CANADA • Emmily LUCAS, 2 ~ Toronto ON

Mother guilty of manslaughter after 2nd trial in toddler’s death
January 17, 2011

A judge has found North York mother Erika Mendieta guilty of manslaughter in the beating death of her 2-year-old daughter, thus bringing an end to her controversial second trial.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Nola Garton delivered her decision Monday in a case that has suffered several missteps, one after jurors complained that a Crown lawyer no longer involved in the case distracted them by making faces.

Mendieta, 34, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Her daughter Emmily Lucas was beaten to the point of convulsions on Nov. 13, 2003. The tot’s body was covered in bruises. Her head and spinal column were severely injured. She died of brain trauma at Sick Kids 10 days later.

Johnny Bermudez, Mendieta’s former live-in boyfriend, has testified that he killed Emmily. As a witness he is protected by the Canada Evidence Act, so his testimony can’t be used to prosecute him.

Crown and defence lawyers painted two starkly different portraits of the tragedy in their final arguments delivered in December.

Crown prosecutor Allison MacPherson said Bermudez is lying in one of several attempts to clear his former girlfriend of Emmily’s death.

She noted that the pair met several times for coffee between Mendieta’s first and second trials.

She alleged that Mendieta beat Emmily in fit of frustration and rage when she was late picking up the other children from school.

As evidence against her, prosecutors cite inconsistencies between Mendieta’s original police statements and her later testimony, as well as wiretapped conversations in which, they say, she appears to confess.

But defence lawyers Robin Parker and Bob Richardson argued that too much of the wiretaps are inaudible and in dispute for that evidence to be credible.

Mendieta’s first trial ended with a hung jury in 2009.

Her second trial spiralled into controversy late last year, when the jury asked that a man be removed from the courtroom for making distracting faces during Mendieta’s testimony.

They didn’t know that the man was Paul Alexander, an assistant Crown attorney who prosecuted Mendieta at her first trial but was no longer on the case.

Garton declared a mistrial and discharged the jury.

Garton then agreed to rule on the case alone, using evidence from the second trial.

Mendieta will be sentence on Feb. 11.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/923355--mother-guilty-of-manslaughter-after-2nd-trial-in-toddler-s-death?bn=1

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Crown wants 10 years for mom who killed daughter
February 11, 2011


Erika Mendieta is seen in a 2009 file photo. Mendieta inflicted a furious attack on her helpless child, abandoned her and then lied to those people trying to save her, a Crown attorney said Friday. (JACK BOLAND/Toronto Sun/QMI Agency)

A North York mother of five inflicted a furious attack on her helpless child, abandoned her and then lied to those people trying to save her, a Crown attorney said Friday.

Erika Mendieta deserves a 10-year prison term for manslaughter in the “sustained, savage” beating death of 34-month-old Emmily Lucas in November 2003, Allison MacPherson said at a sentencing hearing.

“It was Erika Mendieta’s duty to protect Emmily and she betrayed her, hurt her, abandoned her and then lied to the very people who were struggling to save her life,” MacPherson told Madam Justice Nola Garton.

“Lying to the medical people who are trying to save your daughter’s life is reprehensible.”

Mendieta’s slaying of her tiny daughter wasn’t caused by a single strike, but a barrage that bruised her ears, eyes, jaw, back, legs and stomach, the prosecutor said.

“The photographs are simply dreadful,” MacPherson said.

“This was a sustained and brutal attack on a tiny, innocent, vulnerable child, who could have been returned to a loving home at any time.”

MacPherson said Mendieta colluded with her then-boyfriend John Bermudez at the time of Emmily’s death and “during the course of this trial” to concoct a story to allow her to evade responsibility for her deadly actions.

READ MORE

Related: Slain girl's 'real mom' torn by grief

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Beaten tot looked like bar fight victim, Crown says
February 12, 2011


Two-year-old Emmily Lucas died seven years ago,
fatally beaten by her mother, a judge found.

Erika Mendieta singled out her 2-year-old daughter for prolonged beatings — leaving little of her body unmarked — and must be denounced with a 10-year sentence, a prosecutor says.

In post-mortem photos, tiny Emmily Lucas “looks like she has been in a bar fight,” Allison MacPherson told a judge Friday.

“This is a case of extreme moral culpability,” MacPherson said. “It took time and energy to do this to Emmily.”

Mendieta, 34, looked on calmly in her prison-issue green sweats, her dishevelled hair contrasting to her previously neat appearance at trial.

READ MORE

The judge will sentence Mendieta March 2.

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Emmily Lucas, 2 ............................................... -------------------- .......Erika Mendieta sentenced to 6 years

Toronto mother gets 6 years for beating toddler daughter to death
March 2, 2011

TORONTO - A Toronto mother who beat her toddler daughter to death has been sentenced to six years in prison.

With credit for pretrial custody, four years and nine months remain on Erika Mendieta's sentence.

Mendieta, 34, was convicted last month of manslaughter in the 2003 beating death of two-year-old Emmily Lucas.

Prosecutor Allison MacPherson said that on Nov. 13, 2003, Mendieta beat Emmily unconscious, severely injuring her head and spine, but didn't call 911 until she'd gone to school to pick up her other children.

MacPherson said Mendieta singled out Emmily for prolonged beatings - leaving little of her body unmarked.

Court heard the little girl had been beaten so badly, she looked like she had been in a bar fight.

http://www.globalregina.com/Toronto+mother+gets+years+beating+toddler+daughter+death/4373492/story.html