The nanny accused of murdering two siblings in her charge was disoriented and delirious the week that she made a series of statements to investigators from her hospital bed, a psychiatrist testified Thursday.
Yoselyn Ortega, 55, didn’t know where she was or understand basic questions, said doctor Elizabeth Niemiec, who was hired by the hospital to assess her.
“She didn’t know the date, the time. She didn’t understand why she was in the hospital,” said the defense witness. “She seemed like she had trouble paying attention to what I was asking her.”
Ortega made a series of incriminating admissions while recovering from surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center the week after allegedly butchering Lucia Krim, 6, and Leo Krim, 2, in the family’s Upper West Side apartment.
The nanny had slit her own throat in a botched suicide bid moments after the Oct. 25, 2012, double homicide.
Manhattan prosector Stuart Silberg asked Niemiec whether defendants accused of murder might lie about their psychiatric condition.
“I generally think that people who are charged with a crime have more of an incentive than those who don’t,” she conceded.
The hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court will determine whether Ortega’s statements will be admissible at her upcoming trial.
Defense lawyer Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg wants them tossed, arguing Ortega was heavily drugged and too confused to consent to an interview.