Man pleads guilty in case of 2-year-old killed by snake venom

A man has pleaded guilty in connection withthe 2014 death of a two-year-old girl who was poisoned and killed by snake venom.

Aleka Esa-Bella Scheyk Gonzales died in May 2014.

51-year-old Henry Thomas pleaded guilty on Thursdayto failing to provide the necessaries of life, the B.C. Prosecution Service said.

The plea, made in North Vancouver Provincial Court,comes six months after Thomas was arrested and charged.

RCMP saidThomas had a two-year-old child in his care on May 18, 2014, and returned her to her mother's home in North Vancouver early the next morning.

Hours later, at 5 a.m., the child's mother phonedRCMP and said the toddler was dead.

Mounties searched Thomas's home in Agassiz, B.C., and seized snakes and "related equipment" in July 2015.

Further biological DNA testing was run in 2016 and 2017, confirming the two-year-old's cause of death.

"This is a very tragic incident that resulted in a complex, unique investigation by police and support agencies," Supt. Chris Kennedy, the officer in charge of the North Vancouver RCMP, said in a statement in January 2019.

"Our condolences are extended to the family and community of the deceased child."

Thomas is set to be sentenced on Oct. 3.