the American Psychological Association did
a study back in around twenty twelve. It showed that
psychology PhD students tend to have a high level of
mental health symptoms like anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns.
(39:43):
To me, that's a major concern when you're educating people
to go into a field to work with vulnerable people.
We require police officers to pass a psych evaluation, why
wouldn't we require clinical psychology students to past the same
psych evaluation whether or not she wanted to research her
(40:06):
friend's trauma. I saw that comment online. That's hard to say.
That would be really diabolical. Doctor Kendall Crown said something
earlier about the fact that it seems like maybe she
just lost it. The baby was crying, you know, something
like that. That would show poor emotion regulation, her inability
(40:27):
to control her emotions in an appropriate manner, which is
in and of itself a mental health concern. So any
number of things could have been behind why this baby
was abused.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
We wait as just as un falls, and today our
prayers and our thoughts good to those whose lives were
forever changed September eleventh, two thousand and one. And we
remember the heroes who ran up the stairs to save others,
as set up down the stairs to breathe in the
(41:02):
fresh air, those who were killed in the Twin Towers.
We will never forget law enforcement officers over sixty and
over three hundred.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Firefighters and paramedics and two thousand plus civilians who died
our American heroes. Nancy Grace signing off Goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Early bird or fleeing selling the GLAPIHD babysitter charged in
an infants murder, caught leaving her airbnb around five a m.
Shrouded in darkness. Why I'm Nancy Grace, this is crime stories.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, the Pittsburgh family with newborn twin babies asks a
longtime friend to babysit matters take a turn for the worse.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, that's certainly an understatement.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
One of the infants is dead, the other injured in
the growing area with scratches and swelling. So, knowing that
your good friend's children are in danger, why would you
try to bail out in the dark of the wee
hours of the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Arriving back at her airbnb at twelve fifty three am,
Nicole Ersey is seen on security video less than five
hours later, as she appears to be making a hasty exit,
even though she was booked for two more nights at
the apartment, Bersey appears to be leaving. Bersy is seen
on security video leaving the building at five forty five am.
She reaches for her phone and makes a phone call
(01:21):
and is standing waiting on the sidewalk. At five forty
seven am, Leon Katz is pronounced dead. At five point
fifty am, police arrive at the Airbnb and two officers
approach Fersy on the sidewalk and quickly take her to
the waiting patrol car and transport her to the police headquarters,
where she agrees to be questioned without an attorney present.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Joining me in allstar panwel makes sense of what we
are hearing and what we are learning.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
We know that the.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So called glam glamorous PhDc to a twenty nine who
is studying to get her PhD in a derivative of psychology.
We know that she also led spin classes at at
least one, if not more, cycle centers.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
What more do we know?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
We know her dad is a renowned physician practicing at
Mount Sinai in New York City. We know that she
has many faces, the glad PhD student, the best friend
that travels to visit two infant boys.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But why in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
If this is one of your best friends would she
try to steal away.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
In the dark of the wee morning hours.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Let's analyze that timeline again, straight out to a panel
of experts.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
First, I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
To Alexisterschuk crimeonline dot com investigative reporter joining us out
of La Alexis, thank you for.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Being with us.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I want to analyze the timeline versy is spotted.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Let me back it up.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Back to her Airbnb a few blocks away from the
victim's home, the mom, the dad, the two twin infants.
That is around one am, just before one a m.
Then less than five hours later, in the dark of
the wee morning hours, she's beating a hasty retreat five
(03:23):
forty five a m. At five forty seven a m.
Infant child twin boy, Leon is pronounced dead.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So let me understand this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Tell me if I got the timeline correct, Alexis. So
she leaves her one of her best friends, Leon's mom,
and the dad, the father of the twins at the hospital.
Absolutely she leaves them there with Leon with horrific head
injuries and the other baby, Ari had genital swelling and scratches.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So instead of going back to.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
The hospital to check on the babies, she tries to leave.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
She did.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Here's the thing it actually she is the one that
called nine to one one about the baby, about Leon
at eleven fifteen pm. So then the next time you
see her is at shortly before one am, so less
than two hours she is already back in her airbnb.
