Mother charged in brutal abuse death of 3-year-old can’t withdraw guilty plea, judge says

OGDEN, Utah — A mother charged with aggravated murder in the malnourishment death of her 3-year-old daughter cannot withdraw her guilty plea, a judge ruled Friday.

Brenda Emile, 28, was scheduled to be sentenced in October. But right before proceedings began, she asked to withdraw her guilty plea.

In subsequent weeks during multiple hearings, Emile changed her story numerous times. In November, Emile told 2nd District Court Judge Michael DiReda that prior to pleading guilty in August to aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, she received threats against her son during phone calls with family members.

When asked why she didn’t bring up the issue in August when she pleaded guilty and was asked multiple questions, including whether she was being threatened or was coerced in any way about accepting the plea deal, Emile said, “My son’s life was more important than mine.” She said she has since received assurance that her children are safe, and added that the threats would be found in her jail phone calls.

But prosecutor Letitia Toombs said her team had combed through Emile’s jail phone calls and found no evidence of any threats made against Emile or her kids.

At that point, Emile said she no longer wanted to withdraw her guilty plea. But DiReda said Emile had raised serious allegations about the safety of her children and about the circumstances under which she accepted the guilty plea. He asked that the phone calls be translated, as “time-inefficient as it may be,” to avoid any doubt about how willingly she pleaded guilty.

During Friday’s hearing, the judge said the calls couldn’t be translated because the court translator was unfamiliar with the Romanian dialect in which Emile and her mother sometimes spoke.

Toombs played a 12-minute phone call between Emile and her mother from Aug. 16, 2022, in which Emile’s mother is heard repeatedly pressuring Emile to not take the plea deal.

“I failed to protect a baby under my care,” Emile is heard saying. “That’s all (jury members) are going to look at. … I’m pleading guilty for not doing my part as a mother.”

After playing the phone call, Toombs said Emile knew before asking to change her plea that Miller Costello — the deceased child’s father and the person who Emile said was threatening her — was never getting out of jail. Costello pleaded guilty in October to aggravated murder, a first-degree felony.

Further, Emile told her mother repeatedly that she wanted to take the plea deal, Toombs said. Emile never told a judge or her attorneys over the last year about the alleged threats, the prosecutor said, adding that Emile couldn’t or wouldn’t pinpoint an exact time that the threats were made.

Emile said the threats made her so anxious that she vomited and then cried herself to sleep. “I wanted to take it to trial and be a voice for my daughter,” she said, but the alleged threat made her feel she couldn’t.

DiReda said he prides himself on being thorough with the plea colloquy, asking additional questions not required by law. The court has been very patient with Emile and even “bent over backwards” to investigate her claims, he continued, but through the monthslong process, attorneys have never found a phone call from the jail containing even a suggestion that she was ever threatened.

“The court simply cannot pick and choose which statements are true and which statements are not true,” DiReda said. “My view is that I simply cannot trust Ms. Emile’s communications.”

Police were called to Emile’s and Costello’s Ogden home on July 6, 2017, on a report that a child was not conscious or breathing. Charging documents describe a pattern of ongoing abuse by Emile and Costello, the parents of Angelina Costello, particularly by Emile. Neither parent sought needed medical attention for the girl because they didn’t want police to take their children away.

When officers arrived, they found that 3-year-old Angelina was already deceased and appeared to have been dead for some time. Detectives observed “bruising, contusions, lacerations, burns, open sores and abrasions all over (the girl’s) face, hands, legs, head and neck,” according to charging documents. Angelina was also “extremely malnourished.” Officers later testified that she looked like a Holocaust victim.

Investigators also found video and photographic evidence on the couple’s cellphones of the ongoing and progressive abuse starting in January 2016.

“The videos also appear to show both (Costello and Emile) taunting the child victim with food by presenting it to her and then removing it from her and disciplining her,” the charges state.