Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom, BF Burned and Left 5-Year-Old to Die: Cops

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Lia Corbin and her boyfriend, Kyle Valle, are charged with a number of felonies including murder, kidnapping and child abuse in the death of Corbin's five-year-old daughter, Willow Rugerio-Corbin. Willow died on January 27, 2026 after Lia called 911 and said her daughter was not breathing. Police and EMT's in Topeka, Kansas responded to the home and found Willow emaciated and burned with cigarettes, according to court documents. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the horrific allegations in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the SAN app at https://san.com/crimefix for Unbiased, Straight factsHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Randy Kessler https://x.com/GAdivorceCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A little girl is dead, and now her mom and her mom's boyfriend are behind bars accused of murdering her. The abuse police say Willow Ruggario Corbyn endured is torture. I'll tell you about the horrific allegations and the charges her mom and the boyfriend now face. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Willow Ruggiero Corby was only five years old. Her family described her as a bright light with a magical presence. She loved Moana and radiated joy. Her life was too short.

On January 27th, Willow died. And now her mom, Leah Corbin, and Corbyn's boyfriend, Kyle Valley, are charged with torturing Willow and murdering her. The case takes us to Topeka, Kansas, the state's capital. On January 27th, police say Leah Corbyn called 911 and could be overheard telling a man in the background that she didn't think Willow was breathing. An arrest affidavit lays out what police say happened when Leah Corbin called 911. Leah stated, she's alive. She's alive. She's alive. She's alive. When dispatch asked if her daughter was having trouble breathing, Leah said, I thought she wasn't breathing. I don't know what happened. I went to go check on her because she went quiet. Leah said she thought Willow was not breathing, but she was

breathing. This is a serious emergency call. Little five-year-old girls, they don't typically just stop breathing. Willow needed help. The affidavit paints a grim picture. It states, when officers arrived on scene, the front door to the apartment building was locked. Kyle was then seen bringing Willow up to the front door to the building. Willow was naked and wrapped in a blanket. AMR and TFD began administering aid to Leah on the front steps of the building. Officers observed obvious trauma to Willow to include what looked like severe bruising on the body, swollen eyes, bleeding on the head, possible burns covering a large portion of the body. Officers asked Kyle what happened to Willow. Kyle stated that Willow has a history of pouring soap on herself and if they don't wash it off her

quick enough that she would get what looks like burn marks on her, which he described as baked chicken. Kyle said that he received a phone call from Leah at around 10.30 this morning stating that Willow was having a mental episode pouring soap on herself and hitting her head against the wall. The affidavit goes on to describe what the officer said Leah Corbin told them, including that Willow had an aversion to water and didn't like to take baths. Leah said when Willow refused to take a bath, she sent her to her bedroom and about 30 minutes later she went to check on her and found her unresponsive. But that story didn't really seem to jive with what the officers found at the apartment and that included deplorable conditions and pieces of what looked like skin in the bathtub. According to the officers, Leah Corbin was very calm and didn't show emotion when her daughter was not breathing, and she wasn't asking about Willow's condition. Police would describe Willow at the hospital as emaciated and doctors suspected she was the victim of severe abuse.

The officer wrote, Leah said she made Willow sit in there, unsure where. She said Willow went really quiet. She claimed this to be normal. However, Leah said this was too quiet and she went to check on Willow. Officer Sheercalk asked how long it was before she checked on Willow and Leah said, Um, 30 minutes. Leah said that Kyle had gone to the store. Leah said she found Willow not moving. She said she called Kyle to make sure I wasn't panicking because I panic easily. She said Kyle returned and confirmed Willow was not breathing.

She said they then called 911. Fire personnel came inside to check to see if they could determine any obvious chemical smells or anything to tell them what it was. Fire personnel seemed to think that the water in the closet smelled like laundry detergent. There were multiple green-gain laundry detergent containers inside of Willow's room. Sergeant Jane showed fire personnel the possible skin pieces in the bathtub, and they believed it to be skin as well. The apartment conditions were deplorable. There was trash and clutter all over. There were cigarette butts and other trash scattered about. Sergeant Jane saw a pipe on the table next to the bed in the living room. It had white residue and burn marks.

