Victoria mother pleads guilty to murdering baby in 2015
CTV
A Victoria woman has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of her infant daughter in 2015, the B.C. Supreme Court heard Monday.
A Victoria woman has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of her infant daughter in 2015, the B.C. Supreme Court heard Monday.
In 2017, Kaela Janine Mehl was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of her 18-month old daughter, Charlotte, in September 2015.
At the trial, Mehl had confessed that she had put a lethal dose of prescription sleeping pills into yogurt and fed it to her daughter before smothering her.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Mehl had killer her daughter amid a custody dispute with her estranged husband.
Mehl's defence claimed that she was in a disordered mental state and was not criminally responsible for the incident.
The jury ultimately found her guilty of first-degree murder in 2017, but Mehl later successfully appealed the conviction in 2021 on the grounds that her legal representative was ineffective and that a juror displayed bias.
On Monday, Mehl pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and a joint submission from the Crown and defence recommended a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
