SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The parents of a 3- month-old girl who starved to death in San Diego were convicted of second-degree murder Thursday.
Brandon Copeland, 25, and Elizabeth Reneedawn Ucman, 26, were arrested in November 2021 shortly after police were called to their City Heights apartment on a report that the baby, Delilah, was unresponsive and in need of medical attention. The child was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead and her parents were subsequently arrested.
Copeland and Ucman, who were 21 and 22 years old at the time of the baby's death, were tried this year in one trial by two separate downtown San Diego juries, each tasked solely with deciding one defendant's fate.
During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio told jurors that at death, the baby weighed 3.65 pounds, less than half her weight at birth, and that her condition was the result of neglect, rather than underlying medical causes.
The child was briefly removed from the couple's home after Ucman's aunt found their apartment in squalid conditions, with trash, moldy food, insects and pet feces strewn throughout.
The baby was eventually returned to the couple, at which point the prosecutor said the couple cut off all communication with family members and service providers.
Defense attorneys for Copeland and Ucman told jurors their clients came from troubled upbringings that included abuse and bouts of homelessness, coupled with mental health issues that left them largely incapable of caring for themselves or a child.
Copeland's attorney, Courtney Cutter, said the couple were "functioning at the level of children themselves" and described them as "two naive, immature, psychologically damaged adolescents who believed that they could figure out how to make themselves into parents without anybody's help."
Ucman's attorney, Anthony Parker, said the couple tried to care for the child, even if their methods were ultimately insufficient. He also said postpartum depression played a role in his client's inability to recognize how severe Delilah's condition was.
