Judge denies Napa couple resentencing in toddler’s 2014 killing

A judge upheld sentencing for a Napa couple convicted in 2017 of killing a 3-year-old girl whose body had been stored in a refrigerator three years earlier.

Sara Krueger, 34, and Ryan Warner, 36, appeared this week in Napa County Superior Court where Judge Francisca Tisher rejected their requests to be resentenced in the death of Krueger’s daughter, Kayleigh Slusher.

Tisher’s ruling upholds each defendant’s sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Both had been convicted in May 2017 of first-degree murder and assault on a child causing death, according to the Napa County District Attorney’s Office.

They petitioned for resentencing under Senate Bill 1437, which went into effect in 2019. It mandates people can’t be charged with murder if they didn't kill, intend to kill or act with extreme disregard for human life.

“Krueger and Warner were both major participants in Kayleigh’s death and given their culpability in the murder, neither of them is the type of defendant that the state Legislature intended for this law to apply,” Napa County Deputy District Attorney Kecia Lind said in a statement.

Authorities discovered Kayleigh’s body in her east Napa apartment Feb. 1, 2014.

They concluded she died the day before, and her body was kept in a refrigerator before being moved to a bed.

She was covered in bruises and had been badly beaten and tortured by the couple, who fled before police arrived, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

They were arrested a day later at an El Cerrito BART station.

Kayleigh’s family later filed a civil lawsuit alleging Napa and Napa County officials had failed to protect her despite previous reports of child abuse and neglect.

The agencies reached a $5 million settlement in 2019. The city and county contended they followed state law but agreed to changes on handling child welfare cases.

The defendants were convicted by separate juries and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole before their sentences were reduced in 2021.

A state appeals court ruled there was not enough evidence to support a special circumstance alleging Kayleigh had been tortured to death.

Krueger is being held at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, and Warner is at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi