Victoria mother intends to plead guilty to baby's murder in 2015

A Victoria woman intends to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her infant daughter seven years ago.

In 2017, Kaela Janine Mehl was convicted of the first-degree murder of her 18-month-old daughter, Charlotte, in September 2015.

Mehl confessed at the trial that she fed her daughter a lethal dose of a prescription sleeping pills mixed into yogurt before smothering her.

The Crown originally argued at the trial that Mehl had killed her daughter in order to prevent her estranged husband from having custody of the girl.

Mehl's defence claimed that she was in a disordered mental state during the time of the offence and was not criminally responsible.

The jury dismissed the defence's argument and found her guilty of first-degree murder.

Mehl later filed an appeal of the conviction, saying that her legal representation was ineffective and that a juror displayed bias.

One juror reportedly smiled, winked and made hand gestures to the father's family during the trial, which Mehl's lawyer reported to the court sheriffs but not the judge.

"That a juror would smile and wink at the deceased child’s paternal family and repeat the hand gesture after the conclusion of the evidence but before the completion of the closing addresses of counsel would, in our view, shock and offend a reasonable and objective person," wrote the three-judge Court of Appeal panel in its decision in 2021.

The panel also agreed that Mehl's legal counsel failed to provide reasonable assistance in the trial.

Mehl's retrial began Monday, and the court heard from her defence counsel that she intends to plead guilty to second-degree murder.

The trial has been adjourned until later in November.