She's not at the hotel with her friends. She has
(04:32):
been friends with the mom for I think almost ten years,
very good friends. They've traveled together. She was here babysitting
the children. She was trusted enough by the parents to
babysit the baby, and so she's back at the airbnb.
A few hours later, she goes outside. She hesitates outside
the front door, and she takes for about three minutes.
She then takes a phone call. At the time that
(04:53):
she's on the phone, the baby is reported dead three
minutes later. Just three minutes later, least surround her and
take her into custody. So they must have been absolutely
waiting outside, waiting to hear, watching her worry that she
was going to flee, knowing that this wasn't her regular
home was in airbnbb. She lives in San Diego, California,
(05:14):
so they were waiting for her for this exact reason.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I'm very very curious about the behavior and joining me
is an esteem forensic psychologist specializing in capital mitigation and
victim advocacy at panthermitigation dot com. Author of Criminal Behavior
and author of Where Law and Psychology Intersect, Doctor Sherry
(05:39):
Schwartz is with us. Doctor Sherry, I've got a problem
with this. She is the one that calls nine to
one one just a few hours before baby Leon is
raced to the hospital. Now this is after baby Ari.
She is the one that notices that baby Ari's penis
is swown and read and there are multiple scratches in
(06:03):
his growing area. She says, look at this, and the
parents rush to the hospital with baby Ari. They're in
the hospital with baby Ari and they get a call.
Leon is unresponsive and the dad says.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Called nine one one, and she does.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
But within hours she is spotted leaving her airbnb in
about five hours, fully dressed, makeup, hair, everything, jetting out
of town.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
What does that mean if anything.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Well, right off the bat, if she's trying to flee,
which is what it appears she was trying to do.
Innocent people don't run away when they know that they're
going to need to answer some questions and help further
along an investigation. But to me, it's even deeper, because
this is a clinical psychology PhD studs and during that training,
(07:01):
and she's not new in that training. So during that training,
we are taught about legal investigations, we are taught about ethics,
We are taught about things that make us know that
we don't need to call somebody to figure out if
we need to call nine to one one.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So this is extra troubling.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
There's an added layer here.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Jared Farantino is joining us try a lawyer and co
host a primetime crime on YouTube. You can find them
at Jarrettfarantino dot com. Jared and a lot of jurisdictions,
judges no longer give a jury instruction to the jury
about evidence of flight. That's no longer allowed for the
(07:46):
judge to instruct the jury that flight can doesn't have
to be, but can be construed as evidence of guilt
when someone tries to flee the same. However, the prosecution
can still argue it. Let me give a good example,
Scott Peterson. That's a great example. Remember when Lacy's body
(08:09):
had washed ashore as well as its unborn son Connors.
Scott Peterson dyed his hair, loaded up on viagra and
condoms and a fake ID and tried to skip town.
He was caught he also had a water purifier and
camping gear.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
In my mind, that's evidence of flight equals evidence of guilt.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So in this case, how would you differentiate the glam
PhD student Versey with Peterson.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
So Nancy consciousness of guilt is admissible in Pennsylvania. What
Nicole Versy would have to do in this case is
explain away that conduct. She would say her plans for
some reason changed anything to rebut the fact that she
was trying to high tail it out of town would
be something she could rebut the argument that in fact
she was leaving, she was on her way out of
(08:59):
ten to avoid responsibility for these charges.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Hey, Fertina, I love what you just said. Her plans changed?
When at three am? When did her plans change? But
I do want to follow up on something that Jarrett
Farantino says. And look, he's between a rock and a
hard spot. You take your client the way you find them.
What do you think you're going to get a nun,
a priest, aversion, Sister Teresa, That's not happening, okay, mothers.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Ruisa is not going to be your client. You're stuck
with Versi.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So you've got to somehow Ruppel Stileskin, you got to
spend that straw that hay into Gold Defense Gold. So
he just said that she could argue her plans had changed.
