When the Upper West Side nanny accused of slaughtering two tots opened her eyes after the bloody attack, a breathing tube down her throat and shackled to a hospital bed, she didn’t ask about the slain youngsters or express remorse — she whined about their mom.
“I had to do Everything AND TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS,” Yoselyn Ortega communicated to the on-duty cop just two days after she butchered Lucia Krim, 6, and Leo Krim, 2.
Jurors Thursday saw the disturbing statements the 55-year-old made to NYPD Sgt. Yoel Hidalgo, who dictated her gestures, via alphabet board, in pen onto four separate sheets of white paper.
Ortega claims she doesn’t remember the slaughter and says she was possessed by the devil, and was unable to address Hildago verbally because after nearly decapitating the children she plunged the knife into her own throat.
The grisly crime unfolded just three days after Ortega visited a psychologist — who took the stand earlier Thursday to tell jurors Ortega was depressed, but not mentally ill.
“I worked as babysitter only and she wanted me to do everything so wanted 5 hours of cleaning every week,” another statement inked by Hildago read, referencing stay-at-home mom Marina Krim.
The 55-year-old’s gripes continued, despite the fact that, in a children’s bathroom across the city, investigators were still collecting evidence from the blood-soaked room where she’d stabbed the children to death in the tub.
“I told her I do not want to clean because of soap,” Ortega also said, with Hidalgo telling jurors she’d pointed to her pinky after this statement.
Krim, during her heartbreaking testimony last week, told the court Ortega had approached her and showed her a burn on her pinky from bleach in the days before the slayings.
The mom had testified she was horrified by the injury, and purchased natural cleaning products for the cash-strapped woman, whom she’d offered $100 more a week for five hours of cleaning in addition to child care.
But the natural solvents were never used, because days later Ortega butchered Krim’s children, and then tried to take her own life.
“When I got things wrong she would make a grunting, gargling sound,” Hidalgo testified. “She would tap on the railing. She would show frustration. Even small facial expressions, she would make.”
Ortega, who has been scowling and shaking her head during past testimony — and refusing to look at her gruesome handiwork — stared at the exhibits.
The first piece of paper shown to jurors contained pen scratches made by Ortega herself, and also referenced the psychologist, Dr. Thomas Caffrey, whom she’d visited under the name Yoselyn Perez.
Caffrey testified there was “no evidence” that the then-50-year-old caregiver suffered from delusions or hallucinations at the time of the knifings.
“She didn’t tell me about any concerns about voices or visions, smells, tactile. No indication of hallucinations,” Caffrey testified in Manhattan Supreme Court. “Her concerns seemed to be about her heart, her anxiety, her son, her sister, her money. She impressed me as a worried, anxious, frightened person.”
“She seemed to be concerned about her son and not having done much for him over the 12 years,” Caffrey’s notes read.
Ortega never made a second appointment. Soon after visiting Caffrey, she allegedly went on a stabbing spree inside Marina and Kevin Krim’s Upper West Side apartment, murdering Lucia and Leo.
Prosecutors, who don’t have to prove a motive, have said Ortega was driven to kill because she was jealous of mom Marina Krim and resentful that Krim offered her housework for more money.
Ortega, who worked for the Krims for two years, is mounting an insanity defense, claiming she’d heard voices and was “touched by the devil” in the months leading up to the murders.
Ortega faces up to life in prison if convicted. If she’s found not guilty by reason if insanity, she could spend the rest of her life in a mental institution.