Inset, left to right: Lilith Nova Burkhardt (Meeker Funeral Home) and Brian Moser (Law&Crime). Background: The apartment complex where Moser killed Lilith last year (WXIX).
A 23-year-old man in Ohio may spend more than two decades in prison for his role in killing his girlfriend”s 2-year-old daughter, who was physically abused before she suffocated to death in her bed.
Adams County Judge Brett Spencer on Tuesday ordered Brian Moser to serve 17 to 22 1/2 years in a state correctional facility — exceeding the 15- to 20-year term outlined in the plea agreement. Spencer handed down the sentence after Moser pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child endangering in connection with the 2025 death of 2-year-old Lilith Burkhardt.
Specifically, Moser will serve 11 to 16 1/2 years on the manslaughter conviction and 3 years each on the child endangerment charges, all of which will be served consecutively.
Prior to reaching a deal with prosecutors, Moser had been charged with murder and was facing 63 years to life in prison.
During the sentencing hearing, Moser addressed the court, apologizing to the victim’s family and saying that Lilith’s death had left him “traumatized” for the rest of his life. He also maintained that the child’s death was an accident.
Lilith’s death
Just after 9 p.m. on July 1, 2025, deputies with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and emergency medical personnel responded to a 911 call about an unresponsive child at the Timber Ridge Apartment Complex in West Union.
“I don’t know if they suffocated last night or what,” Moser told the 911 operator. “There’s no way. She’s dead. I just woke up and found her.”
Paramedics attempted lifesaving measures on Lilith, but were unable to resuscitate the toddler. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A subsequent autopsy conducted by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office determined Lilith’s cause of death to be suffocation.
Moser told dispatchers he put Lilith down at midnight the previous evening in the same bed as her 1- and 5-year-old sisters. Police said Lilith and her siblings all had visible “significant injuries.”
When asked if he struck any of the children at all, Moser responded, “Last night? No I didn’t.”
Spencer said such a response was “a little telling,” indicating that Moser had previously struck the children.
When asked to explain the bruises on all three kids, Moser replied, “I discipline them.” He later admitted to employing “corporal punishment on all three children” that directly led to Lilith’s death.
The sentencing hearing
Prior to formally sentencing Moser, Spencer said deaths involving children are particularly affecting because they “represent pure vulnerability violated.”
“While our minor children only compose one-third of our population, they absolutely compose 100% of our future,” the judge said. “While the stipulated sentence is suggested to this court, this court will not be following that stipulated sentence.”
He continued, saying that “only maximum sentences would suffice in regard to any assimilation of fairness in this case.”
The victim’s father remembered Lilith as a child whose light was “so bright” that it “filled every corner of her family’s world,” according to her obituary.
Cincinnati-based Fox affiliate WXIX reported that just days before Lilith’s death, Moser changed his name from Terri Smith III to Brian Moser, which is the name of a fictitious serial killer from the show “Dexter.” Prosecutors reportedly said the defendant changed his name because he “really likes serial killers.”
Lilith’s mother, Tien Hawkins, is also facing child endangerment charges. She is scheduled to appear in court for a change of plea hearing on May 8.
