OGDEN — A judge declined Friday to allow Brenda Emile to withdraw her guilty plea to killing her 3-year-old daughter, saying the change of heart lacked credibility and was not backed up by evidence.

Emile, 28, pleaded guilty Aug. 19 to the July 6, 2017, torture and starvation death of Angelina Costello, but weeks later she asked to withdraw the plea, alleging her son’s life had been threatened before the plea.

The Ogden woman repeated the claim Friday in an evidentiary hearing before 2nd District Judge Michael DiReda. She testified that her mother told her that the brother of Miller Costello, Emile’s husband, co-defendant and father of Angelina, had said that if Emile did not plead guilty “she would be burying another kid.”

Emile said she was worried that Costello would get out of jail and harm one of their other children. Both defendants were charged with first-degree felony aggravated murder, subject to the death penalty. But both took plea bargains last year, avoiding capital punishment.

Prosecutor Letitia Toombs of the Weber County Attorney’s Office played for the court a 12-minute recording of a phone conversation Emile had with her mother before the August plea hearing.

There was no mention of a threat in the call, only Emile’s insistence to her mother that taking the case to trial would be “ugly” for her and risk a death sentence. “Take the death penalty off, that’s the best they can do,” Emile said on the call, referring to her attorneys. “There’s a dead body on the table — how am I going to explain that, for not doing my part as a mother?”

Charging documents alleged the couple beat, burned and starved the girl over a yearlong period. A police detective testified in 2018 that the girl’s body resembled that of a Holocaust victim.

Emile’s mother in turn insisted that she not plead guilty. “They’re lying to you, Erika (Emile’s middle name),” her mother said. “Don’t take the deal. Twenty-five to life, that’s no deal.” One of the other sentencing options is 25 years to life in prison.

“You didn’t talk about kids or any threats, only the evidence,” Toombs told Emile.

In several hearings last fall, attorneys described how they reviewed Emile’s August phone calls recorded on the Weber County Jail security system. They found no evidence of a call describing a threat. At that time, she said the call had come in that month.

On the stand Friday, she said the call was sometime in 2022. She said she doesn’t keep good track of time in the jail. “I don’t even have a calendar,” she said.

Jason Widdison, one of Emile’s attorneys, told the judge that it’s “hard to keep track of time” in the jail and that Emile “doesn’t have a good memory of dates.” Widdison added, “She says, ‘I’m positive that that phone call occurred.'”

After a brief recess, DiReda returned to the courtroom with his decision. He said her guilty plea would remain in place, saying, the “evidence is completely lacking, other than Ms. Emile’s at this point self-serving testimony. Only now is Ms. Emile maybe having some buyer’s remorse.”

The judge recounted that Emile signed the plea bargain document, which included her confirmation that the plea was “knowingly and voluntarily made” and that it was not due to outside influences — and that she did, in fact, commit the crime.

“The court does not find Ms. Emile’s testimony or statements to be credible,” DiReda said. “She has not been honest with her lawyers or the court. We’re all now expected to put aside her dishonest statements and now assume that what she says today is the truth. I simply cannot trust Ms. Emile’s communications.”

As a result of the ruling, Emile’s multiple-day sentencing hearing will begin Jan. 23.

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