My Statement at the Sentencing Hearing for Lulu and Leo’s Convicted Murderer

[Below is the transcript of Kevin Krim’s statement at the sentencing hearing for Yoselyn Ortega, Manhattan, New York, May 14, 2018. Watch the full video here. Read Marina Krim’s statement here.]

Judge Carro, thank you for your commitment to justice and your sensitivity in presiding over this brutal case for 5 ½ years. Thank you to the staff and officers of the court, who treated us with professionalism and kindness. I also want to thank the determined and sensitive people of the Manhattan DA’s office and the NYPD. And it is incredibly important to Marina and me that we appreciate the good women and men who served on the jury. It was a heroic service they performed — and New Yorkers are grateful and proud of them. And it’s the people of New York who wrapped their arms around us in our darkest moment — they are what make this the greatest city in the world.

I want to underline Marina’s comments about what the defendant tried — and failed miserably — to destroy on October 25th. I can’t capture the essence of our children any better than the words I spoke at Lulu and Leo’s memorial service. I’ll read exactly what I said that day in November 2012:

I’m not really giving a eulogy today. Because I want to talk about all of our kids. We called them Team Krim.

Team Krim started, in one sense, a long time ago, in 2000, when Marina and I met. In another sense, it began on May 25, 2006, when our beautiful Lucia Ursula Krim was born. But Team Krim really got going on December 28, 2008, when our little Ines Olivia Krim joined us. And it took on a very special balance and charm on September 30, 2010, when our brown little guy, Leo Hidalgo Krim, arrived.

And they were a real team. It was one of our top priorities as parents that our kids learned to take care of each other…that they become best friends for each other…that they realize that no one would ever be more loyal to them than they were to each other. And they were a team. Fights always ended in “Sorry” and a real hug. A funny thing was how Leo, even when he wasn’t involved, would say “Sorry Lulu, Sorry Nessie” and give them a hug.

They were Team Krim in the apartment, on playgrounds, at parties…Marina and I always marveled how easy it was to track them all on the playground because they were usually playing together. It was comical to us that we’d take them to some birthday party with a ton of kids and lots of activities and they’d end up near each other and not far from us…we loved them so much, and they loved each other.

Yet we also tried to raise three kids that were uniquely interesting little people. They were so different — each had completely different colored eyes. Their complexions were dramatically different, from pale to deep brown. And of course they had very different personalities…perhaps that was one of the secrets to their strong bond.

Lulu from day one was Our Little Buddha.

She felt deeply and intuitively. She was the most empathetic soul I’ve ever known. I think that’s why she was such a beautiful and creative artist. And if you knew Lulu, you knew creating art was like breathing for her.

Lulu had an infectious and innocent energy — she was so enthusiastic about the big and little things, from a fabulous sunset to a perfect snowflake, from a dazzling ballerina’s costume to a favorite line in Star Wars. She had fun. And at the same time, she had serenity in her soul that was magnetic. She really was like a Buddha.

She was creative and inventive and curious. If Marina was making the kids’ Halloween costumes, Lulu was at her side making a costume for her doll out of paper and Scotch tape. She was never, ever bored.

Lulu was nurturing and a natural born teacher, rallying her little sister and brother to a new task or topic or game.

She was thoughtful and kind. She listened and remembered and cared. When Marina would make muffins, Lulu lobbied for egg-free ones so that her allergic dada could have some. A recent anecdote says a lot about Lulu — a new girl joined Lulu’s bi-lingual first grade class a week after the year started — awkward enough. She joined late because her family had just moved here from South America. This girl only spoke Spanish. And most of Lulu’s classmates were still only comfortable speaking English. Lulu immediately befriended her and became her designated translator with the other kids. Lulu came home so proud of her new friend, how she was practicing her Spanish and how she had helped someone…she loved taking care of people.

And Lulu was adventurous and very brave. We threw her into so many new situations and she was often shy and nervous, but she always went anyway. She did things that Marina and I would never have had the courage to do at her age. She had the courage and wisdom of an old soul.

Lulu was flat out cool…at age 6, Lulu was cooler than most of us were when we were 22…she had been to India twice, knew her favorite sushi order and knew the Cantonese names for her favorite dim sum…she was cooler than I’ll ever be.

We love her and we miss her.

Our handsome little Leo saw the world clearly and loved it. He wanted to vacuum it up into his bursting little brain.