I'll have more on the pipe later. Police also described what they found in the bathroom of the apartment. The officer wrote, the bathroom shower curtain had what appeared to be blood spatter on the inside of it and several drops around the tub ledge and base. A yellow scrub daddy scrubber sponge on the ledge of the tub had what appeared to be dried skin stuck to it. A mop bucket in the living room have the same apparent dried skin on its edges at water level. Multiple paddles, both makeshift and as described in statements, were located as well as numerous items used to secure the closet door shut. A trash bag in the hallway contained approximately 50-plus plastic grocery sacks, all individually tied shut with apparent human feces in them. Of note, the toilet appeared

to be in working order. Bloody clothing, towels, and other items were collected. multiple items to be used for physical restraint were also located. The affidavit continues, a blood detection reagent was used in the bathroom to look for any signs of possible blood. Preliminary testing shows that possible blood was located in the tub base, on the tub ledge, and down the side of the tub. It should be noted that the reagents react to proteins found in blood, and just because there is a blue bioluminescent glow does not mean that there is a presence of blood, only the proteins that can, can be found in human blood. Police say they tested the water temperature in the bathtub, and it was 137.5 degrees. They also found a closet with a wooden barricade.

The officer wrote, multiple bottles of dish soap were found throughout the apartment, used green tape, and two Velcro straps were found in and outside of Willow's closet. A white bucket with what appeared to be urine was in the closet as well as a purple-striped sock. presumed blood spatter confirmed by presumptive testing was seen from the front right corner of the closet with an upwards trajectory and on the ceiling. Large portions of this affidavit are redacted. There is discussion about videos, interviews with both Leah Corbin and Kyle Valley and what the two said, and there are also text messages between the two in which they discuss Willow not being worth it. And Kyle Valley spoke with law enforcement. That portion of the affidavit is also redacted. Also redacted are text messages between Kyle and Leah.

Police say they found messages between the two dating to the beginning of December. Some messages discuss Willow being beaten. Leah Corbin and Kyle Valley face a number of charges, including murder, abuse of a child, and aggravated kidnapping. So I'd like to bring in Randy Kessler. He is a trial attorney based in Georgia and has been commenting on cases for years and years. Randy, thank you so much for joining me. I'm sorry this is such a horrific case for us to discuss.

Your first thoughts on this poor little girl, Willow, and the case in general, I mean, it sounds like the police are saying that they believe she was tortured by her mother and her mother's boyfriend. I mean, it is horrific. You know, unfortunately, I think almost every case, you know, I've seen you and law and crime cover is horrific. But this one, I mean, it just hits you because, Why, right? And again, we always talk about in jury trials and prosecutions, you don't need to prove motive, right?

It's just mathematical. Did the person do it? Did it cause the death? You know, was there a mental intention? Was there a mens rea? But it goes so much beyond that. I mean, in this case, just the human element of why, a mother and how much did the child suffer before the child died?

It might have been a relief for death to come upon this child, given the kind of life it looked like. She was living. It's just, you know, mathematically, it's not one of the easiest cases to prove. Emotionally, it's an easy one to prove. Everyone looks at this and says, this child, these people were bad people keeping this child in this situation,

torturing, punishing this child. They did bad things. They deserve to be punished. But, you know, scientifically, mathematically, legally, that's not the burden. The burden is to prove they actually committed the act that caused the death of this child. So, you know, we've got to remember,

lawyers and as part of the system, we have to make sure the system works, that the prosecution can prove these two people cause the death of this little girl. And it's very hard to separate that from how much we hate these two people for what they apparently did to this little girl. That's sort of how I see it is. You know, when I teach law school or when I get ready for a trial, you've got to make it a legal case. And the legal case, it's a little bit harder than the emotional case. The emotional case is easy. They're bad people. They deserve to be punished. legally, we've got to prove it. The affidavit lays out some really horrific facts and some horrific for horrific allegations.

I mean, at this point, these are allegations. But this is a little girl who was in the custody and care of her mother and also the boyfriend, Kyle Valley. And so I want to put up on the screen a little bit of what they said they found when they got Willow to the hospital. And it says when officers in. detectives arrived at the hospital. They suspected Willow suffered from severe abuse. Investigators noted Willow was emaciated and had what appeared to be severe burn marks, open wounds and bruises all over her body. Willow's entire body was discolored and she had would appear to be large marks or blood on her cheeks and eyes. Both of Willow's eyes appeared to be swollen and her right

