Allegheny County Woman Who Killed Her Best Friend’s 6-Week-Old Twin Son Gets 35 to 80 Years After Pleading Guilty to Third-Degree Murder

A woman who killed her best friend’s 6-week-old son was sentenced to 35 to 80 years in prison in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, after pleading guilty to third-degree murder. Nicole Virzi, 32, entered the plea on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, according to WTOC, and the agreement spared the case a possible death-penalty trial.

The baby was Leon Katz, one of twin sons of Savannah Roberts, Virzi’s longtime friend. Virzi also admitted hurting his twin brother, Ari. The sentence closes a case that began in 2024 with a 911 call about a baby bouncer.

The Plea, the Charges and the Sentence in Pittsburgh

Virzi pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, the trial court that sits in downtown Pittsburgh, according to the court’s website. A photo caption in the WTOC report lists the charges as homicide, child endangerment and two counts of aggravated assault. WTOC reported that the plea avoided a possible death-penalty trial on a first-degree murder charge, and that she was sentenced to 35 to 80 years.

The difference between the degrees of murder explains why the plea mattered. Under Pennsylvania’s murder statute, as published by Justia, first-degree murder is a criminal homicide that results from an intentional killing, including a willful, deliberate and premeditated act. The statute says that “all other kinds of murder shall be murder of the third degree,” and that third-degree murder is a felony of the first degree. First-degree murder was the charge on which a death sentence could have been sought, which is why WTOC described the agreement as avoiding a possible death-penalty trial.

Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial System runs a web portal that gives the public free access to docket sheets and calendars for appellate, common pleas and magisterial district courts, although the portal warns that recent court entries may not appear right away.

What Prosecutors Told the Court About 2024

WTOC reported that Virzi was visiting Pittsburgh in 2024 to help Roberts with the twins. The parents took Ari to a hospital after finding unexplained injuries, and Virzi offered to watch Leon while they were gone. That night she called 911 and said Leon had fallen from a baby bouncer.

Leon was rushed to a children’s hospital, where he died. An autopsy found blunt force trauma to the head, and investigators concluded the injury could not have come from a bouncer fall. Detectives also determined that Virzi had caused Ari’s injuries.

According to WTOC, prosecutors described the case in court and revealed what Virzi told investigators: that she had always had a compulsion she could not control to harm children.

The parents were at a hospital with one twin, the other twin was in Virzi’s care, and the 911 call came during that window. The explanation Virzi gave on that call is the one investigators later ruled out.

A Mother’s Letter to Judge Rangos

Roberts wrote a letter to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos, which WTOC quoted. She wrote that she could never have imagined that a person, let alone her best friend, was “capable of the cruelty or violence Nicole displayed.”

The relationship between the two women is what set the case apart from most others. Virzi was not a stranger or a hired sitter. She was a friend of years who had come to help, and she was trusted with the babies when their parents left to take one of them to the hospital.

For parents, the case is also a reminder of the resources that exist when a child is believed to be in danger. In Pennsylvania, anyone can report suspected child abuse by calling ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313, which the state’s Department of Human Services says is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Mandated reporters, such as school, health care and child care employees, must give their name and contact information, while other callers can report anonymously. A child welfare professional asks about the child, the parent or guardian, the concern, any specific incident and the suspected perpetrator, but callers do not need all of that information to make a report. ChildLine then decides which office follows up, whether the county children and youth agency, law enforcement or another Department of Human Services office.

The sentence ends the criminal case against Virzi. For the family, the loss of Leon and the injuries to Ari remain, and Roberts’s letter to the court is the clearest public record of how that trust was broken.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Dllu – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons