A Dawson City woman charged with killing her infant child pleaded guilty this morning to manslaughter, in the Yukon Supreme Court .

Justina Ellis, 23, told the court in a quiet voice she was pleading guilty to manslaughter in the death of seven-month-old Samara Olson.

Ellis was originally charged with second-degree murder.

Crown prosecutor Peter Chisholm, quoting from an agreed statement of facts submitted to Justice Ron Veale, described the circumstances the night that Olson was killed.

Ellis' common-law husband, Tim Olson, was working at a camp outside of Dawson City in the summer of 2004.

At around 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 15, he returned to Dawson, where Ellis and his daughter were living.

He could smell alcohol on Ellis' breath, Chisholm said, and told her to stop drinking or it would ruin their relationship. At that time, both Ellis and the father had been sober for about 12 months.

He spent about an hour at the house before leaving.

Ellis drank six ciders between 6 and 10:00 that night, Chisholm said.

She visited her mother, who lived about five doors down, between 9:30 and 10 p.m., telling her that Tim was at home with Samara.

Ellis' mother thought she had been drinking, the court heard, because her behaviour was not normal.

At about 10 p.m., Samara woke up crying. Ellis said she slapped the infant then covered her mouth and nose with a blanket, suffocating her, Chisholm read out.

Afterward, Ellis put the body in a bag and disposed of it in a garbage can outside of Klondike Kate's Restaurant and Cabins.

She initially phoned police at about 1:55 a.m. to report that her daughter was missing.

She told RCMP that she had walked over to the Eldorado Hotel and had left her daughter outside in the stroller, alone, the court was told.

When she came out again, her child was gone, she is reported to have told police.

However, upon taking Ellis to the Eldorado to retrace her movements, it became 'apparent Ms. Ellis was not being truthful,' Chisholm said.

Police reported that Ellis began talking about suicide.

She was taken into police custody where she later admitted to slapping, shaking and smothering the child.

Samara died of a blunt force injury, Chisholm told the court, which resulted in a fracture to the skull and bleeding in the brain.

Vancouver-based forensic psychiatrist Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe testified this morning that Ellis has borderline personality disorder as well as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder.

Strongly associated with women who suffer from serious sexual abuse as children, people with borderline personality disorder tend to divide the world into good and bad and have trouble thinking and acting in moderation, Lohrasbe said.

'Ms. Ellis comes from a deprived background in all senses of the word,' he told the court, noting that was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

When this disorder is acted out with violence, he said, it is not clear what direction it will take. It could be directed against a partner, a family member, a child or against the person him or herself.

'The direction of violence is so dependent on the passion of the moment,' he said.

He described it as 'fleeting and fragmented' and 'very momentary.'

According to his findings, Ellis is at a moderate to high risk of acting out violently in the future.

Avoiding recurrence depends on a number of factors, including abstaining absolutely from alcohol and drugs and long-term psychological treatment for what he described as her 'inner chaos.'

At press time, neither the Crown nor defence lawyers had made submissions regarding sentencing.