Alexis Tereschuk, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, What were
(09:53):
her plans? I thought she was going to stay in
the airbnb a few blocks away from where the children
and were apparently assaulted.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
What plans changed? Her plan was to be there for
multiple days.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
After exactly she had at least two more nights on
the Airbnb reservation. She was going to stay with her friend,
hang out with the babies. She had emailed the owner
of the Airbnb and said, you know, I'm going to
be here, just so excited to stay in your lovely place.
Nothing about oh, I'm only staying one night after I
was in the hospital with my friend's baby. She had
definitely not planned to leave the airbnb.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Earlier Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So taking a look at this timeline to Brian Fitzgibbons
direct to Operations USPA Nationwide Security leading a team of investigators.
You can find him at uspasecurity dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Bryan Fitzgibbons, what do you make of it?
Speaker 8 (10:57):
Listen, you look at the timeline when she makes that
call to nine one one at eleven fifteen. All Right,
she already knows what's occurred inside of that house and
what's happened with that baby. All Right, at this time,
a horrific thing has already happened.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Police.
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Now by the time she's absconding in the early morning,
over that six hour span, right, police have had a
chance to process that crime scene. That's why they were
waiting outside the airbnb when she was trying to make
her escape.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So let's backtrack it to her coming home from the hospital,
leaving her friend, the mom, and the dad at the
hospital with baby Leon hoping he survives.
Speaker 9 (11:42):
Listen EMT's transport Lyon Cats to the hospital shortly before midnight,
and his father, Ethankats, and Nicole Versy drive to the
hospital separately. Savannah Roberts is still at the hospital with
Leon's twin brother, Ari, who is being treated for mysterious
injuries to his groin area. Nicole Versy doesn't stay at
the hospital long. She's seen arriving back at her airbnb
shortly before one am, appearing nervous as she struggles to
(12:04):
unlock the door, grim faced with her cell phone in
one hand. She enters the door code to enter the
apartment building. Versy has to enter the code a couple
of times before getting the number right and entering the building.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I don't know what I could read into that or
translate out of that. Let me go to you, doctor
Sherry Schwartz joining us. Of course, there's nothing I can
glean from that. She gets back, leaving one of her
best friends and the husband at the hospital with baby Leon.
(12:36):
I can't determine any consciousness of guilt. Of course, she's upset.
It's late at night. She comes home, she can't quite
get back into the door.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
She struggles with it.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
That means nothing to me because it's not her home code,
it's the code from the airbnb, so she's trying to
remember that. I can't really glean anything from that, however,
leaving in the cloak of darkness the next morning at
five am to leave town.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That tells me a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And I'm wondering jump into Alexas Treshak if you know
is she leaving by car or has she called for
an uber or a lyft? And what was her destination?
That's what I'm getting at. Do we know where she
was headed?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Such as the airport doctor Sherry Schwartz.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I can't really read anything into her entry into the
airbnb the night before.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
No, However, it is troubling because this is such a
good friend to her, that this friend she traveled across
the country to help this friend take care of the babies.
I read that it was the young couples, the parents
wedding anniversary. It was also Father's Day or around Father's Day,
(13:56):
I believe, So why aren't you at your friend's side?
Why aren't you at the hospital to control your friend
and be there for your friend? And again not to
beat the drum. This is a clinical psychology PhD student
whose training would prepare her to be there and hold
space for somebody in a traumatic situation. And I understand
(14:17):
that she may also have been experiencing anxiety and the
sense of trauma herself. But she was with these babies
and the one who noticed their injuries, and with the
one child, the deceased child. She was with him when
he sustained life taking injuries. So that part is troubling
(14:38):
to me.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
In last hours, we learned that the so called glam
glamorous PhD student called Verzi tries to leave her Airbnb
in the cloak of darkness at around five o'clock in
the morning. What if anything, does that mean That will
be up to a jury whether that can be construed
as flight or evidence of guilt. But we do know
(15:02):
she was a no show at her arraignment. First of all,
let me go straight out to Jarrett Fiarantino explain in
a nutshell, what is an arrangment?
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Basically, Nancy, in Pennsylvania, you're read your charges and you
at that point enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.