I was black. Injuries consistent with cigarette burns were observed on multiple locations of Willow's body. And Randy, they said earlier in the affidavit, they saw cigarette butts all over the house, the apartment, it was full of clutter, it was just a disaster, it was disgusting. So what does that tell you? I mean, they're linking the evidence together. There are cigarette butts all over the place that the house is a disaster and Willow has cigarette burns on her. I mean, this goes with the torture charge, plus she's emaciated. It makes it so much harder to defend. You know, if you're the prosecutor, you'd almost always rather have an eyewitness or a murder weapon that has fingerprints on it, rather than this circumstantial evidence. In this case, the circumstantial evidence is so damaging

and it's so horrific that they almost would rather have that because who on a jury? What normal, rational human being could look at this evidence and have any sympathy for these defendants at all and not do anything other than find a way to make sure they're off the streets forever. This is just horrific. You know, any one of these issues, any one of these pieces of evidence, the bruising, you know, the urine and the bat and the bucket in the closet and the cigarette butts and the burns, I mean, any one of those on its own makes you hate these people. But altogether, it almost doesn't matter what the evidence is. We have to be careful. We have to make sure sure we prove time and there was no other person that could have done this, no other explanation

for it to make sure we have the right people. But that seems pretty easy to do. This circumstantial evidence, and again, it's pretty strong circumstantial evidence, but it's still circumstantial evidence is going to be enough to make a conviction stick, in my opinion. I wanted to put another part of this affidavit up on the screen, and it talks about possible drug use suspected in this case. it says officers observed would appear to be a glass pipe, believed to be one commonly used for smoking meth amphetamine on a side table next to the bed in the bedroom, belonging to Leah and Kyle. There was also a cell phone observed sitting on the bed. This bedroom is what would normally be a living room, but is being used as a bedroom. The one traditional bedroom of the apartment is across the hall from the bathroom and is full of miscellaneous items, but the only observable bed in the room is a mattress.

leaned against the wall. The bedroom had two fish tanks, one against the wall next to the closet. In the fish tank were multiple bottles of soap, a roll of green tape, and a yellow cordless drill. The door to the closet has a makeshift latch screwed to the wall and one to the folding door. And then there's a photograph. So they're saying basically they suspect Leah and Kyle, maybe both, maybe just one, who knows, are smoking meth and possibly torturing. torturing this child. And possibly doing other things.

Maybe they're making meth. Maybe they're creating, who knows what the heck they're doing? I mean, fish tanks and a drill for what? You know, that's sort of a distraction to me. To me, this child, there's no other explanation for how this child died. There's no other explanation. There's no way for the defense to work around it. All this does is adds to the level of crazy these people have.

And again, there's not a mental insanity defense that I can see. So it's just more to make the jury not like these people, not understand these people. The other good news for the prosecution is that, you know, they weren't living a normal life. And we've seen a lot of cases, Anjanet. You know, we've covered cases I've been on with you where there are people that you would never in a million years believe would abuse a child or abuse their spouse because they have a normal life. They have a normal profession. This is not normal. The standard of living they had, it's easy for people to judge.

And that's what jurors are going to do. They're going to judge them. They're going to judge the facts, but they're also going to judge them on who they are, and these facts don't help them at all. I just don't see any redeeming qualities. They're going to make a jury have any sympathy for these defendants. It also sounds like they think the bathtub was a major crime scene here. I mean, there were pieces of skin, according to the affidavit that were found in the bathtub, along with cigarette butts on the ledge. So it almost sounds like they're trying to suggest that Willow was placed in the bathtub, possibly burned in the bathtub. I mean, I'm at a loss for the why of this, of course.

But this sounds horrific. And a child is not going to stay quiet through all of this. Right. It wasn't there hydrogen peroxide or other chemicals? I mean, just what this child must have endured, those are all aggravating, circumstances, you know, a gunshot to the head is a terrible thing. But torture, pain, suffering up until the time of death and the child apparently wasn't pronounced dead until the hospital. I mean, that's just going to be more and more weaponry, more and more ammo for the prosecution

to put these people away for life. And it also sounds like as well that they believe that she was barricaded possibly inside a closet. So locked away for God knows how long. I mean, if she's emaciated, she's not being fed. So she's being possibly deprived of food. And then, you know, all of these allegations of torture as well. Food deprivation is obviously torture too. So I'm thinking to myself, they're locking her. The suggestion is they're locking her in a closet and also torturing her by depriving food.

