A 21-year-old DeKalb County mother was sentenced to life in prison Thursday following her guilty plea to murdering her 3-year-old daughter after an argument with her boyfriend.
According to testimony, Meriel Bemis and Troy Walker fought on Feb. 23. Walker ultimately left the Stone Mountain apartment where Bemis and her daughter lived.
At some point, Bemis notified Walker that she had killed her child, prosecutors said. Walker came back to the Landmark at Mountain View apartments to find Lela Bemis dead. Still, he called 911 and attempted to administer CPR.
Lela was pronounced dead at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. She had been suffocated, according to an autopsy report.
“As a mother, I could not begin to understand how and why (Bemis) would take the life of her innocent child in such a vicious way,” said Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Dalia Racine said during the hearing before DeKalb Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams. “This sentence will never bring Lela back, however, there is justice in the fact that Meriel has assumed some level of responsibility and will serve a life sentence for her malicious acts.”
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