DeKalb County Mother Hears Sentence for Murdering Daughter

Meriel Kathleen Bemis, 21, of Stone Mountain has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting to suffocating her daughter, Lela, in a court hearing last week, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

As Patch previously reported, Bemis was arrested on Feb. 23 after her boyfriend, Troy Walker, who reportedly attempted to resuscitate the lifeless child, called 911.

Bemis testified that she and Walker had argued the night of her daughter’s death, after which Walker returned to the apartment find the child dead.

Doctors at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston pronounced Lela Bemis dead upon arrival. Both the autopsy report and Bemis’s confession confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation.

Meriel Bemis reportedly told police she killed the child because she was upset over a break-up with her boyfriend, says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.