Yeah. And we can talk all day about how terrible these people were. But again, I got to put my lawyer hat on it. And as a lawyer, this makes the prosecution's just, job even easier because if they can't prove that they pull the proverbial trigger or that they actually intended to kill this person, all they have to do is prove that they committed a crime, kidnapping, holding someone houses, child cruelty, any of those felony crimes that ended up resulting in the murder, even if the murder was not the intention, will be, will result in a felony

murder conviction. So there still will be a murder conviction, even if they can't prove that they intended to kill this little girl, if they intended to commit these other crimes, which they apparently did based on the evidence, then there will be a murder conviction based on the concept of the felony murder, meaning that if you are committing a felony and a murder happens or a death happens during the commission of that felony, that's felony murder. Randy, in the affidavit, there are also videos mentioned. It doesn't describe what's on the videos, but it sounds like there could be video evidence as well recovered in this case. A lot of this affidavit is redacted.

And I assume that's redacted because it could include admissions or evidence that could prejudice a possible jury pool. Yeah, I mean, it's horrible to think like this, but it's sort of like one of those commercials. But wait, there's more. I mean, there's enough from what we see, you know, if I was in front of a jury with the evidence that we've already discussed, Anjanet, to probably get a conviction. And then to have more of it, I mean, what I don't see here, is a plea deal. And usually it's because the defendant doesn't want to ask for a plea because they think they're innocent. I don't see why the prosecution would offer a plea deal. There's nothing they can get out of it. They don't need one defendant to turn on the other defendant and say, he did this or she

did that. If they didn't feel their case was strong enough to get a conviction on the merits, they might cut some sort of deal. But what kind of discount on time, sir, are they going to give them? Are they going to say 10 years off for pleading guilty? The only plea deal would be one that says, will accept the maximum sentence because we don't want to put the state through the trouble of proving their case and the cost to the public of doing that. Then maybe down the road they get paroled a little bit earlier because they took a plea. That's the only way a plea deal comes, but the prosecution's got about a stronger case and one that I'm sure the prosecutors are very, very content to go to trial with if they had to.

It's a horrific case, and I'm assuming the prosecutors would not deal on this. If they have video evidence and, you know, a confession or an admission, which they very well may have, because the interview with Kyle is redacted in this affidavit. So he very well may have made some admissions. I can see no other reason why they would have redacted this affidavit with Kyle's interview unless there were huge major admissions, inculpating himself. and Leah in this crime. Right. And I agree with you,

and you, and you know, so that I don't see why they would give a plea offer because they don't need the other one's testimony. It'd be one thing if they couldn't tie them to the crime,

if they needed one person to actually point the finger and say, I saw her do this, but the life they were living, the standard of life they had in that home, this was inevitable. This little girl was going to suffer and eventually die if no one stepped in,

which no one did, and no neighbors called and no people called, nobody save this little girl. I don't think they need one person to turn against the other, which is the only reason to give one a plea deal and not the other. I agree with you. Maybe they even have an admission.

And maybe this would be one of those rare occasions where they plead guilty and throw themselves on the mercy of the court and beg the court for some sentence less than had they pushed the state to go all the way to trial. There is something about that. You know, when you're a defense lawyer, when you're in front of a judge, say, judge, what what they did was wrong, at least in hindsight, they own it and they are remorseful, and they're not going to make the state go through this, and they're not going to put witnesses up, and they're not going to cause the state to spend money, whatever you can do

for them to give them any sort of a smaller, lighter, lesser sentence, we throw ourselves on the mercy of the court and see if the judge gives them the possibility of parole or gives them a few years off at the very end of their sentence. But that's about all I can think of as a defense counsel, knowing what I know. Of course, we don't know all the evidence. We don't know what the clouds are telling them if there's some other person, some influence, if there's an insanity defense because they're mentally incompetent. But I haven't heard any of that yet.

I think it's just a it's a loser of a case for a defense lawyer. It sounds like according to what we're reading in here, drug use, meth turns people into monsters. But this was a little girl. And mom, Leah, her responsibility, her main job in life, her duty, as a mom is to protect her daughter. And so she failed miserably. According to what's in these court documents, it's sickening and it's very sad because Willow had a father, I'm sure, who loved her. So it's really disturbing and really sad because on her Facebook, she talked in August about how much she loved her daughter was wishing her a happy birthday. So who knows if that was even legit at this point in time.

that could just have all have been for Facebook. Randy Kessler, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Leah Corbin and Kyle Valley remain behind bars at the Shawnee County Department of Corrections. And that's it for this incredibly sad episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy.

Thanks so much for being with me. Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube. You can also watch and listen on Spotify. We'll see you back here next time.