San Diego district attorney urges jurors to convict mother of murdering her baby by starvation

SAN DIEGO (CN) — San Diego Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio did not mince words when she asked a jury to find the mother of a four-month-old baby, Delilah, guilty of murder through starvation.

“This case is about the most basic duty recognized by the law and humanity,” Balerio told jurors during closing arguments Monday. “A parent must feed their baby. Delilah entered this world completely healthy, completely dependent, and completely vulnerable. Her mother denied her the one thing required to live. Nourishment.”

Elizabeth Ucman, 26, and Brandon Copeland, 25, were arrested Nov. 10, 2021, after their daughter was found unresponsive and not breathing in their City Heights apartment. Delilah, who weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces at birth in July, weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces when she died in November, Balerio told jurors.

Balerio recounted about five weeks of testimony and evidence presented since late January, arguing Ucman’s actions — or inaction — were malicious. She said Ucman knew her daughter was starving and chose not to intervene.

“Starvation does not happen overnight. It does not happen in secret. It happens over time and in plain view,” said Balerio, oftentimes pointing to Ucman, who sat at a table behind Copeland with her head hung down. “Every day without proper nourishment weakens the body. Every missed feeding deepens the danger. The deterioration is visible, physical and unmistakable. This is murder.”

During closing arguments, Balerio repeatedly showed jurors photos of the baby’s emaciated body after she was pronounced dead, along with images of the trash-strewn apartment where she lived.

Family members of Ucman in the courtroom recoiled at the images.

Ucman and Copeland each face 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder and are being tried separately before dual juries.

Jurors could instead convict them of manslaughter, which carries a maximum four-year sentence. Both have been in custody for more than four years.

“I hope they both get murder,” Annie Chapman, Ucman’s aunt, told Courthouse News, adding that the two shared a sister-like relationship. “I would rather them be kept in prison so long that they can’t reproduce. Even though she’s my niece, I want justice.”

Chapman spent a period of Delilah’s short life caring for the baby, whom she said was easy to care for. Chapman and some of the family members present at the courthouse also laid some of the blame on the social workers who attempted to help the family, saying that more actions should have been taken to intervene.

Neither used drugs or alcohol, the family said.

Likewise, Ucman’s defense attorney also took aim at the child welfare and youth services involved with the young family in closing arguments.

“This case is about so much more than one photograph that the district attorney has shown to you,” Deputy Public Defender Anthony Parker said about the photo of Delilah’s dead body. “It’s about two broken people in a broken system.”

Parker partially blamed social workers, doctors and family members for failing to intervene more urgently after Delilah lost weight following a Sept. 20 doctor’s visit. Her parents then cut off contact with their support network.

The couple repeatedly told social workers they were in Los Angeles and unable to attend meetings or parenting classes. Family members testified that was untrue and that the two were avoiding responsibility.

The parents also lied about Delilah’s health, claiming they had taken her to the doctor for an emergency visit and that Ucman did not know she was pregnant until she went into labor.

Parker and Deputy Public Defender Courtney Cutter, who represents Copeland, acknowledged the conditions Delilah endured but argued the lies, neglect and living conditions show the parents themselves were unwell.

Both have depression and PTSD as a result of abusive upbringings. Their attempts to hide from social workers were their own trauma responses, their attorneys have said.

“Everything that happened to Jade and Jace is explainable through their mental illness,” Parker told the jurors, using the defendants’ chosen names. “Jade, from an early age continues to live in a fantasy world. When Delilah passed, she sought the comfort of a stuffed animal. She goes by Jade, not Lizzie or Lizabeth, because it’s a way to dissociate.”

The moldy formula, soiled diapers and malnourishment are evidence of criminal negligence, not malice, Parker argued. Ucman was not capable of caring for her child, let alone herself, Parker said.

“Jade has been waiting for each of you for a long time. Someone to listen to her side,” he told jurors. “She has been waiting for you so she could say the moment she learned that her daughter had passed, her greatest fear had been realized, that was that she failed as a mother.”

Balerio expressed exasperation at this portrayal of Delilah’s starvation in her rebuttal, describing it as a blame game that shifts focus on everyone else but the defendant.

“If she thought she was trying to care for Delilah, why was she lying about Delilah?” Balerio asked. “If you believe what you were doing was right, then why lie about the care?”

Balerio portrayed Ucman as a fully functional adult who could arrange transportation to work and medical appointments and apply for jobs, but chose to neglect her daughter.

“We’re not here to determine whether defendant Ucman loved her daughter,” she said. “That’s for her to know. What we are here to know and do is determine the facts of this case and the law and what happened to baby Delilah.”

Photos of Delilah’s deteriorating body that Ucman texted to her friends in search of help in October were evidence that she knew something was wrong, and yet refused to take her daughter to a doctor.

“Starvation does not happen in an instant,” Balerio told jurors. “It happens slowly, visibly, painfully, day after day. She lost weight. Day after day, she got weaker. She showed obvious signs of starvation.”

Ucman consciously disregarded her daughter, she said.

“Hold her responsible as the law demands,” she told jurors. “Find her guilty of murder.”

Jurors in the Copeland trial will hear closing arguments on Tuesday.