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Shaken Victoria police officer tells of finding dead baby

A Victoria police officer struggled to compose herself as she remembered seeing a dead baby lying on a bed after being called to a home just after 5 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2015. Const.
Photo - generic - Victoria courthouse
Victoria courthouse.

A Victoria police officer struggled to compose herself as she remembered seeing a dead baby lying on a bed after being called to a home just after 5 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2015.

Const. Jessica Moretto, who had only been on the patrol shift for seven weeks, testified Wednesday at Kaela Mehl’s trial for the first-degree murder of her 18-month-old daughter, Charlotte Cunningham.

Mehl, 34, has admitted killing the baby by feeding her sleeping pills mixed with yogurt, then smothering her. The Crown is attempting to prove that Mehl intended to kill Charlotte and that the act was planned and deliberate. The jury has heard Mehl was involved in a heated custody battle with her ex-husband, Dan Cunningham, and his family.

Moretto and her training officer, Const. Kyle Pistone, had been asked by West Shore RCMP to check on a woman and her baby, she testified. The RCMP had received a call from Cunningham, who was concerned Mehl had left with the child.

When the police officers arrived at the house on Vista Heights Avenue, Moretto knocked on the door several times. The officers rang the doorbell and shone their flashlights into the house.

“I thought I was hearing house-settling sounds. I couldn’t make out what it was at the time,” Moretto said.

She learned that the house belonged to Leanna Comis, a woman who works as a jail matron at the Victoria police station. Comis arrived at the house and seemed confused and worried when she saw the officers there, Moretto testified.

“She says she’ll open the door for us and we can go inside. When she opens the door, I can see Kaela lying on the ground in the hallway between the bathroom and the bedroom. She’s laying stomach down. She’s in a tank top. She’s sweating and kind of groaning and mumbling,” Moretto said. “Once I heard her, I realize the sounds I heard outside were her groaning.”

Comis spoke to Mehl, then went into the bedroom. Moretto followed her.

“Was she saying anything?” asked prosecutor Kimberly Henders Miller.

“ ‘Where’s the baby? Where’s Charlotte?’ ” Moretto’s voice shook and she began to cry.

“I followed Leanna into the bedroom and I watched as she pulled the cover back on the bed and I saw …” She paused. “And I see the baby laying on the bed and she’s grey. And Leanna says: ‘She’s gone.’ And she touches her and she falls backward. I signal to Const. Pistone that I think the baby is dead and I grab onto Leanna.”

The baby was lying on her side, head facing toward the foot of the bed.

Pistone called for an ambulance and for more police officers. He asked Moretto to take Comis out of the room. Comis was crying hysterically.

“And how were you doing at that time?” asked Henders Miller.

“I was stunned and really looking to Kyle for some direction because I had never done this before.”

Pistone told her to keep Mehl awake until the paramedics arrived. Moretto said she pinched Mehl’s shoulder to keep her conscious. Mehl was mumbling, but Moretto understood some of the things she was saying.

Another officer found an empty pill bottle in the kitchen and showed it to the paramedics, Moretto said.

Moretto looked back toward the bedroom, but the door was closed.

“They had enough people, so I left the house. I began crying and had to walk around the side of the house, but another police member grabbed me and assigned someone to take me back to the police station because I couldn’t drive.”

At the station, a female police officer went with her to the change room because they didn’t want her to be alone, Moretto testified. “They walked me upstairs so I could type up my statement.”

Defence lawyer Jeremy Mills suggested the words the barely conscious Mehl was saying were: “Where’s my baby? Where’s Charlotte? I just want to hold Charlotte. Please give me Charlotte. I want Charlotte.”

“Yes,” Moretto replied.

Sgt. Kris Rice, who was the road supervisor that night, raced to the house with a defibrillator. He saw Charlotte lying on her right side with vomit coming out of her nose and mouth.

“I grabbed her right away. I could feel she was still warm. Her right arm was stiff, as if rigor mortis had set in. I thought there may be a possibility to save her,” he testified.

Rice moved the baby to the floor and began chest compressions.

The Crown has now closed its case.

ldickson@timescolonist.com