Trial begins for parents charged in newborn baby’s starvation death

A City Heights couple failed to care for their 3-month-old daughter, leading to the infant’s starvation death, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday at the onset of the pair’s murder trial, but defense attorneys said the defendants had mental health issues that left them incapable of caring for a child or themselves.

Brandon Copeland, 25, and Elizabeth Reneedawn Ucman, 26, were arrested in late 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.

On Nov. 9, 2021, the child was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

During opening statements of the couple’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio told jurors that at death, the baby weighed 3.65 pounds, less than half her weight at birth.

The prosecutor said no underlying medical conditions were found to have caused her death, and that the child died due to sustained and prolonged malnutrition.

“This didn’t happen overnight,” said Balerio.

The prosecutor said part of the trial evidence would include a recorded conversation from inside a holding cell after their arrests.

In the conversation, Ucman allegedly discussed fleeing if they made bail.

Copeland allegedly at one point said, “We’re guilty as (expletive.) We neglected her.” Later, prosecutors say he said, “Technically, what we did was murder.”

Defense attorneys for Copeland and Ucman to...