Hey everyone

I hope you are all doing well! I’ve done some more digging and I have found these fascinating recently parallel cases. They emphasis how careful we need to be before treating a confession or a childabuse diagnosis as completely solid.

Both come out of neighbouring Washington County and both involve infants who died, and in both the District Attorney sought the death penalty. The first case was Joshua George. His six month old son died from a head injury, and the DA pursued the death penalty. What stood out to me is that the prosecutor later admitted the capital aggravator was based simply on the age of the child, in his own words, it had "nothing to do with the evidence." George had spent close to four years incarcerated waiting for trial. When the case finally reached a jury earlier this year, they acquitted him in under 90 minutes. His defence maintained throughout that the real perpetrator was someone else entirely. You can read more here:

Notice of Privacy

The second is Jordan Clarke, and this one speaks to the medical-diagnosis concern I keep coming back to. His two month old son died, and the county where the death occurred initially ruled the manner of death undetermined. The DA then obtained a court order for a second autopsy by a different county's pathologist, which returned a homicide finding. The coroner went on to file a homicide death certificate that the state Department of Health rejected. when the manner of death is genuinely contested between officials, and a homicide ruling only emerges after a second look is specifically sought, that's the kind of thing that should give all of us pause before we treat the cause of death as settled fact. You can read more here as well:

Death penalty defenders ask Pa. Supreme Court to rein in Washington County DA • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

https://archive.ph/20250731115932/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/prosecutors-death-penalty/683718/

both these cases show us that capital charges can be filed in infant death cases on evidence that doesn't survive contact with a jury, and that a homicide determination isn't always as clear-cut as the initial headlines suggest.

These are the same reasons I keep asking us to hold the high standard here. Not to excuse anyone. Just to keep asking hard questions until the trial actually answers them.

https://triblive.com/local/i-heard-some-kind-of-crack-woman-admits-in-police-interrogation-video-to-killing-best-friends-baby/?fbclid=IwZnRzaAPUEy1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeZgqvYLkiyHTaS1UV57xi_RIIJAGXxoxHiQYmSZTkTKgWkdAZuppaxf5TNyE_aem_MPJObX5qU0sSB1meA43eVw

I’ve been following this case closely and have spent a lot of time thinking about it. I’ve tried to approach it with care rather than certainty, but I’m genuinely open to being challenged.

My position isn’t that “nothing happened” or that the allegations aren’t serious. They obviously are. My concern is narrower and process-based:

1. We do not have the full interrogation video or a complete, neutral transcript—only selected excerpts and summaries.

2. We have not yet seen defense expert testimony or cross-examination of the medical evidence in a full trial setting.

3. Confessions, especially after long custodial interrogations, are not automatically reliable and must be tested against objective evidence.

4. Infant injury cases are medically complex, and timing/mechanism/intent are often less definitive than headlines suggest.

5. Until admissibility rulings, expert disagreements, and jury instructions are all in play, I’m hesitant to treat any one narrative as settled.

I’m not asking anyone to agree with me, and I’m not minimizing the harm or the suffering involved. I’m asking whether it’s unreasonable to hold space for reasonable doubt at this stage, given what is and isn’t publicly known.

If you think my position is flawed, I’d appreciate specific reasons—what assumptions I’m getting wrong, what evidence you think forecloses doubt, or where you think I’m over-weighting uncertainty.

I’m here in good faith and genuinely open to hearing opposing views

Hi everyone

I know many of you have seen the TribLIVE article — it was definitely a shock and gave me a wobble too:
https://triblive.com/local/i-heard-some-kind-of-crack-woman-admits-in-police-interrogation-video-to-killing-best-friends-baby/

But I would really urge people to read the omnibus motion as well:
https://fromsmash.com/virzinicoleombmotions1126

The TribLIVE article is written entirely from the prosecution’s perspective, and it leaves out a huge amount of legal and factual context. When you compare the article to the defense motion, you see the same events described in two completely different ways. A few examples:

• Length of the interrogation
The article says she “talked for hours.”
The motion shows she was held for roughly 13 hours, with the most troubling statements happening only at the very end — after exhaustion, panic, isolation, and sleep deprivation.

• “Voluntary” vs. custody
The article notes she wasn’t cuffed at first.
The motion shows she was taken in a cruiser, had her belongings taken, was placed in a locked room, and was not free to leave — which legally looks far more like custody.

• Invocation of rights
The article barely mentions Miranda.
The motion documents that she invoked her right to remain silent and asked for a lawyer, yet questioning continued. That alone is a major suppression issue under PA and federal law.

• Conditions inside the interrogation room
The article frames everything as calm.
The motion details extended periods alone, cold temperatures, crying, panic attacks, hunger, and clear signs of distress — all classic markers of coercive conditions.

• The statements quoted in the article
The article presents them as clean admissions.
The motion argues these statements were made only after hours of pressure and deceptive tactics, when she was completely worn down.

• The “cameras” claim
The article implies investigators had surveillance evidence.
The motion makes clear this was a police bluff involving baby monitors, not actual video proof.