He was so smart. So curious. He absolutely loved his stroller rides, his front-seat view of the streets of Manhattan, soaking up the people, the buildings, the cranes, the trucks and taxis. He also adored trips to the park, to the farm…he was a collector, of acorns, toy trucks, balls…often his biggest worry in life was fitting all his collectibles in his chubby little hands. He just soaked it all up like a sponge and then, once he learned how to talk, all he wanted to do was tell us about what he’d seen. Marina and I marveled at how quickly he picked up new words.

Leo could be quite serious…and those gorgeous, thoughtful deep, deep brown eyes were hypnotic.

Yet Leo was easy going as his sisters took him along for so many rides and games. Whatever they wanted to do.

And he loved to make his parents and sisters laugh…he was a bit of a clown.

One of my favorite things about Leo was our bedtime ritual. He loved it when I read him books. He would pick out a big stack of his favorites — always tractors, farms, trucks, airplanes, and trains — and he’d sucker me into reading 2 or 3 times the number of books I’d promised, and I’d always leave his room beaming even if I’d taken too long to put him to bed.

Leo was such a sweet, lovable little boy. After having 2 girls, we weren’t sure what having a boy would be like. But we just couldn’t get enough of him. He was dreamy.

We were madly in love with him.

We miss him so much.

It’s also very important to us that you know and understand Nessie.

Nessie is our tough one. She was born with hip dysplasia and spent the first 6 months of her life in a terribly uncomfortable cast that stretched from her ankles to her chest. She smiled the whole time. No joke. She smiled weeks before infants normally smile. Same huge smile as today.

Thankfully, her hips have healed perfectly.

And naturally, she’s now our most athletic child. Fast and agile. Determined and fearless.

I like to half-jokingly refer to Nessie as Team Krim’s secret weapon. She is a tiny package — 5th percentile in size for her age, but what a beautiful and powerful package.

Nessie reads people intelligently, listens stealthily, and then charms with devastating effectiveness. Several of her victims here today have called it a seductive charm, as she slips her hand into yours or crawls effortlessly into your lap.

She’s sharp as a tack, has a fantastic memory and an incredible attention span.

Nessie has always been a girl who knows what she wants.

Anyone who knows Nessie, loves Nessie and is rooting for her.

I can’t talk about Team Krim, about our three wonderful children, without talking about our enormous, devastating, overwhelming grief. Marina and I are heartbroken. And we know all of you share very deeply in our raw pain.

We are distraught because Lulu and Leo, these beautiful and innocent souls, were only with us for 6 years and 2 years respectively, blinks of an eye.

We are certainly distraught over how they died. Over the terrible violence, the lack of any sense to it all.

We miss them so, so much. Marina and I already miss the little things the most…

- We miss picking Leo up out of his crib, with a happy “Mama” or “Dada” from him and always a big hug

- We miss watching Lulu pick out her own clothes, helping her button a shirt or wriggle on a skirt

- We miss holding their hands as we walked down the sidewalk

- We miss attempting to argue them out of a Mr. Softee cone, and losing most of the time

- We miss taking little walks through The Ramble in Central Park that became great acorn or leaf collecting expeditions

- We miss hearing them call out my name and run to hug me when I got home from work

- We miss feeling their soft skin in our arms

How do we not miss Lulu every where we turn? She was a city girl, a beach girl, a country girl, a mountain girl…

And how do we not miss Leo everywhere we look? He who loved learning the name of everything he saw…

Here we were in bustling New York City, the center of the world, with excuses to be out every night, and all Marina and I wanted to do was be home making dinner with the kids. We just wanted to hang with our kids, they were such cool kids.

We are confident we made the most of every minute with our kids. I hope all of you do too with yours. We have no regrets.

But Marina, Nessie, and I, and I believe all of us, are most distraught that we won’t have Lulu and Leo with us for the rest of our lives.

We are so sad that we won’t get to see them grow up.

I had simple fantasies of proudly cheering Lulu and Leo on as they became these great people…I didn’t care what they did; I knew they’d be great.

It is so unfair they are gone: unfair to them, unfair to us, unfair to the world.

They are gone too soon.

Our kids were born and raised in San Francisco and New York, but they were children of the world.

They traveled all over, from India to Hong Kong to Nicaragua.

They learned multiple languages, loved dosas and dim sum, and had friends from literally around the world.

We didn’t hide our kids from the world. They certainly didn’t fear the world.

