A Toronto man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after a three-year-old girl was poisoned to death back in March of 2021.
Toronto resident Francis Ngugi, 47, made the plea in an Ontario Superior Court of Justice courtroom on Tuesday, CBC reported.
The victim was three-year-old Bernice Nantanda Wamala who died after eating cereal for breakfast that contained sodium nitrite.
The poisoning happened one morning after sleeping over at her best friend’s home, located in the same Scarborough apartment complex where Bernice also lived with her mom.
According to a Toronto police news release from 2021, both Bernice and her friend ate the cereal. Bernice died in hospital after suffering a seizure and two heart attacks, while the other child recovered after a “lengthy” hospital stay.
Bernice’s mother, Maurine Mirembe, told CTV News that her daughter died exactly one week after her third birthday.
Ngugi was arrested on June 19, 2021 in connection with the case and charged with two counts of administering a noxious substance to endanger life, two counts of causing bodily harm and criminal negligence causing death.
Officials said Ngugi accessed the “controlled substance” from his place of employment and put it in the cereal.
To add to the sinister events, the poison wasn’t even intended for Bernice, or her best friend. It was apparently meant for the friend’s mother whom Ngugi became infatuated with, according to documents filed in court.
A little over a week after his arrest Ngugi’s charges were upgraded to first-degree murder and attempted murder.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2.