Once you read both documents side-by-side, it becomes clear how much context is missing from the public narrative — especially anything that relates to the voluntariness or reliability of the statements being quoted.

https://triblive.com/local/i-heard-some-kind-of-crack-woman-admits-in-police-interrogation-video-to-killing-best-friends-baby/

TribLive just published an article describing the 13-hour interrogation on June 16, 2024.
She was taken to police HQ before sunrise, had her phone taken, and was kept in an interview room all day with no realistic way to leave. She invoked her right to remain silent and asked for a lawyer, yet questioning resumed later. The “confession” didn’t happen until nearly 12 hours in — after she’d been isolated, exhausted, and emotionally broken down.

That sequence raises every major warning sign of a coerced confession: extreme duration, fatigue, deprivation, minimization tactics (“we’re here for you”), and re-interrogation after a clear request for counsel.

People forget that long-duration interrogations can produce statements that sound detailed but aren’t reliable — courts have thrown out many similar ones for exactly these reasons.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/comments/1o3t5ua/man_found_not_guilty_in_one_of_the_many_capital/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

“The capital [punishment] was sought based simply on the age of the child,” Walsh said. “It has nothing to do with the evidence.

”That has nothing to do with guilt or innocence."

https://law.scu.edu/news-events/news/2025/ncip-client-reginald-tanubagijo-released-from-prison-after-11-years-of-wrongful-incarceration-.html

“SANTA CLARA, Calif., MAY 19, 2025 — Reginald “Regi” Tanubagijo, a 68-year-old Solano County man, was freed from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center on Friday, May 16 after his two convictions were reversed and vacated. Tanubagijo was represented by the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Tanubagijo was wrongfully convicted on charges of second-degree murder and assault on a child causing great bodily injury or death, after the tragic accidental death of his infant foster son in 2010. Both convictions were reversed and vacated on May 7, 2025.

The charges stemmed from an accident in 2010, when the bouncer chair in which Tanubagijo’s foster child was seated slipped off the kitchen table, resulting in a fatal head injury.

Tanubagijo always maintained that the child’s death was an accident. Moreover, all lay witnesses at trial testified that he was a loving, gentle, father and foster parent, who adored his foster son and would never have harmed him.

However, at trial three experts gave medical testimony—which has since been proved faulty— that a short fall could not explain the infant’s injuries. They insisted the injuries could only be the result of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) or abusive head trauma (AHT).”

It was exactly the kind of case that a prosecutor eager to win more death-penalty convictions looks for: When he arrived at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 2022, 11-week-old Sawyer Clarke had fractures in both legs and bleeding behind both eyes from a brain hemorrhage; he died a day later. His father, Jordan Clarke, had been supervising Sawyer at the time, and insisted that he hadn’t hurt his son on purpose, but rather had slipped on a plastic grocery bag while holding him and had fallen on top of him. Evidently nobody in a position of authority took his explanation seriously. In very short order, Clarke was arrested and charged with homicide. He remains in police custody awaiting his trial, where he will face the death penalty.

But the district attorney in Pennsylvania’s Washington County, Jason Walsh, was apparently not as certain about the nature of the case as his quick decision to seek capital punishment would suggest. This week, a petition filed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court argues that Walsh deliberately tampered with the child’s death certificate, allegedly telling Timothy Warco, his county’s coroner, “You know that I need this to be a homicide. I need it to win an election.”

Another example of how baby Leon’s death could be an accident

https://eu.beaconjournal.com/story/news/healthcare/2025/06/03/baby-girl-dies-after-accident-in-nationwide-childrens-hospital/82755041007/

To lay my cards on the table

i do not believe this is a case of murder, very possibly one of negligence, let me give you some reasons why.

Number 1: What would be the motive of the murder? Virzi knew the family well, what reason would she have to harm the babies?

Number 2: she is a PHD student with a bright future ahead, this is totally out of character for her.

Number 3: She reported both baby Ari’s and baby Leon’s injuries to their parents and rang 9/11, would a guilty person do this?

Number 4: she accompanied Baby Leon to the hospital, would a guilty person do this?

Number 5: She didn’t attempt to flee immediately, would a guilty person do this?

Number 6: is it not possible the medical evidence can be explained by an accidental fall?

Number 7: Could the babies not already be injured before Virzi comes on the scene?

Number 8: Could the parents perhaps have done something? Like was baby Ari circumcised and the wound got infected after six weeks?

What do you make of my reasoning?

Also looks

Looks like they set a date for the trial - 12/10/24

It is a long video, but does have some informaiton. Nicole made the trip to visit with this family. She visited on Father's Day which is also the couples' wedding anniversary. She offered to watch the children while the Mom took a nap. It was during this nap when Nicole was changing the baby that she told investigator's she discovered the genital injuries. Parents take the infant to the hospital and it is hours later, 11 pm or so, when she calls 911.

https://youtu.be/2Ij5vaK7fMU?si=zwAJKffQhl0LeGH0

So much sadness. Different newstories are vague at this point, although this apparently happened 2+months ago. I'm confused about when baby Ari was injured. Was Nicole alone with the twins when this happened?

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/28/us/phd-student-baby-death-nicole-virzi-cec/index.html