And now, I worry that we might be tempted, in the face of such obliterating darkness, to retreat from the world…

But I doubt that Nessie would let us…no way would she let us…

I heard this quote from a philosopher that I think is very important here. It goes, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Again: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Marina and Nessie, you are my WHY.

I want to conclude by coming back to Team Krim. Marina, Nessie, and I lost much more than two-fifths of our family when Lulu and Leo died. We lost the brightest and warmest of lights. And we will mourn their absences for the rest of our lives. But through this tragedy, Team Krim became this bigger thing. Heroes from all the communities we’ve ever known have rallied to support us. Many of you have traveled far. We thank you. I also want to give a special thanks to the NYPD and Medical teams, many of whom have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. Thank you, thank you all. I can’t say it enough times. Marina, Nessie and I have been sustained by the love and support from all of you here and so, so many beyond this hall. We are truly and deeply humbled and thankful for your compassion and generosity.

Now, coming back to today, let me add a post script: Felix and Linus have joined Team Krim in the years since. They and their 7 cousins got robbed, like Nessie did, by the defendant. They hear about Lulu & Leo all the time, but they don’t get to meet them. We have a ritual at home — a little silk parachute with a gift attached appears each morning on the kids’ birthdays. It’s from Lulu and Leo, dropped from the stars. When Felix found his on his 4th birthday, he asked us, in his earnest way, when he could go up to the stars to meet them. He’s a thoughtful, sweet guy who’ll be heartbroken as he grows up and learns the whole story…and yes, I am trying to break your heart too. As Marina said, Nessie and her brothers are living legacies of Lulu & Leo, with all their beauty and joy and pain.

There are two other parts of Lulu and Leo’s legacy that I want to note here today.

The first is the Lulu & Leo Fund and its core initiative — Choose Creativity, which is a social and emotional well-being curriculum that builds creative confidence and resilience in kids and adults. It’s based on 10 Principles of Creativity — principles like Authentic, Curious, Present and Patient — and as Marina mentioned it’s being taught now in schools, after-school programs and community centers around the city, the country and the world. Last year, I had a chance to introduce Choose Creativity to a group of 13 and 14-year-old boys in Brooklyn. They were in a school for kids going through the criminal justice system. I’d been cautioned that they could be withdrawn and tough to get through to. I started by telling them where the curriculum came from, how we developed it after two of our children were murdered. And then I talked about how there are two equally important parts to it — the Choose part and the Creativity part. I admitted to them that it was tempting for me to choose many negative pathways in response — but hit fast forward on those and they all end badly. Or I — and we — could choose to create. Every one of these young men were listening and nodding. It was a powerful hour and a half for me and I believe for those young men too. They asked us to come back.

Our choice is to push for positive change. A big part of that change — and Lulu and Leo’s legacy — is sharing what we’ve learned and used through the 10 Principles. We believe in Choosing Creativity, that’s how we have survived and thrived, and it’s a positive, constructive message.

That brings me to the other part of Lulu and Leo’s legacy — another positive change that we and many others are pushing for — together, we are taking a stand that the kinds of lies perpetrated by the defendant and her family are unacceptable.

It’s very satisfying to say, here today, that Lulu & Leo’s Law, as it’s called, is a bi-partisan bill being pushed in parallel through both houses of the New York legislature. The law has been written in direct response to the conspiracy by the defendant’s family to deceive us. Because of a huge gap in the law, they will face no criminal or civil liability for their roles in my children’s murders, but we’re determined that others will be deterred and families and children will be safer because of it.

Let me dwell for a moment on all their lies. As with many things from this disheveled defense, it could get confusing, trying to keep all the lies straight. Thankfully, Judge Carro, you and the jury were not confused.

But let’s be sure everyone listening today is perfectly clear — the defendant’s family lied to the court about the defendant’s sanity — the jury made clear that they didn’t believe these bogus claims of voices and black shadows and demons and thrown pots and pans and deranged calls that never happened. The excellent ADAs here made sure the court heard that these were fiction.

What this court didn’t hear enough of was how the family lied about the defendant’s background to us — they faked her history and references to make her seem qualified when she certainly was not. Their lies led directly and deliberately to our decision to hire the defendant.

