A California PhD student accused of beating a friend’s newborn baby made a bone-chilling admission to cops after they arrested her for child abuse, prosecutors said.

Nicole Virzi, who went to UC San Diego and was weeks away from earning the prestigious academic credentials, took a plea deal Wednesday in the death of her “former best friend’s” six-week-old baby.

Virzi allegedly admitted to cops in a 13-hour-long interrogation following the baby’s death that she has long controlled a disturbing compulsion: an urge to kill kids.

“From a very, very young age, I don’t know what it is, but I always had this urge – almost like a compulsion I can’t control – to hurt kids,” she allegedly told cops.

Virzi admitted to killing Leon Katz and injuring his twin brother back in 2024, pleading guilty to third-degree criminal homicide and to injuring the other infant. She was facing a potential death sentence if she had been convicted of first-degree murder. The family of the slain infant wanted to avoid a trial.

A Pittsburgh police officer who said he responded to the couple’s home told The Daily Mail he was disappointed in the plea deal. “To go from murder-one to this? It’s pretty amazing,” he said. ‘We know she did it. She confessed to it.”

Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel said they made the deal in part to honor the family’s wishes.

“This was a horrific case in which Virzi used her trusted relationship with the Roberts/Katz family to place herself in a situation where she could commit her horrendous acts. Throughout the criminal justice process, the Roberts/Katz family has continued to endure crushing emotional pain and grief,” the DA’s office said in a statement.

Virzi allegedly had been watching the infant while her former friend, Savannah Roberts, took little Leon’s twin brother to a hospital with an injury to his genitals, according to police. Police later learned that Virzi caused the injury.

She claimed the other child suffered the fatal injuries after she left him alone in a bouncer seat to get a baby bottle in the kitchen. The alleged killer then heard him screaming and returned to see he had fallen on his head, she claimed.

Leon Katz, who was six weeks old, suffered a severe skull fracture and brain bleeds that caused his death.

The PhD candidate later told police that she abused the young child and his brother.

“So when I was alone with (Leon), I shook him a couple times – hard. And I dropped him a couple times – hard,” she said during the interrogation, also admitting to flipping him upside down on the bathroom floor.

“Something just came over me. I couldn’t control it,” Virzi said. “I’m telling you this because I can’t keep lying about it.”

She initially claimed innocence through a lawyer before the plea deal. Virzi did not speak during her plea hearing, but her defense attorney said, “No words of apology would be sufficient.”

The 32-year-old has been ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years and a maximum of 80 years in state prison.

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