Typically defendants appear for that, but if they don't appear
or waive that process, a plea of not guilty is
entered on their.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Behalf, automatically entered by the judge. Straight out to Alexis Tereschak,
crimeonline dot Com investigative reporter, Alexis, what happened? Because the
state goes to great pains to ensure a criminal defendant
has transportation, timely transportation to get to an arrangement. It's
(15:49):
an important part of the justice system. It's guaranteed in
our constitution that within x hours of you being charged,
you will be brought before a judge.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It could be a magistrate.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It could be a fail in the court trial judge,
and you will be formally read the charges against you,
and at that time, if the state's witnesses are known,
those witnesses are given to you and you have a
chance to state in court guilty or not guilty. Why
was she a no show? Am?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I corrected, saying she was a no show?
Speaker 5 (16:24):
One hundred percent. She was a no show. She sent
her look, she sent her lawyer. Her lawyer appeared on
her behalf. She did not show up, She did not
face the judge, and she did not appear in court.
This would have been the first time that she would
have been seen since being arrested for the felony against
this six week old baby, but she did not. She
(16:44):
chose not to appear. And then he entered the not
guilty plea. Well, she was given enough guilty plea on
her behalf in the court, which she is still in jail.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
So what does it mean if anything?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Of course, if this ever comes to a jury trial,
which I do believe will, they'll never know she was
a no show in court? Why did she hide out?
Why does she not want to come in and state
not guilty? I point A phrase is called a statement
plea where you try to make statement with the few
(17:20):
words you're given, be it guilty or not guilty in
court in public?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Perfect example, OJ Simpson.
Speaker 10 (17:28):
Matter of People versus Orienthal James Simpson, how do you
plead to count one and two?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Absolutely, that's some of my friends at CBS. Those words
will ring in my head forever. Absolutely, one hundred percent
not guilty. I wonder how many times my old co anchor,
Johnny Cochran practice that with Simpson before he could deliver
it in that manner in open court, knowing that it
(17:54):
was going to be televised, knowing that the world would
see it. Absolutely what percent not guilty? So why did
VERSI pull a no show? Then? Of course there's let
me think, Scott Peterson, listen.
Speaker 11 (18:10):
Is that correct, mis Com Peterson?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
You're feeding actilly?
Speaker 11 (18:12):
Is the true charges of murdered plus the special deny
any special allegations for episodes?
Speaker 7 (18:18):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's my friends at Court TV.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
And can I tell you Mark Garrigo say what she
might about geargos He is a wizard at defending criminals.
I guarantee you he had Scott Peterson decked out looking
his best at ease in court, insisting I am hey,
(18:44):
I want to see that one more time. Scott Peterson
saying I am innocent.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
Is that correct?
Speaker 11 (18:49):
Mis Com Peterson, you're feeding Acchillia. Is the two charges
of murdered plus the special deny any special allegations episodes?
Speaker 7 (18:56):
That's correct?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Geges, please do you have to give him cues in
open court?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
That's for our friends at Court TV.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
He's like absolutely, say absolutely, Okay, So.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That wasn't a rehearsed.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You know what, I love looking at defendants when they
say absolutely one hundred percent not guilty. I just like
to look at them while they're lying. Speaking of lying,
Can we watch O. J. Simpson just one more time
just to say we did matter.
Speaker 10 (19:29):
Of people versus Orienthal James Simpson, how do you plead
to count one and two?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Absolute?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That down from our friends at CBS. Absolutely one hundred
percent not guilty. And then I guess you could take
the coburger approach. Okay, and we all know while we're
hearing them say absolutely one hundred percent, I swear to
the Lord in Heaven not guilty.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That they're guilty. Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So I look at them and they seem so believable. Hey,
what stunt did Coburger.
Speaker 12 (20:03):
Pull Miss Taylor?
Speaker 13 (20:04):
Who's mister Coberger prepared to plead to these charges?
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Where I feel all the same.
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Because mister Coberger is Sandy silent.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I'm going to answer.