The defendant and her family lied to us and to this court out of purely selfish motives. Celia Ortega lied to get her sister a job. Yaquelin Severino — known to her colleagues as Jackie Vargas — created an entirely fake reference, every word of it a fabrication, to get her aunt a job. It’s a real and lasting shame that Celia and Jackie never had to appear in court — they certainly were the conspicuously absent — yet still damning — witnesses for the defense. And I believe the various discredited witnesses lied in court — not to save the defendant, whom they all seem quite eager to disown — but to cover selfishly for their own culpability.

I want to emphasize, Judge Carro, how offensive and insulting it is that many of the defense witnesses’ recollections changed between when they spoke to the NYPD and after they met with the defense and their so-called experts. The defendant, the defense and her family have behaved shamelessly in this court and outside of it. Over 5 ½ years, they have shown not an inkling of remorse. Not from the defendant or her entire extended family, not a single word or action of sorrow or any other decent emotion…just selfishness and an utter disregard for morals or ethics or basic human decency.

Lulu & Leo’s Law will criminalize the deliberate falsification of an application or references for a child care giver. Professionals in law enforcement and lawmakers and parents are consistently shocked when they learn this wasn’t already a law. We’re deeply grateful that senators and assembly-people from both parties are working to fix this glaring and dangerous gap in the law.

But however necessary and good these changes in the law are, these kinds of liars, fakes and con artists often have a supporting cast who turn a blind eye, who are complicit in their willful silence and inaction. It’s hard to know how many neighbors of the defendant and her relatives at 610 Riverside knew the truth and said nothing. How many of Celia Ortega’s neighbors in the Bronx or Yaquelin Severino’s — or Jackie Vargas’s — neighbors in Croton-on-Hudson know the truth about them?…and are they OK with it? Marina and I have encountered many, many people who have done the right thing, but there have been an upsetting number — too many — who chose to preserve their cozy cocoon by turning away instead of doing the hard or uncomfortable thing that also happened to be the right thing to do.

A new law will not be enough in the face of amoral indifference. The best deterrent to this kind of dishonest behavior will be when we as a society, as a community, as neighbors and fellow human beings say “Enough. No more.” When we hear someone contemplating such deception and we talk them out of it and into doing the right thing…telling the truth. When we see such behavior and we reject it and we ostracize the offenders and their accomplices. When we say we don’t want them in our apartment buildings, our schools, our workplaces. When we make them feel the unrelenting glare of their neighbors’ disgust and repulsion. When we do that, we will accomplish another positive change: true accountability.

Judge Carro, this defendant and her defense rejected two plea bargain offers from you. Marina and I were against these offers as you know, but we also knew she would undoubtedly reject them because, being the malignant narcissist that she is, she would never accept responsibility and say aloud in front of the court that she was guilty. We also knew she wanted to put Marina and the rest of us through the pain of this trial and it was awful. Awful and wrong that the jury had to go through that, that everyone in this court every day had to go through that…And let’s be sure everyone listening today acknowledges and never forgets this — it was a disorderly, callous, venal, crass, manipulative, indecent, ignorant, self-engrossed, pointless, shameless, and, at its core, an utterly dishonest and brutally cruel defense…It’s hard to know which parts came from whom, the defendant or her defense attorney, but it was all of a piece.

We were against the plea bargains because we didn’t want to have to tell Nessie that the evil monster that killed her sister and brother would have a chance some day of going free and seeing her sisters and son again. Nessie does not deserve to have that hanging over her.

So, Judge Carro, I trust that you do not need this request from Lulu and Leo’s dad after all you’ve heard and seen, but I will make it anyway: in your sentencing decision, please follow the law as you always have and heed the unanimous opinion of the jury — and that of the good people of the city and state of New York and of Lulu and Leo’s family and friends around the world — by ensuring that the defendant can never leave prison alive. The defendant knows nothing of responsibility or remorse. She should also know nothing of hope.

The defendant is an evil and utterly dangerous narcissist and a complete failure. It is right that she should live and rot and die in a concrete and metal cage, like the ugly, dark shadow of Lulu and Leo’s bright shining lights. And more importantly, it is right that she will go from being hated by the world to being forgotten by the world before she’s even dead…while Lulu and Leo’s siblings and legions of family and friends — even friends who never knew them — will never forget their inspiring legacies.

In my best moments, I feel Lulu and Leo inspiring me and carrying me forward. In my most difficult moments, I try to ask myself what Lulu and Leo would choose to do. It’s the best beacon most of us could ever hope to have.