 Erika Mendieta, 33, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of her toddler, Emmily Lucas, walks outside a Toronto courthouse with lawyer Robert Richardson. (Sun Media/Jack Boland, file)
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TORONTO -- A North York mother accused of beating her toddler to death denied she killed her daughter in a "disciplining that got out of hand."
During cross-examination yesterday, Crown attorney Allison MacPherson accused Erika Mendieta of inflicting fatal injuries upon Emmily Lucas on Nov. 13, 2003.
The 33-year-old mother of five has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in her child's death.
The prosecutor said Mendieta told Emmily's father that she shouldn't be imprisoned for assaulting her 34-month-old daughter because her other children would suffer.
"You assaulted Emmily (Lucas) in a form of disciplining her that got out of hand and (you said) you shouldn't be punished for it or your children would suffer," MacPherson said to Mendieta.
"You're wrong," Mendieta said.
MacPherson quoted Mendieta speaking to Emmily's father, Derrick Parra, in the weeks leading up to her arrest in March 2005, when the woman's phone lines were wiretapped and her home was bugged.
The prosecutor said Mendieta admitted to Parra that she inflicted the injuries in the guise of disciplining.
Mendieta hinted to Parra that she shouldn't be punished and reminded him that he also shouldn't have been imprisoned for his domestic violence and property crimes.
"When you make mistakes you pay for them, yes. Okay, and there are times when you still make mistakes, it's not fair that you pay for it, because you do those mistakes for a reason," Mendieta is quoted saying to Parra.
"In your case for example, OK, you went to jail so many times for what?" she added.
"For nothing," he agreed.
"No ... for trying to put food on your kids' table, clothes on their back," Mendieta said.
Parra was jailed for assaulting Mendieta with a tire iron and forcible confinement and for credit card fraud.
