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Napa Couple Sentenced to Life in Prison For Torture, Murder of 3-Year-Old Girl

A Napa County Superior Court judge on Thursday morning sentenced Sara Lynn Krueger and Ryan Scott Warner to life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder with torture of Krueger's 3-year-old daughter in 2014.

Judge Francisca Tisher also sentenced the couple to 25 years to life in prison for the blunt force assault of Kayleigh Slusher that caused her death. The judge, however, stayed imposition of that sentence, Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero said.

In a Facebook post, the Napa County District Attorney's Office said, "We've waited a long time for this day to come."

"This office owes a debt of gratitude for the commitment of Deputy District Attorneys Lance Hafenstein and Kecia Lind, investigator Leslie Severe and the Napa Police Department. Each were champions of the highest caliber," prosecutors said in the post.

Krueger, 27, and Warner 29, were convicted by separate juries on May 30.

Slusher's body was placed in a freezer then left in a suitcase on a bed in an apartment at the Royal Gardens Apartments on Wilkins Avenue in Napa. Police went to the apartment after a request for a welfare check on Feb. 1 and found Slusher's body, which had with 41 visible injuries and multiple internal injuries.

Krueger and Warner were seen leaving the apartment with luggage. A citizen reported seeing them at a restaurant in El Cerrito, and BART police officers contacted them at the El Cerrito del Norte station, Napa police said. Napa police responded and arrested Krueger and Warner after interviewing them.

A motion by Krueger's attorney Jim McEntee Jr. to continue the sentencing today was denied, and he and Warner's attorney Mervin Lernhart Jr. said they plan to appeal the convictions, Gero said.

In court this morning, the defendants proclaimed their innocence, did not express remorse and took no responsibility for Slusher's death, Gero said.

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