Police
arrested a California couple after the two were accused of murdering their 3-month-old daughter.
What are the details?
Brandon Copeland, 21, and Elizabeth Ucman, 22, are accused of murdering the infant, Delilah, just weeks after San Diego County’s Child Welfare Services returned the child after having removed her from living in the squalid conditions of the family’s apartment.
Police rushed to the couple’s home on Nov. 9 for reports of an unresponsive infant, according to a release from the authorities. Upon finding the child’s lifeless body, officers began administering CPR until San Diego Fire-Rescue arrived and transported the child to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Authorities have yet to release a cause of death at the time of this reporting.
Authorities arrested the couple following an investigation into the baby’s death. Both face charges of first-degree murder and face 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Copeland and Ucman have
pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Ucman is being held without bond in the Los Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility in Santee, while Copeland is being held without bond at the San Diego Central Jail.
#Nightnews Baby Delilah found unresponsive. Young parents Brandon and Elizabeth Copeland charged with her murder. Family members say they warned authorities the baby was in danger #NBC7 at 11pic.twitter.com/ta2f2HYPjZ
— Dave Summers (@Dave Summers)1636783333
What else?
The child’s great-grandmother, Adrienne Arnett, told
KFMB-TV that the child endured a horrific home life before her untimely death and that the child’s parents were “dangerous.”
“This baby went through living hell,” Arnett said, noting that the child was first placed in emergency custody of a great-aunt due to Copeland and Ucman’s home environment being filthy and unfit to house a newborn baby.
Child services returned the child to her parents six weeks later, but the child was dead just weeks after that.
“Delilah is in heaven,” Arnett said. “I can’t help her, but there are so many other babies out there. I can’t save my grandbaby, but maybe we can save some others.”
“We have a whole family of people that would have taken care of this baby,” Arnett added.
“I knew my granddaughter was dangerous,” Arnett continued. “I knew this and I told social services.”
She added, “Social services was told by every member of the family that she was dangerous. We knew the boy was dangerous.”
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