Speaker 13 (20:16):
An ideals you police, I've been she charged as one, two, three, four,
and five.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That's my friends at East Idaho News. Hey, let me
go to you, Jarrett Farantino. Do you see that the
defendants are totally rehearsed. They know exactly what to do
and not do when they are asked when the judge
pops the questioning court, how do you plead?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Coburger was his call as a.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Pickle in court and knew that his lawyer, Ann Taylor
was going to jump up and say he's going to
stand silent, and there's a trial strategy to standing silent.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But what do you think about the rehearsals?
Speaker 7 (20:54):
Well, I think clearly those individuals were rehearsed. They had
prepared statements to just kind of a slip in there
when the judge asked them for their position. But it's
worth noting Nancy Colberger, Simpson, and Scott Peterson all have
video cameras in the courtroom, so the games start. Then
they're laying the foundation to get this defense out. In Pennsylvania,
(21:15):
where this case hails from, there are no cameras in
the courtroom, so there's no cameras to play to. If
she skips arraignment, she simply gets a not guilty plea.
At this point, I.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Guess you've heard of court reporters, reporters in court taking
down and writing about every single move Jarrett Varantino. In
our country, according to the founding fathers, we have open courtrooms,
no secret proceedings like you hear about in other countries,
(21:45):
you know, like China or Russia, where everything's done behind
closed doors.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Not here. As much as we can, I.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Guarantee you reporters would have been there to write down
everything she said, she did, what she was ring, her demeanor,
whether she stuttered, whether she.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Paused, you name it.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Now here is a strategic approach, and that would be
Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin. The judge just threw out the
charges against him. So in that case, Alexis Tereschuk refreshed
my recollection. Didn't he send in his lawyers to plead
(22:26):
not guilty? And he did not go to court?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Correct? He did not appear in court.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Famous Alec Baldwin, you know, super recognizable movie star, has
insisted that he well, he even said I think I
didn't pull the trigger. But he has insisted that he
was not at fault for the gun that fired in
his hand that killed Helena.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
But he didn't appear in court that first time.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
So why didn't Ersey at least show up to court
and let her lawyer do the talking like Coburger Take
a look from east side her news.
Speaker 13 (22:55):
Miss Taylor, he's mister Colbert and prepared to three to
the starges tyld sin sid.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
Because sim mister Koberber, he is sind silent.
Speaker 7 (23:07):
I'm going to answer.
Speaker 13 (23:08):
An idealty police, I'm fish charge guts one, two, three, four,
and five.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
As parents of newborn Savannah and Ethan wait in the
er with the baby Ari, they receive an even more
worrying call. Baby Leon has fallen and is unresponsive.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Okay, what do we know about the movements of everyone
the night? Baby Leon gets such extreme injuries to the
head that he dies.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Listen.
Speaker 14 (23:42):
Calling nine one one around eleven fifteen pm, Nicole Versey
tells the dispatcher that Leon has fallen from a bascinette
and bumped his head and is becoming unresponsive. When police
arrive at Versey tells police she falls asleep with the
baby in his bouncer seat. When she wakes up, she
goes to get a bottle from the kitchen for the baby.
While she is out of the room, she hears Leon
screaming and finds him on the floor with a bump
(24:04):
on his head. She tells police he fell out of
his bouncer seat.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Let me just analyze that.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We all know straight out to you, Brian Fitzgibbons, Director
usp USPA Nationwide Security. We know that, she tells police
at one point, he fell out of a bouncy seat. Later,
she says, out of a bacinet. Those two are very
different pieces of baby furniture. A bacinet is higher up
(24:29):
off the ground that there is a bouncy seat. But
what about this fact, Brian Fitzgibbons. She says, she falls asleep,
she wakes up, the baby is in the bouncy seat.
She leaves the baby in the bouncy seat, which is
supposed to be seat buckled, to go get the bottle,
(24:50):
and it's then she hears Leon's scream finds on the
floor of the bump on his head. She says, he
fell out of his bouncer seat. Now, you have interesting
information about the height of the bouncer seat, and I
want to talk to you about the timing.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And even on that bouncer.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Seat, you see a spot for the baby to put
its legs through, which is like a really soft type
of a cotton slide in for the baby so it
doesn't fall out.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Okay, what are your thoughts on the bouncy seat injury.
