'He's so evil': Mother of Toronto toddler who died after eating poisoned breakfast cereal speaks out after sentencing hearing

The mother of a Toronto toddler who died after eating breakfast cereal laced with sodium nitrite said there are 'so many questions' left unanswered following a hearing in a downtown courtroom that saw the man responsible sentenced to life in prison.

The mother of a Toronto toddler who died after eating breakfast cereal laced with sodium nitrite said there are "so many questions" left unanswered following a hearing in a downtown courtroom that saw the man responsible sentenced to life in prison.

"I'm so sad and also happy for what the Judge decided for today," Maurine Mirembe, Bernice Natanda Wamala's mother, told CTV News Toronto Friday from outside the courthouse following the hearing. When asked if she felt justice had been served, she replied, "Not true [justice], not really. I still have so many questions."

Bernice died on March 7, 2021 after ingesting sodium nitrite while sleeping over at a friend's house the night prior.

The substance had been placed in the cereal by Francis Ngugi, 47, who admitted his actions while pleading guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in September. As part of Friday's sentence, Ngugi will not be eligible for parole for 17 years, or approximately 2040.

Bernice was never Ngugi's intended target, according to an agreed statement of facts. Instead, he laced the cereal in a failed attempt on the life of Bernice's friend's mother, whom he'd become increasingly fixated on in the months prior.

Sometime between late February and early March 2021, Ngugi snuck into Bernice's Toronto home and placed a lethal amount of sodium nitrite in the box of cereal, the agreement statement of facts reads.