OGDEN — A woman charged in the death of her 3-year-old daughter says she pleaded guilty because the lives of her other children were threatened.

Attorneys representing Brenda Emile, 27, of Ogden, filed a motion in 2nd District Court on Monday asking that she be allowed to withdraw her guilty plea to first-degree felony aggravated murder in the July 6, 2017, death of Angelina Costello.

In an Aug. 19 plea bargain with the Weber County Attorney’s Office, Emile pleaded guilty and prosecutors dropped their pursuit of the death penalty. Emile’s husband, 30-year-old Miller Costello, struck a similar plea bargain on Oct. 5, also avoiding the possibility of capital punishment.

But as attorneys gathered Oct. 17 for the start of Emile’s scheduled sentencing hearing, her attorneys served notice they would file a motion to withdraw her plea.

The motion Monday “asserts that her plea was not knowingly and voluntarily made because of a threat that was communicated to her through her mother by a third party that Eric Costello would cause harm to their biological children if she did not plead guilty.”

Eric is Miller Costello’s middle name and family members usually addressed him with it. The threat was made in August, the motion said. The couple had two other children. Both Costello and Emile have been held without bail in the Weber County Jail since their arrest on the day of Angelina’s death.

Further details about the alleged threat were not available. A message to Emile attorney Jason Widdison was not immediately returned.

Judge Michael DiReda has scheduled a Nov. 8 hearing for arguments on the withdrawal motion. According to the Monday filing, a plea withdrawal may be granted only if the judge agrees and there is “a showing that it was not knowingly and voluntarily made.” Prosecutors have not yet replied to the filing.

Under the plea bargains, Emile and Costello would be subject to a sentence of either 25 years to life in prison or life without parole.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty because of evidence that Angelina apparently was subjected to at least a year of physical and emotional abuse, such as beatings, cigarette burns and withholding of food. A police detective testified in a preliminary hearing that the toddler was so emaciated she resembled a Holocaust victim.

In a handwritten letter to DiReda in February 2021, Costello blamed Emile. “I had nothing to do” with Angelina’s death, the letter said.

He said he had a busy job as a scrap metal hauler, gone on out-of-state trips six days a week. “I was home one day a week to wash my clothes and it was back on the road,” he said. “I was never home to see my kids. I was always driving.”

He said his family “never liked Brenda” and warned him not to marry her. “She is evil,” he said. “I don’t understand what was going (on) in her head.”

Charging documents challenged Costello’s assertions. Prosecutors said they have video evidence from the couple’s phones showing them taunting her with food and physically abusing her.

Emile told police that Angelina’s injuries were inflicted by the toddler’s siblings or resulted from falls. Emile allegedly told Costello that she did not get medical attention for Angelina because she did not want her children taken away from her in a police investigation.

Prosecutors alleged that both parents participated in and were aware of the abuse, which charging documents said lasted more than a year, or did anything to get her help.

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