Nicole Virzi pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 to 80 years.

Wednesday's plea is the conviction on those three counts, and the 35-to-80-year term is the sentence on the plea. A first-degree murder count is not the judgment. What she told detectives about shaking and dropping the infant is her recorded statement, as TribLive reported it. The parents' account of why they wanted a plea is what the prosecutor told the court.

WTAE and TribLive reported Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, that Nicole Virzi pleaded guilty in Allegheny County and was ordered to serve 35 to 80 years in state prison. TribLive reported she is 32, of San Diego, and that Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos imposed that term on guilty pleas to third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and endangering the welfare of children. WTAE reported the plea covered all charges against her, including third-degree murder, and that before the agreement she faced a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder. TribLive reported the same death-sentence exposure and reported the case had been set for trial on Oct. 1 before Judge Rangos as a capital case, then postponed while the parties worked out the plea. It reported she has been in the Allegheny County Jail since her arrest on June 16, 2024. It reported she is a Ph.D. student who was studying clinical psychology. It reported she declined to speak. Defense attorney Tina Miller said, in the longer form TribLive printed, that out of respect for the parents Virzi would stay silent because nothing she could say would undo the harm and no apology would be sufficient. WTAE reported the shorter line, "No words of apology would be sufficient." TribLive reported Miller said Virzi has written a letter the family can choose to read, and that Miller asked the judge to recommend mental-health treatment in prison. It reported Miller described prior diagnoses of anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and treatment since age 9. Those are the defense descriptions of her history. They are not a finding that a diagnosis caused the death.

TribLive reported Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel told the court the plea was made in part to honor the wishes of the infant's parents, Savannah Roberts and Ethan Katz, because they did not want to endure a trial. It reported she said both parents would have been witnesses, and that the office decided to resolve the case in a way that keeps Virzi in prison for most of her life and spares the family a public trial. WTAE reported the office's statement that Virzi used her trusted relationship with the Roberts and Katz family to put herself in a position to commit the acts, and that the family asked that their privacy be respected so they can heal. WTAE also reported the office said it had been committed to taking the case to trial and agreed to the plea and sentence after consulting the family and weighing the community's protection. The infant and the infant's twin are not named in this story.

TribLive reported Virzi was in Pittsburgh in June 2024 visiting friends who had twin sons, then six weeks old. It reported that on June 15 she spent the day with them and that evening stayed in the couple's Shadyside apartment with one infant while the parents took the twin to the hospital because of injuries they had found. WTAE reported the apartment was in the 6000 block of Walnut Street, and that the criminal complaint said she had pointed out an injury to the twin before the parents left. This story does not describe that injury. TribLive reported that at 11:17 p.m. she called 911 and said the infant was having trouble breathing and had a lump on the head, and that the infant died at a hospital hours later. It reported Schoedel told the court the infant had 31 separate injuries, including a skull fracture, bleeding on the brain, and injuries to the face, scalp, ear, abdomen, chest, arms, and legs, and that doctors found evidence of violent shaking and an impact to the skull. WTAE reported a CT scan showed a fracture to the left side of the head and several brain bleeds. TribLive reported police picked Virzi up just after 6 a.m. the next morning at a Shadyside Airbnb. It reported she first told detectives the infant had fallen from a bouncer, and that she later said she shook the infant hard, dropped the infant hard, and flipped the infant upside down onto a bathroom tile floor. WTAE reported she told police she had gone to the kitchen for a bottle, heard screaming, and came back to find the infant on the floor, out of a bouncer seat. TribLive reported she said, "Something just came over me I couldn't control," and "I'm telling you this because I can't keep lying about it." It reported she also admitted harming the twin and called it a compulsion she said she had felt for years. It reported she said anger built because she felt she was being treated like a nanny, and that she had been Roberts's maid of honor. Those sentences are what TribLive reported she told detectives. They are the statements the plea left in place.

TribLive reported Savannah Roberts told the judge she had every indication the infant would have been an amazing person, and that her memories of those six weeks are crowded out by the night of the death. It reported she described choosing an urn, taking turns sleeping on the floor beside the surviving twin's crib, and hoping the end of the criminal case would let the family start a healing process. It reported Virzi stood in a lime-green jail uniform with her eyes closed during the statements, called no witnesses, and showed no visible reaction. The guilty pleas are the convictions on third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and endangering the welfare of children. The 35-to-80-year term is the sentence on that agreement. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.