San Diego jury sees video of parents discussing guilt in starvation death of infant daughter

SAN DIEGO (CN) — Video footage played for jurors in San Diego Superior Court on Monday showed the parents of an infant who died of starvation discussing their guilt and plans to potentially flee.

Brandon Copeland, 25, and Elizabeth Ucman, 26, are both accused of murder. Police arrested the couple a day after officers had arrived at their City Heights apartment on Nov. 9, 2021, and found their four-month-old daughter, Delilah, unresponsive and severely malnourished.

Delilah was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Video shown to jurors also included body-camera footage of San Diego Police Department officers arriving at the apartment and performing life-saving measures on the baby.

Testimony during the trial has portrayed both parents as irresponsible and living in squalid conditions.

“She starved to death,” Ucman told her partner in a 30-minute video recorded while they were in police custody. “She got bloated. She didn’t gain any weight.”

The two parents, then 21 and 22 years old, were shown handcuffed in a small, metallic holding cell discussing the gravity of the situation. They had just given interviews to detectives and were under police surveillance.

“We’re guilty as shit,” Copeland told Ucman. “We neglected her. Where are we going to go? Mexico?

“The only thing we have to figure out is how long we’re going to be in jail,” he continued.

Ucman briefly mentioned trying to hide out in Nashville.

“They’ll put a warrant out for our arrest countrywide,” Copeland told her.

Copeland also lamented not giving their daughter up for adoption.

“I knew I couldn’t take care of her,” he said. “I told them that.”

Ucman, who tried to remain positive, said that they may get released from prison early for good behavior.

“I’m scared, babe,” she said.

Body-camera footage of their home shown depicted a dirty apartment filled with trash and clutter.

Delilah lay on the floor near the front door as San Diego Police Officer Jose Rodriguez entered the apartment the night she died.

“When you opened that door and you saw the baby on the floor, can you describe the condition of the baby on the floor,” Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio asked Rodriguez.

“The baby is in a diaper. She looks kind of rigid. Very pale. She’s lifeless on the ground,” he said during emotional testimony. “The first thing I needed to do for the baby is get her in my arms and start doing chest compressions. I haven’t stopped thinking about this call since it happened. The baby felt like a lifeless doll.”

Copeland and Ucman told San Diego Police Officer David Lopez that they were taking a shower for 30 to 60 minutes when they found Delilah not breathing and with bubbles around her mouth, according to body-camera footage from that night.

Copeland told Lopez that Delilah suffered from acid reflux and that they had taken her to the emergency room a couple months prior. A doctor told them to feed her less food, Copeland told Lopez.

Defense attorneys for the parents, Courtney Cutter and Anthony Parker, have portrayed the two as mentally incompetent, childlike and unable to care for their daughter or themselves.

Testimony from a San Diego County Child and Family Well-Being department social worker, Danielle Carillo, last week described the condition of the apartment as unlivable. There were insects crawling up the walls, animal feces on the floor and bed, and spoiled food throughout the apartment, she said.

Evidence shown to jurors on Monday also showed Delilah’s stained baby crib, overflowing trash cans and a floor strewn with garbage and dirty diapers.

Carillo also noted friends and even Ucman’s father said the pair lacked capacity to be parents.

Ucman and Copeland are being tried simultaneously for murder by two different juries. They face 25 years to life in prison.

The trial, presided over by Superior Court Judge Robert Amador, is ongoing.