Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ohio Toddler Murdered by Mom's Boyfriend: Prosecutor

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Brian Moser, 23, and his girlfriend, Tien Hawkins, have been indicted on a list of charges including murder, involuntary manslaughter and endangering children in the death of Hawkins' two-year-old daughter. Moser called 911 on July 1 and told the dispatcher Lilith Burkhardt was dead and may have suffocated at their home in Adams County, Ohio. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through what we know with Prosecutor Aaron Haslam in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code CRIMEFIX at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/crimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Aaron Haslam https://x.com/ronehaslamMark Weaver https://x.com/MarkRWeaverProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME 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.

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You want buckled in or do you trust my driving? I trust your driving. Okay. A mother in handcuffs says she and her new boyfriend are now charged with murder in the death of her two-year-old daughter. I go through the tragic case of the death of little Lilith Burkhart and the prosecutor tells us about the months leading up to the toddler's death. He was the person that was responsible for discipline this one, this two and this five-year-old. I'm Anjanette Levy and this is Before we get into this terribly sad case, I have something for all of our viewers out there who love body camera videos and police content.

You're going to love this too. Highlights from On Patrol Live are coming to YouTube. Now, if you've never seen On Patrol Live on the Reels Channel and Reels Plus app, you are missing out on some of the most intense and real police action out there. They follow departments across the country live every Friday and Saturday night with camera crews riding along with police officers. There are no body cams involved. No, this is in your face, true law enforcement action caught on camera live in the moment.

And now they've partnered with Law and Crime to bring their unique content to YouTube. So head on over to On Patrol Live's channel and subscribe right now. You can find that channel link in the description. Now I want to switch gears and take you back to the case of Lilith Burkhart. She had just turned two in May and she was a beautiful, beautiful little girl with an older five-year-old sister and a younger sister. But on July 1st, Lillis' short life ended. The prosecutor in Adams County, Ohio, east of Cincinnati, says Lillis' life was taken by a man named

Brian Moser. Moser was dating Lillis' mother, T.N. Hopkins, and had moved in with her in the spring around April. And for some reason, prosecutor Aaron Haslam, who will join me here shortly, says that Brian Moser became the disciplinarian for Tien's beautiful children, including Lilith. On July 1st, Brian Moser called 911 from Tien's home. I believe that my stepchild is dead. You said your stepchild is dead. Your stepchild is dead? Yes. We just woke up and found her.

How old is she? She's two. Two year old? Yeah, but she's all the way gone. I don't know if they suffocated last night or what's going on. There's no way that, I don't know. I don't know. She's dead. I just woke up and found her. Lilith happened to be on the top bunk of a bunk bed with her two sisters. What is your name sir? My name's Lilith.

Was she in her crib? She was on top bunk they They were into blankets, okay. But they... I don't know. I don't know how this happened. Okay, was she sleeping with another child? Yeah, she was sleeping with her sisters. I need someone here quick, please. Yeah, we got the squad page out for you. Okay. Okay. I need to get off of here.

My fiance is flipping out. You did say apartment. What'd you say? You said apartment. Apartment. You tore us outside. An autopsy revealed that Lilith died of suffocation and she had significant injuries from head to toe. Her sisters also had injuries, but they were alive, thank goodness. Brian Moser

was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering children. But then the grand jury heard the case and the charges were upgraded against both Moser and then Tien Hawkins. She was charged as well. The indictments charged Moser and Hawkins with murder. Moser faces 10 counts including murder and voluntary manslaughter and several counts of endangering children. The indictment claims the abuse started in April. Tian Hawkins, Lillis' mother, faces eight counts including murder and voluntary manslaughter, permitting child abuse, and endangering children.

Hawkins was taken into custody. Take a look. Clear. Femal tunnel. All right. It's hanging out right there. You're most welcome to the vape. They ain't going to allow it.

Yeah, you won't be able to keep that with you. All right. I love you big girl. I love you. Detention. You're most welcome to the vape, they ain't going to allow it. Yeah, you won't be able to keep that with you? Yeah. Alright. You won't buckle it in or do you trust my driver? I trust you. Okay.

