An alternate juror couldn’t hold back tears on Wednesday morning after a San Diego police officer’s body camera video showed the limp body of baby Delilah Ucman inside a filthy apartment in City Heights. That scene from late 2021 was just a small part of the prosecution’s opening statement s against Delilah’s parents, Brandon Copeland and Elizabeth Ucman. The pair is now on trial for Delilah’s death and is accused of first-degree murder. Both have pleaded not guilty. Held on the 13th floor of the county’s courthouse in downtown San Diego, this trial is unique. Each defendant has their own separate jury that will decide their fates independently.  That meant two sets of opening statements from the prosecution and defense. While the juries were swapped in and out for each statement, both will be present once testimony begins on Thursday morning. According to Deputy District Attorney Francesca Ballerio, the case is straightforward. During her opening statement to Copeland’s jury, she told the court that Delilah was born healthy but was neglected and starved to death by her parents. Brandon Copeland and Elizabeth Ucman attend their preliminary hearing in May 2023. “She was reduced to less than half of her birth weight…. You could see the outline of her abdominal organs,” Ballerio said. “What happened was prolonged severe malnutrition.” Ballerio went through the case, which included details about how concerned family members stepped in after the birth. For the first month of her life, Delilah was in the care of her great-aunt, who begged to take the child until the couple cleaned their apartment. The case file contained pictures taken by SDPD after Delilah’s death, which showed piles of trash, spoiled food and animal feces. Documents also revealed that reports were made to the San Diego County Child Family Well-Being Department (Child Welfare Services at the time). The case file documented that social workers created a safety plan for Delilah that the parents agreed to as part of Voluntary Services with the county. That’s a type of social worker supervision in cases where children are at risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation. Children may either safely remain in the home or in a voluntary out-of-home placement. Delilah Ucman Documents stated that the parents agreed they wouldn’t get Delilah back until the home was clean and safe. A month later, the child was returned to them, against the fervent pleas of family members, who told social workers that both Copeland and Ucman were unfit because they were immature and suffered from a slew of mental health issues. While the couple initially kept in contact with family members and social workers, Ballerio said, they broke off contact over the next couple of months. Many of the details from the deputy district attorney’s opening statements were revealed after NBC 7 Investigates successfully won a court ruling to gain access to the county social worker’s case files.  The files revealed that the last time Delilah was seen by a social worker was 55 days before her Nov. 10, 2021, death. Delilah’s great-grandmother Adrienne Arnett told NBC 7 Investigates that she believes the system failed the child – that the county should have stepped in to remove her from the home.  NBC 7 Investigates reached out to the county multiple times in 2023, asking to have a conversation about what happened in the case and discuss departmental policies. Officials repeatedly declined to comment or make staff available for questions. New evidence revealed What wasn’t revealed publicly until Wednesday were transcripts of a conversation between Ucman Copeland after they were taken into custody. Ballerio said the pair were put in a room together alone, where they were unknowingly recorded by police. The prosecutor recounted several parts of their conversation and read transcripts to jurors. “Even if we get a lawyer, we are guilty as [expletive]. We neglected her,” Copeland reportedly said. In another snippet of conversation, the prosecutor told jurors Copeland said, “I mean, technically, what we did was murder.” And later in the conversation, prosecutors said Ucman was recorded saying, “I’m scared, babe.” The transcript stated that Copeland replied, “Oh well. How do you think Delilah felt?” The deputy district attorney then asked jurors to find Copeland guilty of murder. Opening statement from Copeland’s defense Copeland’s defense attorney, Courtney Cutter, relayed a different narrative to jurors. She painted her client as the product of an incredibly abusive and traumatic childhood. Cutter said it was one that began when Copeland’s addict mother sold him to a stranger for $1,500. Cutter said when Copeland was a baby, he was found in a seedy hotel room – hungry, in a soiled diaper, with cigarette burns on his body. The defense attorney also said Copeland bounced around the foster care system for most of his childhood, suffering physical and sexual abuse. She said the most promising time in his life came after he was adopted into a good home. But, Cutter, said that faded quickly after the family gave up their parental rights, citing numerous behavioral problems resulting in Copeland’s repeated hospitalization. He would eventually age out of the foster care system. Copeland met Ucman in Tennessee soon after. Upon moving to San Diego, Cutter said, the homeless couple began receiving public assistance and were put up in an apartment – one that quickly fell into squalor. “They were living in a sea of trash,” Cutter said. “Spoiled food, cockroaches, animal waste. It was no way to live or a place to raise a child.” Cutter also refuted the meaning of transcripts of the in-custody conversation, saying the parents had been repeatedly told they were guilty by police. “They were not treated like people who needed help,” Cutter said. “They were treated like criminals.” Cutter said jurors need to understand the difference between malice and neglect. “There might be some criminality, but you need to look at the whole picture,” Cutter said. “The government only wants you to see the outcome and see it as malicious. Nobody wanted her to die. Everybody failed her.” Elizabeth Ucman, baby Delilah and Brandon Copeland. Opening statement from Ucman’s defense Elizabeth Ucman’s defense attorney, Anthony Parker, said his client also never intended to harm Delilah. “No broken bones, no bruises and no malice,” Parker said. “At the end of this trial, you’ll find that Delilah’s death was not murder … only neglect.” Similar to Copeland, Ucman’s defense attorney told jurors, his client suffered years of childhood abuse and neglect at the hands of her mother. He said she never matured and created a different name for herself, Jade, as a way to disassociate herself from the trauma. Parker said Ucman suffered from a long history of mental illness, including serious postpartum depression after Delilah was born. He said the filthiness of the apartment was a symptom of that mental illness. “Symptoms of postpartum depression made Jade not see a problem with the home,” Parker said. “She wasn’t seeing the world or Delilah through normal eyes, but through the lens of postpartum depression.” Parker also repeatedly told jurors that the system failed Delilah. He said social workers received numerous complaints from family members, who worried the parents were unfit to take care of Delilah or even themselves. “Despite this, they were content to move forward with only what could be referred to as a watch-from-afar plan,” Parker said. Though the parents are each facing a first-degree murder charge, jurors will have several charging options once testimony concludes, which may include involuntary manslaughter or some form of criminal negligence. ...read more read less