A Yarmouth mother has pleaded guilty in the death of her 17-month old son.

Thirty-two-year-old April Surette entered the plea to a manslaughter charge in Yarmouth Provincial Court on Monday, the day her trial was scheduled to begin.

An agreed statement of facts from the Crown and defense say that in 2020, Surette, then 27, was struggling to establish a relationship with her son Isaiha.

He and Surette’s five other children had been in foster care from September to November of that year, they were returned to her care in early December.

On December 17, 2020, Surette was feeling overwhelmed as Isaiha was inconsolable.

In a moment of frustration while changing the boy’s diaper, she intentionally threw the child from a bed onto a hardwood floor.

The incident was witnessed by Surette’s seven-year-old son.

The boy was taken to Yarmouth Regional Hospital, and then airlifted to the IWK where he died on December 20.

His cause of death was ‘blunt head trauma,’ according to the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner, who noted swelling in the brain and hemorrhaging in several locations.

Internet search history shared

The statement showed numerous searches on Surette’s phone leading up to and after the incident.

They included, ‘I don’t love my 17 month old,’ ‘my 17 month old was in foster care and I don’t like him,’ ‘I hate my 17 month old,’ and more.

One search asked if it was okay to let a dog and a cat babysit a 17 month old baby.

Surette also searched ‘small brain bleed in 17 month old’ on December 18, one day after the incident.

She also texted a parent support worker on December 16 that she believed Isaiha had autism and anxiety.

Surette is scheduled to be sentenced on March 23 in Yarmouth Provincial Court.