Ohio mother sentenced to 5 years in daughter's death plea deal

Tien Hawkins cried in court as her attorney walked through the plea deal that cut the most serious charges out of her daughter’s death case and left her facing five years in prison. The 26-year-old admitted child endangering and two counts of permitting child abuse, a sharp reduction from the murder and involuntary manslaughter counts she originally faced. Judge Brett Spencer accepted the agreement in Adams County Common Pleas Court on June 17, 2026.

The deal, filed under case number 2025-0091, trimmed Hawkins’ exposure from an indictment that had also included three counts of permitting child abuse and two counts of endangering children. Under the agreement, prosecutors dismissed the murder and involuntary manslaughter charges. Both sides recommended 30 months on one count, 30 months consecutive on another, and the third count concurrent, which totaled five years in prison. Hawkins also faces up to three years of post-release supervision, and each third-degree felony carried a possible nine to 36 months behind bars and a fine of up to $10,000.

The case began after Lilith Nova Burkhardt, born May 1, 2023, was found unresponsive on July 1, 2025, at the Timber Ridge Apartment Complex in West Union, Ohio. Deputies with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and emergency medical personnel responded just after 9 p.m. Brian Moser, Hawkins’ fiancé, called 911 and later told dispatchers he had put Lilith down at midnight the previous evening in the same bed as her 1- and 5-year-old sisters. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled the child’s cause of death suffocation.

Investigators said the abuse did not stop with Lilith. Later reporting said she had bruises on her forehead and legs, and her younger siblings also showed bruising and beatings. Hawkins told police that Moser would “bust her butt” when Lilith had potty-training accidents, a statement that put the household abuse allegations squarely on the record. Prosecutors argued Hawkins knew abuse was happening; her defense said she did not.

Moser separately pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child endangering, and Judge Brett Spencer sentenced him on March 24, 2026, to 17 to 22.5 years in prison, above the plea recommendation. Hawkins’ sentence closes the loop on the mother’s case, but it also shows the gap between the original murder exposure she faced and the five-year term she ultimately accepted.