Mom tortured and killed 7-year-old, then tried to frame dad, CA officials say
A woman and her boyfriend tortured her 7-year-old daughter, then killed her, California prosecutors say.
Now, Ida Helen Brockman, 34, and Malachi Xavier Whalen, 33, have each been convicted of murder in the girl’s death, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a July 3 news release.
Attorney information for Brockman and Whalen was not immediately available.
“This was a case that shook us all to our core,” District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in the release. “The brutal murder of (the child), a defenseless 7-year-old girl, at the hands of her own mother and her mother’s boyfriend is nothing short of horrific.”
Brockman and Whalen are accused of torturing, beating and killing the child at their Hawthorne home on Sept. 9, 2021, prosecutors said.
At the time of her death, the girl had 58 separate injuries, which included “severe burns, blunt force trauma, multiple fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, and other significant internal injuries,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined, according to prosecutors.
The two tried to frame the girl’s biological father for her slaying, according to prosecutors.
Brockman, however, later “admitted the plan to frame (the girl’s) father,” prosecutors said.
In addition to murder, the two were each found guilty of torture following a 10-week long trial, prosecutors said.
The jury also “found Brockman guilty of child abuse causing death and Whalen guilty of one count of assault on a child causing death,” according to prosecutors.
“We are grateful that the jury returned a guilty verdict and held both defendants accountable for their cruelty,” Hochman said in the release.
Brockman and Whalen are scheduled to appear in court for sentencing Sept. 12, prosecutors said.
Hawthrone is about a 20-mile drive southwest from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Mom tortured and killed 7-year-old, then tried to frame dad, CA officials say."
