Victoria Fox pictured in court (via NBC San Diego screengrab)
A 40-year-old nanny who admittedly ate lunch after fatally shaking and throwing a newborn in her care in late August 2021 will spend the next 25 years to the rest of her life in prison for first-degree murder.
The horrific case established that Victoria Frances Fox was flown to San Diego, Calif., by the 4-week-old victim’s Singaporean parents to help watch their son at an AirBnB as the couple anticipated the surrogate birth of twins. When the surrogate went into labor, Phoenix’s parents left the AirBnB. Although the couple had also hired a second nanny to watch the baby, Fox managed to commit the fatal abuse while alone with the victim upstairs in the rental property. The defendant then admittedly returned downstairs to eat lunch with the other nanny as if nothing had happened.
Superior Court of California records show that the case against Fox was brought on Aug. 24, 2021 and prosecuted by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. As Fox’s guilty plea to first-degree murder indicates, the defendant is the one solely responsible for the fatal blunt force trauma inflicted on the defenseless newborn. Shockingly, that abuse occurred the first time that Fox was alone with the baby.
According to NBC San Diego, Fox apologized in court through her attorney, expressing that she was “deeply sorry” for her actions.
More Law&Crime Coverage: A Nurse Took in a Cognitively Impaired Teen, Made Her a Nanny, and Tortured Her for Years Before Killing Her in 1999. Now She’s a Convicted Murderer.
The victim’s parents reportedly said they checked Fox’s background and spent days with the defendant prior to the slaying. Then, as they awaited the birth of twins, the parents learned the life of their “miracle child” was stolen. The victim died within a day of the fatal abuse, which included head trauma, a fractured femur, and “extreme subdural hemorrhaging,” Deputy District Attorney Ramona McCarthy said in comments to NBC San Diego.
The parents reportedly learned later on that Fox had fabricated a reference calling her a “stellar” nanny.
In a heartbreaking statement thanking authorities for their work on the case, Phoenix’s parents reportedly told the NBC affiliate they think of their son daily and hope Fox’s punishment means no other family will suffer as they have.
California law says that “[e]very person guilty of murder in the first degree shall be punished by death, imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole, or imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life.” Given the long-standing state moratorium on the death penalty and the fact of the defendant’s guilty plea, Fox received a sentence of 25 years to life.
Jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Fox is held at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility in Santee following her sentencing Tuesday to state prison.
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