Speaker 8 (25:27):
First of all, Nancy, we have to understand police have
already reported that the tallest height on this bouncy seat
that the baby could have fallen from is eighteen inches.
So Nicole, her defense is going to have to explain
how a baby falls eighteen inches to its death.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Are you on a first nating basis with VERSI? Now
sorry called her, Nicole? Are you expecting to go over
for dinner after the acquittal?
Speaker 7 (25:54):
I forgot the last name.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Sorry about that, Nancy, Versy state versus, go ahead, say
whatever you want. But to elisis Terrisschuk. Let me talk
to you about the timing. He's right, the investigators measure
it is eighteen inches. I can see doctor Kimdall Crown's
is just recoiling right now that a baby would eject
(26:16):
itself from an eighteen inch bouncy seat and die.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
But that said, the.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Timing, the timing, she sees the baby in the bouncy seat,
she goes to the kitchen, she hears a scream. So
the timing, So am I supposed to believe that in
those forty five seconds the baby kills itself?
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Well, Andy, she did say he fell out of a
bascinet first, and then changed her story to the bouncy seat.
So a bascinet, as you showed the picture there, they
have sides on them, and a six week old baby
cannot fall out of that bascinet. He can't stand up,
he can't move, he can't grab the side. You can't
fall out of that bassinet unless it was a swinging
one and it flipped over, which I don't think.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
The timing, the time, and Jarrett Farentino helped me out,
help me out, forty five seconds, How in that timing,
in that short time.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Does the baby kill itself?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's quite the coincidence, Jarrett Farantino, And I guess even
you taking the side of the COVERSI will admit there
is no coincidence in criminal law. In the forty five
seconds it takes her to walk to the kitchen, the
baby kills itself.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
That's an extremely narrow window for an opportunity like something
of this nature to happen. I mean, the charge is
non accidental. So there are injuries that have been observed
that have allowed the examiners to conclude this was not
an accident. There are injuries that are not consistent with
a fall. That's exactly what brought about these charges. So
(27:50):
that version in that timeline doesn't make sense when compared
to the injuries.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Okay, listen to this.
Speaker 9 (27:56):
Rush to the hospital, doctors discovered Leon Katz has a
severe skull fracture to the left side of his head
and multiple brain bleeds. The entry suffered by the six
week old baby proof fatal, and he's pronounced dead the
next morning at Children's hospital. Police say Versy has no
plausible explanation for the severity of Leon's injuries. Examining the
bouncer seat, the detectives report that it's about eighteen inches
(28:18):
from the tallest point of the seat to the floor.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, this is what matters.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
What the medical examiner says, I can argue, hey, she's leaving,
She's fleeing in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
This that the timing, the coincidence.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's all about the CD cause of death. Nobody can
tell it like Kendle Crowns. Excuse me, doctor Kendall Crowns,
Chief Medical Examiner, Terrance County.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
That's Fort Worth.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
He cringes every time I say this, but never a
lot of business at the Fort Worth Morgue, esteemed lecturer
at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, literally thousands
of autopsies under his belt, Doctor Kendall Crowns, what do you.
Speaker 10 (29:14):
Think so the description of the injuries of fracture the
skull brain bleed is not from an eighteen inch fall,
especially with these bouncy seats if they're not buckled in
and they usually kind of roll out of them, they're
not even falling eighteen inches at that point. The type
of force that would be necessary to fracture the skull
like that the bouncy seat would have been had to
(29:35):
have put on the second story of a building and
the child rolled off and fell to the ground that way.
So to me, that sounds more like the child was
had their heads slammed against a solid surface.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Crime Stores with Nancy Gray.
Speaker 9 (29:59):
Investigators Nicole Versy about the injuries to Ari Katz, and
she immediately points out that she was the one who
spotted the injuries to Ari and alerted the parents. Versy
says the infant scratches his own face as he's flailing
about when he's being put in his car seat. Investigators
are also made aware Leon was alert, conscious, and not
injured when he is left with Versy watching over him
(30:21):
while the parents leave the home to take Ari to
the hospital for his mysterious genital injuries to be examined.