Like I said, I'll call her attorney in the morning. Thank you for being general with us. No problem. Appreciate that. So yeah, you can call her attorney in the morning. Like I said, they should make accommodations for for them to visit with their clients And like I said, I can't answer all your questions and I'm not gonna lie to you so I would recommend if you if you have numbers because

Today's generation did not remember numbers for nothing So if you want to call the jail and say hey, this is for this specific person that should be able to give it to them Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep. Y'all take care This is for this specific person that you should be able to give it to them. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep. Y'all take care. Tim. Now the deputy makes the drive to the jail where TN Hawkins will be booked. This way here to the front door there all right let's go for it

Just hang out back here for me. Alright, hop on in there. Just have you sit right there at that chair. Oddly, Brian Moser, he actually legally changed his name to Brian Moser a day before Lilith was killed. His name had been Terry Michael Smith III, but he changed it to Brian Moser, writing on Facebook, It's official. My new name is Brian Moser. I couldn't be more happier to get rid of that awful legacy I was bound to. Now get this, Brian Moser, it's actually the name

of a character from the show Dexter. The show is about a blood spatter analyst who's a vigilante killer. You've likely heard of it. Brian Moser is the name of the ice truck killer character from Dexter and that has come up in this investigation. So our content really shows you how important personal safety is and that's especially true when it comes to protecting your privacy online. You would be shocked at how much of your personal information is out there like your address and

phone number. Ever wonder why you get so many spam calls and emails? That's because this information, it's all public. That's where our sponsor, Incogni comes in. It's a service that helps you take control of your online privacy by removing your personal data from data brokers. Those are huge companies that sell and trade your info without your permission.

Incogni actually found more than 50 brokers with my information and here's the kicker. These data brokers have to remove you from their database if you ask them to. Now you're probably thinking, Anjanette, who in the heck has time to contact a data broker? Well that again is where Incognito comes in. They contact those companies for you to get your online safety back. You don't have to do a thing, and then they alert you after the request has been completed.

After signing up, I get virtually no spam now, so I highly recommend giving Incogni a try. Right now, anyone who uses the code crimefix at incogni.com slash crimefix gets 60% off. That's code crimefix at incogni.com slash crime fix gets 60% off. That's code crime fix at incognito com slash crime fix for 60% off an annual incognito plan. I want to bring in Aaron Haslam. He is the prosecuting attorney in Adams County, Ohio, where this awful, awful crime took place. So Aaron, thank you so much for joining

me. First of all, when your office got the call about this case, I was going through the sheriff's incident report. It sounds like an investigator from your office went to the scene immediately. That's correct. First off, Anjanette, thanks for having me on. Appreciate the opportunity to talk about this case. You're absolutely correct. We work very closely with our Sheriff's Office.

We're a small county, population of 28,000. So this is a call you never wanna get, ever not in any county, I mean, a dead two-year-old. You never wanna receive this call, but we work closely with our Sheriff's Office, hand in hand. The current Sheriff, the newly elected Sheriff used to be an investigator for my office. He spent over 25 years in our office. So we continue to work closely. I have

two investigators in my office and whenever something like this comes in, they call and get us involved immediately. So we did have an investigator on scene with the investigators for the sheriff's office, along with my juvenile prosecutor, who's very experienced. She actually was working closely with our investigator and with the team at the time. We wasn't really sure exactly what we had if it was a children's services issue

or if it was a crime at that time. Obviously the call came in early in the morning. And at that time all we knew is we had a two-year-old that wasn't breathing. In reading the sheriff's incident report, one of the deputies wrote, I believe, that he photographed with his body camera poor little Lilith from head to toe. And there were injuries to Lilith from head to toe it sounds like. So at first you're saying you don't know if this is a crime or if it's a Children's Services call but you know it quickly develops into a criminal investigation.

So take me down that path. Very quickly of course our dead two-year-old LB and you referenced her name, but for the rules I operate under, I don't name victims, so we refer to her as LB. She not only wasn't breathing and she was pronounced dead very quickly on scene. Efforts to revive her were made unsuccessfully, but we did notice that there were physical injuries to Lilith, to LB at the time. Additionally, there were physical injuries to her two siblings. At that time, we weren't sure they were her two siblings, but we knew there were two children under the age of five or five or under that were there, and they have physical injuries

as well. So this thing turned into a criminal investigation with the snap of a finger. The indictment says that the child endangering was going on from April to July. I mean, my God, that's a three month period. So what can you tell me about that? I mean, was this Moser guy, Brian Moser, is that when he came into the picture with T.N. Hawkins? I mean, how did this develop, or was he in the picture before that time? Yes, so you've obviously looked at the indictments.

