Adoptive mother, husband charged with murder of 5-year-old Pa. son whose brain was ‘obliterated’
The adoptive mother of a 5-year-old Pennsylvania boy who died in February and her husband were both arrested and charged with the boy’s murder last week after doctors said he showed signs of horrific abuse and torture.
Lauren and Jacob Maloberti, of Delmont, were slapped with criminal homicide for the Feb. 7 death of littleﷺ Landon Maloberti on Thursday, the Westmoreland County district attoಌrney announced.
“Landon had blunt force t꧂rauma to his head and neck, blunt force trauma to his torso, and blunt force trauma to his extremities,” Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said at a press conference announc🎉ing the charges.
The couple brought the bruise-covered child to the hospital on Jan. 30 after he lost c💖onsciousness.
The boy died about a week later, according to Ziccarelli’s office.
Little Landon suffered “severe child abuse” at the hands of his adoptive family that left him unable to stand, eat or drink.
The parents then launched a now-defunct GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $5,000 for the child’s funeral costs, investigators said.
A doctor at UPMC Children’s Hospital said the 5-year-old suffered three brain bleeds and his brain was “obliterated,” according to a criminal complaint .
Lauren and her husband, a 33-year-old corrections officer at Fayette State Correctional Center, waited a full day to take the boy to the hospital and told medical professionals that he was just “wobbly from COVID a month prior,” the complaint stated.
Doctors said the child had bruises new and old and evidence of trauma from “multiple episodes of physical abuse.”
“His injuries caused substantial pain at the time they were inflicted, with impairment of function including inability to stand, inability to eat or drink and loss of consciousness,” the complaint stated.
Landon loved playing with hi💫s toy monster trucks, singing country music at the top of his lungs and eating pickles, according to his obituary.
But Lauren, 34, displayed a disgus🌸ting hatred of the boy, according to interviews and text messages noted in the court document.
His five siblings reportedly told police that she would spank him with her hand and a wooden spoon or spray him with a spray bottle while he would cry and she would grow “more angry,” the local news station reported.
The other children said their mother would only hit Landon because “he does not learn his lesson,” and the woman’s former co-workers said she “hated” her son and called him “hard to love,” according to the complaint.
Texts between the couple from April 2022 until the boy’s death “were full of disdain” for the child, investigators said.
Lauren once texted that “she was going to kill him,”.
Delmont Police Chief TJ Klobucar said he “never faced an incident like this” in his 25 years in the department.
In addition to criminal homicide, the boy’s mother was charged with murder in the first degree, endangering the welfare of children, two counts of aggravated assault of a child and criminal conspiracy.
Her husband was charged with the saꦺme crimes except for first-degree ෴murder.
Both were denied bail and are being held ꧂in Westmoreland County Prison. They are due back in court on Aug. 8.
Ziccarelli declined to say where the couple’s other five children are, though she said they are safe.
“Tragically, Landon suffered abuse and trauma over the span of his short life,” the district attorney said. “We intend to prosecute this case with the dignity and honor Landon deserves.”