Versy tells officers she had fallen asleep with Leon in
his bouncy seat, and when she woke up, she went
to the kitchen to get him a bottle. Versy claims
while in the kitchen, she hears a thump and Leon crying,
and she finds him laying on the floor with a
horrible bump on the left side of his head. She
(30:42):
calls the parents, who tell her to call nine one one,
and that's.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
What she does.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Okay, already, this case is generating a lot of controversy.
I'm wanting to hear what I read someone had written
last night. I'm sorry, this is an absurd story. The
fact that people assume she's the baby murderer is effing terrifying.
Nothing suggests this was not an accident. They go on
(31:08):
to say, Neeborns are so effing fragile they break ribs
when they're born.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
They come out not.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yet completed, gest stating that's why they have a gigantic
hole in their.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Skull, the soft spot.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It goes on to say, one hard fall, the baby's dead,
and that's what happened here.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Doctors claim every bruise on a baby means abuse.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
It's almost always wrong, they write, Please stop believing these
absurd headlines.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
People who kill babies have histories of problems.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Countless arrests, violent histories, drug addictions, alcohol problems, none describe
Nicole Versey.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Okay, can I go to doctor Kendall Crown's that's just
so much.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I'm just a trial law you're the medical examiner. So
babies just die all the time when they fall.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 10 (32:09):
I neither did I, because if we die, if babies
died all the time when they fall, I'd have a
lot more business, which I don't have, so that's a
very inaccurate description. Also, the falling, we get a lot
of child abuse cases where the child fell from something,
and it's usually because that's how they're covering the damage
to the head that was caused. Then you can add
(32:32):
on there that ribs are broken. Okay, occasionally ribs are
broken during the birth process, but not to the extent
that you see damage from child abuse. The head not
being fully formed, well, that's so your brain can expand,
and that actually means your skull is more appliable. As
you get older, it becomes more hardened or more bony,
(32:53):
so it won't fracture as much. So again, all those
statements are completely inaccurate. And finally, you know, child abuse
theres are bad people. It's usually a parent or a
boyfriend that has just a bad moment, can't handle the
child and loses it. It's not that they have a history.
It's often it's just that one moment and they lose
(33:16):
control and they kill the kid.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, the writer is.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Suggesting that you have to have a history of abuse
or criminal convictions in order to kill a baby. That's
simply not true. And I'm trying to think back and
practically every child murder case I had that did not
(33:44):
have a criminal history. Let's see, there's so many different
directions to go. What about Benson Gardner had their.
Speaker 9 (33:51):
Gardener dromsof for a two month old baby and an
older son with the babysitter, Marisa Titzer. When the mom
returns to pick her children up, the baby is already
in his seat. He's already got his winter parka on,
and his hat is pulled down over his eyes, and
the sitter says, hey, he's asleep. It's only after they
get to the laundromat when Heather takes the baby out
of the car seat and realizes he's perfectly stiff. His
(34:13):
legs are bent in the shape of the car seat.
Her sister calls nine to one one and mom begins CPR,
but it's too late. The baby's already dead. By the
time rescue workers arrive. They declare the baby dead at
the laundromat.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
In that case, like in the current case of the
so called glam PhD student, the babysitter was known to mommy,
and of course we have and did not have a
criminal history.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
My point, what about Fallon Fridley.
Speaker 10 (34:41):
They were horrific.
Speaker 12 (34:43):
The child had injuries all over her body that were
definitely not consistent with just hitting her head on a
slide of the playground. They found contusions all over her body,
terrors to some of her internal organs, which we're definitely
inconsistent with hitting your head on a slide as well.
(35:04):
So just horrific, horrific injuries.
Speaker 15 (35:06):
When we were at the hospital, you know, the doctor
had mentioned that he had never seen a child with
injuries this severe actually recover, so hearing that was really
a heavy blow, but we were all optimistic. I think
it was around one fifteen one twenty in the morning
that we got the hard news.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Doctor Tendal Crowns is just over and over and over,
a child, an infant, or taught dies of extreme head
injuries that just can't happen from an eighteen inch fall.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You just don't fall and die.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Everybody on earth would be dead because we all fall
at some point or another.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
You don't just die when.
