Left to right: Brandon Copeland, Elizabeth R. Ucman, and Delilah Ucman (KNSD).
Two parents in California have learned their fate for starving their 3-month-old daughter until she weighed less than half what she did at birth.
Brandon Copeland, 25, and Elizabeth Ucman, 26, were each sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced on Wednesday. The defendants were convicted by separate juries in February of second-degree murder in the death of their baby, Delilah Ucman.
On Nov. 10, 2021, police responded to the parents' apartment in City Heights, California, "following a report that their infant was unresponsive and in need of medical attention." The area is just outside of San Diego.
The child was brought to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. According to prosecutors, "her parents were taken into custody shortly afterward."
San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio described during the trial — which included both parents, though each faced a different jury at the end — the harrowing state of the baby's health. Delilah "weighed only 3.64 pounds at the time of her death, less than half her healthy birth weight."
The child had no underlying medical conditions, and "the evidence showed her death resulted solely from prolonged starvation and neglect," authorities said. "Starvation is slow, visible, and impossible to overlook. Delilah's decline unfolded in plain sight, yet the defendants sought no help, provided inadequate nutrition, and failed to obtain medical care."
As Law&Crime previously reported, when Delilah was born, social services determined that the parents lived in a filthy apartment that was not fit for a newborn, and they gave emergency custody to Ucman's aunt. However, after about a month, Delilah was returned to her parents' care, despite warnings from multiple family members that the couple was unfit due to substance abuse and mental health issues.
Elizabeth Ucman and Brandon Copeland (KNSD).
During the trial, prosecutors shared a transcript of a conversation between Copeland and Ucman following their arrest. After they were left alone in a room, they apparently made several incriminating statements.
"We're guilty as s—. We neglected her," Copeland told Ucman, per area NBC affiliate KNSD. "I mean, technically, what we did was murder."
"I'm scared, babe," Ucman said later. Copeland reportedly responded, "Oh well, how do you think Delilah felt?"
The couple's defense team argued that the parents were abused themselves as children, "overwhelmed," and incapable of even caring for themselves. "There might be some criminality, but you need to look at the whole picture," Copeland's attorney said. "The government only wants you to see the outcome and see it as malicious. Nobody wanted her to die. Everybody failed her."
Stephan was not so forgiving.
"Baby Delilah entered this world healthy and full of promise and within three months she died of starvation at the hands of her parents," the district attorney said. "Cases that involve parents who harm their babies are haunting and our specialized child abuse prosecutor Franciesca Balerio fought to be the voice for this defenseless baby and to bring a measure of justice and dignity where none existed in her short life."
She added: "Her parents chose to withhold the care every infant deserves, and because of that, baby Delilah never had the chance to grow or thrive. It's time the defendants have the time to fully reckon with the consequences of their actions."