A DeKalb County mother pleaded guilty on Thursday to murdering her 3-year-old daughter after breaking up with her boyfriend, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office.
Meriel Bemis, who was 21-year-old at the time of the murder, accepted a life sentence before DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams for suffocating daughter Lela Bemis on Feb. 23, 2014.
"As a mother, I could not begin to understand how and why [Meriel] would take the life of her innocent child in such a vicious way," said Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Dalia Racine, who served as lead prosecutor in the case. "As the prosecutor in this case, I fought for the child who no longer has a voice and for the child whose future was snatched from her by the acts of her very own mother."