San Diego County Case Files Reveal Details into Baby’s Death – Nbc 7 San Diego

NBC 7's Alexis Rivas looks into recently-unsealed county files that reveal what case workers did and didn't do to protect Delilah.

For months, family members of a City Heights couple warned San Diego County social workers to remove a baby from her parents’ care, fearing the couple was unfit due to mental health issues. That’s just one of several revelations from baby Delilah Ucman’s child welfare services case file, which was obtained through a petition by NBC 7.

Delilah was pronounced dead on November 9, 2021. Medical records show the three-month-old weighed less than four pounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say a healthy child of her age should have weighed more than fourteen pounds.

Prosecutors say her parents, Elizabeth Ucman and Brandon Copeland, starved her to death and charged each with 1st-degree murder. Both have pleaded not guilty. The trial is scheduled to begin next May.

Getting Delilah’s case file

Ordinarily, juvenile records like Delilah’s case file never see the light of day. Initially, our team requested those documents from San Diego County Child Welfare Services, which just rebranded itself as the Child and Family Well-Being Department. However, that agency isn’t legally allowed to give out any information about cases involving children. The only exception to that rule involves petitioning the juvenile court system to release documents. 

NBC 7 Investigates filed that petition in April of 2023. We attended a couple of court hearings where attorneys for Ucman tried to block our efforts, but ultimately the judge sided with our petition, granting us the records. The file details what social workers say happened, in their own words, every time they made a call or a visit tied to Delilah’s case. An expert we spoke with says the case file paints a picture of missed opportunities and what-ifs.

Delilah was a surprise

The documents show that Ucman didn’t know she was even pregnant. Social workers say she went to the emergency room on July 19, 2021, for stomach pains and discovered she was in active labor. Delilah was born early that morning.

About five months ago, Delilah’s maternal great-aunt Annie Chapman testified that she was scared when she first learned about the birth.

“I was terrified about what they were going to do to the baby,” Chapman told the court.

Chapman said she visited Ucman and Copeland at their apartment to meet Delilah three days after she was born. She testified that while there were efforts underway to clean the apartment by the couple’s friends, she was still alarmed by how filthy it was. Chapman told the court that both parents seemed detached from the situation and the responsibility of taking care of a baby.