Four years after the 11-year-old died, prosecutors have chosen to seek a death sentence against her adoptive mother.
SPRING VALLEY, Calif. — The criminal case began with an emergency call shortly before 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2022, when deputies were sent to a Spring Valley home for a child in distress. Four years later, Arabella McCormack’s death has produced a capital prosecution, a grand jury indictment and two separate trials scheduled for 2027.
San Diego County prosecutors announced in August that they will seek the death penalty against Arabella’s adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, who has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the girl’s death and the alleged abuse of Arabella and her younger sisters. McCormack is scheduled to stand trial in August 2027. Her parents, Stanley Tom and Adella Tom, also have pleaded not guilty and are set to be tried together in February 2027. Prosecutors are seeking life without the possibility of parole for the Toms. The trial dates put the first jury proceedings more than four years after the arrests.
When deputies arrived at the family home in 2022, Arabella was unresponsive, authorities said. She was transported to a hospital, where her condition worsened and she died. Sheriff’s investigators said they saw indications of possible child abuse and turned the investigation over to the department’s homicide unit. The same day, deputies contacted Arabella’s adoptive father, Brian McCormack, near the residence. Sheriff’s officials said he died by suicide in their presence. Prosecutors later said he would have faced charges if he were alive, but he was never placed on trial and no criminal judgment was entered against him.
The investigation continued for about three months before authorities arrested Leticia McCormack and her parents in November 2022. The Sheriff’s Department initially announced accusations including murder, torture and willful cruelty to a child. Investigators said Arabella had two younger sisters who were 6 and 7 at the time. Authorities placed the surviving children outside the McCormack home while detectives worked to determine what had happened. Their treatment inside the household would later become a major part of the prosecution’s theory and of a separate lawsuit claiming numerous adults and institutions failed to protect the children.
Prosecutors allege the girls endured an extended system of food and water deprivation, forced exercise, isolation, limits on bathroom use and physical punishment. They say Arabella was severely malnourished when she died and weighed 48 pounds, less than she had weighed years earlier. Prosecutors have also cited bruising and multiple healing fractures found on her body. The allegations are disturbing, but they remain claims the state must prove at trial. McCormack, Stanley Tom and Adella Tom have pleaded not guilty, and none has been convicted in connection with Arabella’s death.
The shape of the criminal case changed substantially before the defendants reached trial. Prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment that was unsealed in 2025, eliminating the need for a previously expected preliminary hearing. Reporting on the indictment described hundreds of alleged acts that prosecutors say were committed in furtherance of a conspiracy involving the adults in the household. The indictment brought together allegations about how the girls were fed, disciplined, monitored and restricted. A grand jury’s decision to indict allows a prosecution to continue; it is not a verdict and does not establish that the allegations are true.
Testimony from one of Arabella’s surviving sisters gave the grand jury a direct account of life inside the home, according to reporting on the unsealed proceedings. She described restrictions on food and water, exercises used as punishment and rules limiting the girls’ movement. Prosecutors have also said the two younger girls were so malnourished after Arabella’s death that they required hospital treatment. The surviving sisters have since been removed from the household. Public reports have generally withheld their names because they are minors and alleged victims of child abuse.
While the criminal prosecution moved slowly through court, a parallel civil case focused on a different question: whether people and organizations outside the household had opportunities to recognize and report what was happening. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of Arabella’s surviving sisters, alleged that county workers, educators, church personnel and others missed warning signs or did not fulfill reporting obligations. Records obtained in connection with the civil litigation described earlier concerns about food and water restrictions and other controlling behavior. Those allegations broadened public scrutiny beyond the three defendants charged in the criminal case.
The civil dispute eventually ended in settlements totaling $31.5 million. San Diego city and county each agreed to pay $10 million, Pacific Coast Academy agreed to $8.5 million and Rock Church agreed to $3 million. The school had overseen a homeschooling program involving the children, while Leticia McCormack had volunteered at Rock Church and held an elder ordination transferred there from another church. Civil settlements resolve claims under a different legal process and burden of proof. They do not establish whether McCormack or her parents committed the criminal charges that juries will consider in 2027.
Rock Church has said McCormack was not a paid staff member, pastor or person serving in an official pastoral role. The church said she volunteered in several capacities and that her elder ordination was transferred to Rock Church in January 2022 after being completed elsewhere. Her ordination was suspended after the investigation began and later revoked, according to the church. Following the civil settlement, Rock Church said it remained deeply saddened by Arabella’s death and the harm to her sisters and said it would continue using policies and safeguards intended to protect people in its ministries.
The prosecution took another major step in August 2026 when the district attorney decided McCormack’s case would proceed as a capital prosecution. The decision distinguishes her potential punishment from that of her parents, although the three defendants face overlapping allegations connected to the same family. California’s death penalty remains part of state law, but executions have been suspended since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a 2019 executive order granting reprieves to people under death sentence and closing the execution chamber at San Quentin. California last carried out an execution in 2006.
The moratorium does not prevent prosecutors from filing a capital case or a jury from returning the findings necessary for a death sentence. It instead prevents executions under the current governor’s order and exists alongside unresolved practical and legal barriers to restarting them. That distinction means McCormack’s trial can still include a punishment phase involving death if she is first convicted of the necessary charges and special allegations. Any such judgment would also trigger the extensive review associated with a California death sentence. At present, however, the case has not reached either a guilt verdict or a sentencing phase.
The next year is expected to shift the long-running case from investigation and pretrial litigation toward jury trials. Stanley and Adella Tom are scheduled to go before a jury first in February 2027, followed by Leticia McCormack in August. A reported status hearing is set for Nov. 17, 2026. Those dates may govern the current court calendar, but the accusations against all three defendants will remain unresolved until the cases conclude. The state bears the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.