We have a 10 count indictment on Brian Moser. We have an eight count indictment on T.N. Hawkins and we can go through those. I'm sure you're gonna wanna go through those in a little bit. But if you look, some of the counts have different dates, but for the child endangering and the permitting child abuse,

as you can see within the indictments, they do span from April 1st to July 2nd of 2025. And from what our investigation has been able to reveal, and I won't be able to talk to you a lot about the facts, but it appears that sometime in early April, Brian Moser did come into the life of Tia and Hawkins and her three children. And so we're not exactly sure when the child abuse began,

but we know that it began sometime not too long after middle to the end of April or early May. Was T.N. Hawkins, I mean, these are her children. You know, L.B. as you call her, I call her Lilith, I mean, her obituaries online, this is her daughter. She is a two-year-old beautiful little girl. Was she cooperative in the investigation at all? She was.

She was very cooperative. From what I can tell you, she answered our questions. She appeared to be truthful from what we've been able to compare what she's told us to what we've been able to match up with what's occurred. She did appear to be truthful. For that matter, up to this point, the defendant's been cooperative and has given statements.

And although I don't know that he's been completely truthful with us, obviously as the subject of the investigation, he downplays or minimizes his role in what occurred. But for the most part, both of them were cooperative and gave statements to law enforcement. Wow. So, Brian Moser, the person accused of murdering Lilith, you're saying has been cooperative, yet you don't know how truthful he's been. Was there any indication on his part

about why he was treating the children this way? Obviously, he's innocent until proven guilty, but why he, I mean, he's accused of murdering Lilith. So why was he abusing the children in this way or endangering the children in this way? What I can tell you is, my guess is without trying to read into his mind that he was disciplining these children and

very quickly became the person by, by state from statements from both he and TN. In this case, he was the person that was responsible for discipline. This one, this two, and this five year old. responsible for discipline this one, this two, and this five-year-old. Now, what I can tell you is I don't discipline my children this way. I'm guessing you don't discipline your children this way. And history will tell us this kind of discipline is abuse. Without going into too much detail, I mean, what was he doing? I mean, just was he beating these children or?

What I will tell you based on the injuries that occurred sometime between the end of the day on June 30th and when police arrived on July 1st, what I would call what he did to these children and by his own admission was not just child abuse would rise to the level of of assault. He by his own admission struck these children because they they wouldn't go to sleep and although those injuries did not cause the death to LB in this particular case, it was enough to cause serious contusions, bruises on all three of the children's heads. And you'll see that encompassed in the indictments with the child endangering charges.

Aaron, where does the case go from here? Obviously, a grand jury has indicted both T.N. Hawkins and Brian Moser on very serious charges, including murder and endangering children and permitting child abuse for T.N. Hawkins. They've entered not guilty, please. So where does the case go from here as far as you are concerned?

I mean, there will be discovery handed over, trial date scheduled. Well, if it's OK, let me back up to kind of if you're let me back up to to when it started. So the call comes in, I think it was Tuesday, July the 1st. And from there, as I said, it quickly turned into a criminal investigation. And at that point in time, both mother and Brian Moser were in custody. And as the investigation was going, they were being interviewed. During that process, we made the decision based on the information we had at the time that we could file some preliminary charges on

Brian Moser, which included child endangering and involuntary manslaughter. At that time, it was a very strategic decision, but law enforcement made the decision to not formally charge the mother in this case. And I say strategic, she was released because we believe there was additional information that we could gather by releasing her. And that's exactly what happened. It was whenever you have a situation like this, it's a little bit unpopular when someone walks out of the jail.

But we didn't have all the facts at the time. And although we may have been in a position to charge her, we thought that she was more valuable to us out and about so we could see who she was talking to, what statements she was making, to provide us additional information. And that's exactly what occurred during that timeframe. And if you recall, this was right up against the 4th of July holiday. So it allowed everyone free of the media, not that we love you guys, but it allowed us to gather more information without the cameras all over us and kind of distracting us from from what our goal was. And our goal was to get as much information as possible

to find out exactly what happened so we could come back with formal charges and take the matter to the grand jury. So during that time, we gathered additional information. We actually called a special grand jury for Monday. I believe that would have been July 7th, if I recall correctly. July 4th was a Friday. So July 7th, we had a special grand jury