Speaker 10 (35:49):
You fall, correct, I mean especially children, because they their
heads aren't completely ossified or they're not completely formed bony
bone wise, so they do have some beendability to them.
And also they're not at an adult height if they
fall from a standing height, they're two foot three foot,
(36:10):
it isn't going to cause a fracture. When you see
fractures like this, especially in a six week old, it's
someone pounding their head on something. It just can't happen
from a fall. And also you have to think about
how would they get bruises. They're not even crawling around,
they're not really even standing yet, So any bruises that
you're seeing on a six week old is more than
(36:31):
likely an inflicted trauma.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
In the case of Nicole Versey, the District Attorney's office
is providing four reasons for seeking the death penalty. One
is that the defendant committed the killing well in perpetration
of a felony. The second is the offense was committed
by means of torture. The third reason given for seeking
the death penalty is the defendant has a significant history
of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence
(36:54):
to a person. And the fourth reason is the child
was under twelve years of age.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
The cal Verzi does not have any criminal history.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
That particular aggravating circumstance only comes into play once a
guilty verdict is handed down.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
And the death penalty is being sought.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
But I want to address Alexis Tereschuk that the prosecution
says one reason they would see the death penalty in
this case.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Is because of torture.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Explain, they feel like it wasn't that the baby fell
out of the bassinet or the bouncy seat, that he
was repeatedly injured, repeatedly hit or repeatedly slammed against something,
and this was torturing. He is six weeks old, tiniest
little thing like those little boys are so small, and
he was torture. They believe that his injuries were so
(37:41):
severe and so dramatic that this is they are considering
this torture.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's really hard to reconcile what we know about this
so called glamorous PhD student studying psychology and the fact
that torture is alleged by the prosecute.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Let's get it from the horse's mouth.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
My name is Nicole Ersey and I'm the first author
on the article titled Depression symptom patterns as predictors of
metabolic syndrome and cardiac events.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Again, it reminds me of Scott Peterson.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Oh, by the way, that's my friends at Heart and
Mind Journal, and that's Nicole Versey speaking about her PhD project. Again,
I use Peterson because it's very hard to look at
him and reconcile not in that big true exactly, but
in court. It's hard to reconcile him in court at
the time of the trial with what he was facing
(38:33):
in his charges of murdering Lacy.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And the baby. So what does it mean? Is the
eye tricking the mind or vice versa? Can we believe
what we see?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Or on the other hand, and let me throw this
to doctor Sherry Schwartz joining us. I was reading all
the online comments quite controversial, where another observer states, after
reading about Nicole Versey's PhD aspirations like Coburger, is she
(39:09):
living out some other trauma or some fantasy that she
was developing as she wrote her psychology PhD?
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Is it far fetched? Is it real? Those are the
same questions we're trying to.
Speaker 6 (39:22):
Answer and co Burger, Well, the American Psychological Association did
a study back in around twenty twelve. It showed that
psychology PhD students tend to have a high level of
mental health symptoms like anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns.
(39:43):
To me, that's a major concern when you're educating people
to go into a field to work with vulnerable people.
We require police officers to pass a psych evaluation, why
wouldn't we require clinical psychology students to past the same
psych evaluation whether or not she wanted to research her
(40:06):
friend's trauma. I saw that comment online. That's hard to say.
That would be really diabolical. Doctor Kendall Crown said something
earlier about the fact that it seems like maybe she
just lost it. The baby was crying, you know, something
like that. That would show poor emotion regulation, her inability
(40:27):
to control her emotions in an appropriate manner, which is
in and of itself a mental health concern. So any
number of things could have been behind why this baby
was abused.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
We wait as just as un falls, and today our
prayers and our thoughts good to those whose lives were
forever changed September eleventh, two thousand and one. And we
remember the heroes who ran up the stairs to save others,
as set up down the stairs to breathe in the
(41:02):
fresh air, those who were killed in the Twin Towers.
We will never forget law enforcement officers over sixty and
over three hundred.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Firefighters and paramedics and two thousand plus civilians who died
our American heroes. Nancy Grace signing off Goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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