Jury selection is slated to begin Monday morning in the trial of a Delmont mother charged with the torture and murder of her adopted 5-year-old son.
Prosecutors contend Lauren Maloberti, 36, physically and emotionally abused her son and failed to get him medical attention three years ago. Police charged Maloberti and her husband with criminal homicide and related counts in connection with the death of Landon Maloberti.
Police said Lauren Maloberti adopted her son in 2019, two years before she and her husband married.
The child was unresponsive when he was hospitalized in late January 2023. Medical personnel said he suffered dozens of bruises on his head, face, arms, legs, back and abdomen, multiple lacerations, and massive brain bleeding and swelling. He died three weeks later.
In addition to the child’s physical injuries, prosecutors contend he was deprived of nutrition, forced to drink from a toilet, forced to forage for food in the family kitchen after bedtime, humiliated by his parents and isolated from other family members, neighbors and school.
Prosecutors have said they will ask the jury to find the child was a victim of torture before he died.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Maloberti faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Scott Mears last month ruled Maloberti’s two biological daughters and a stepson, her husband’s biological son, can testify for prosecutors during the trial about the conditions in the home and their parents’ treatment of their brother.
Lauren Maloberti has denied guilt, and in previous court hearings, her defense lawyer suggested the child’s injuries were the result of an accident.
Jacob Maloberti, 36, is expected to be among more than 30 witnesses prosecutors have subpoenaed to testify in what is expected to be a two-week trial. Jacob Maloberti has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, according to his defense lawyer, and will be prosecuted separately from his wife.