that just heard the facts of this case. And that included a presentation of not only Brian Moser's case, but a case we believe at that time we had built based on the information we gathered during the holiday on TN Hawkins. And at that time, the grand jury listened to all the facts and they reviewed a multitude of charges and they decided on the eight counts on TN Hawkins

and the ten counts on Brian Moser. So that's a long prelude to your original question, which was, where does the case go from here? Well, last Thursday, which would have been July 10th, we arraigned Brian Moser. Obviously he entered not guilty please on the 10 counts from and then Friday around the noon hour, which would have been July the 12th, we we arraigned Tia Hawkins and not guilty pleas were entered for her. So where do we go from here on both of them? Post

arraignment, Brian Moser is in jail on a million dollar million dollar bond, cash or surety bond and Tia Hawkins is in jail on a $500,000 cash or surety bond. I do believe there's a 10% provision on that that the court will allow her to post 10%. Conditions of those bonds are no contact with either one of the co-defendants. So they both have no contact orders against each other

and then no contact orders with the two remaining children who are safe in the custody of children's services and placed in a safe environment where they're safe, protected. They've been treated for their injuries and are doing quite well from what I've been told from our agency in Adams County. Moving forward, I think we have pretrials set. I saw on Brian Moser, we have a pretrial set for next week, July 22nd. Pre-trial is exactly what it is. The judge is going to put on some scheduling orders for counsel.

I think in Mr. Moser's case, we have a trial date at the end of September. We'll continue to investigate this matter out. We're still waiting on a full autopsy report. Right now we have the preliminary autopsy report, which told us the cause of death was suffocation or asphyxiation. And it outlines some of the other injuries that weren't directly related to LB's death, but were part of the preliminary autopsy. And that includes one of the contusions on the head that I talked to you about earlier. Just awful.

Well, Aaron Haslam, we will keep a very close eye on this case. Thank you so much for your time and for talking with me. Oh, you're welcome. Any time, if you want to talk later about this case, reach out. As more develops, I'd love to continue to talk about it. I want to turn now to Mark Weaver. He's actually worked as a prosecutor in Adams County,

Ohio before. Mark, this case is horrific. The prosecutor there, the elected prosecutor Aaron Haslam, says that T.N. Hawkins has been cooperative and that Brian Moser, the main defendant in this case, has also been cooperative. But T.N. Hawkins is accused of permitting the abuse of her children.

So it sounds like they have a really strong case here. Yes, I have tried child abuse and child sex cases in Adams County. So it's a familiar place to me. I know the prosecutor and the sheriff and the judge. They're all good people. I worry that the details are only going to get more graphic and more horrifying.

So much has been held back from the public to protect the case. I imagine that when the details come out, the public is going to be even more shocked at what this two-year-old girl went through before she was murdered. And she's a beautiful, beautiful two-year-old little girl, little Lilith. I mean, I'm looking at this case. I look at this case, and I think to myself, do you make a deal with mom to testify against who the prosecution believes is the main actor in this case?

Or do you just take both to trial because you have such a good case? Well, we don't know all the documentary and DNA and other forensic evidence. When we know that, we'll know more all the documentary and DNA and other forensic evidence. When we know that, we'll know more. These are the decisions prosecutors have to make every day and they're hard, right? As a prosecutor, I want all of the defendants to be found guilty and I want them all to go to prison for the strongest sentence possible.

But absent camera or other evidence, you're going to have to rely on one of the people to tell you what happened. And that's typically the person who was less responsible. Having said that, whatever the deal is, her deal would not be that she's going to walk free. The best she can hope for is a deal that will allow her to get out of prison in a shorter amount of time. How tough are cases like this to prosecute?

I mean, are they difficult in front of juries to prosecute crimes against children? Yeah, juries hate these cases. So does grand juries. I have numerous times when I've presented evidence to grand jurors or jurors that's graphic or upsetting or bloody, they don't want to hear these cases because all of us are affected when the victim is such a vulnerable, special little person like this two-year-old girl. hear these cases because all of us are affected when the victim is such a vulnerable, special little person like this two-year-old girl. Yeah, she was beautiful. Mark Weaver, thank you so much.

Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjana Levy. We will keep a close eye on this case. I just want to reiterate that Brian Moser and Tien Hawkins, they remain in custody at the Adams County Jail. And again, we're gonna keep an eye on this one. I will see you back here next time.