Victoria mother pleads guilty to second-degree murder of toddler

A woman who killed her 18-month-old daughter by feeding her yogurt laced with a fatal dose of Zopiclone, then smothering her has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Kaela Mehl, who killed her daughter, Charlotte, in the early morning of Sept. 16, 2015, had been embroiled in a custody battle with her ex-husband.

At her sentencing hearing Monday morning in B.C. Supreme Court, Crown and defence submitted a joint submission suggesting a sentence of life imprisonment with no eligibility of parole for 10 years.

Mehl has already spent three years and nine months in prison, after she was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder in October 2017 and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. She successfully appealed her conviction in July 2021 and was released on bail.

Now she must serve a further six years and two months in prison before being eligible for parole.