Lauren Maloberti stood emotionless as a Westmoreland County jury announced it had found her guilty of killing her 5-year-old adopted son.
Jurors deliberated three hours Thursday before convicting the Delmont mother of third-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and single offenses of child endangerment and conspiracy in connection with the 2023 death of Landon Maloberti.
“Justice was served,” said Landon’s biological grandmother, Kathie Jo Sheffler, as she and family members left the courtroom.
Lauren Maloberti was acquitted of a first-degree murder charge, which carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jurors also rejected a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr said Maloberti now faces a mandatory sentence of at least 15 years in prison for causing the death of a child. Prosecutors could ask the judge to impose sentences that could keep Maloberti behind bars for up to 80 years when she is sentenced, he said.
Defense attorney Adam Gorzelsky said Maloberti will appeal the verdict.
“We thought manslaughter was a strong result given what we know about her conduct. We’re pleased she avoided a first-degree murder conviction,” Gorzelsky said.
Prosecutors contended Maloberti, 36, physically and emotionally abused the child, whom she renamed Landon after taking custody of him in 2017. He was adopted two years later and was hospitalized with more than 100 injuries, including catastrophic brain trauma that led to his death in early February 2023.
“This case started in May 2017 when he came into her torture chamber,” Barr said in his closing argument. “There were four years of abuse of that child — emotional, psychological and eventually physical.”
Over nine days of trial testimony, the prosecution called 46 witnesses to support its case for what they said qualified as first-degree murder.
Barr told jurors Maloberti’s actions constituted murder, arguing she disdained the child and treated him differently than her three biological children and a foster infant she took in in 2021. Her mistreatment included isolation and a failure to seek prompt medical attention for what prosecutors described as obvious, serious injuries before the child was hospitalized Jan. 30, 2023.
“She had a legal obligation, not just as a parent but as a human being, to protect that child, and she failed,” Barr said. “These injuries didn’t happen overnight. Why she wasn’t taking him to doctors? Why was she isolating him? That is murder.”
Gorzelsky told jurors in an hourlong closing argument that evidence pointed to Maloberti’s husband, Jacob, as the person who inflicted the fatal injuries. Lauren Maloberti testified earlier this week that she suspected that her husband, whom she married in 2021, beat Landon behind a locked bathroom door in the early morning hours of Jan. 30, 2023.
She described her husband as a man who controlled the punishment of the children, and exerted physical and emotional control over her, including spousal rape.
Jacob Maloberti, 36, also is charged with criminal homicide and related offenses. He is being prosecuted separately. Testifying as a prosecution witness, he said he never saw his wife injure Landon but noted that in the three years since their arrest, he has come to believe she was responsible for the fatal injuries.
Gorzelsky conceded Landon’s death was the result of child abuse but argued Jacob Maloberti was not credible.
“He has no explanation for anything. You can’t believe a word that came out of his mouth,” Gorzelsky said. “It probably got to the point where Lauren should have acted sooner and took Landon away from that man.”
Gorzelsky asked jurors to reject allegations that his client failed to get her son medical help after she realized the extent of his injuries.
“She rushed the child to the hospital,” he said. “That’s not a woman who wanted to kill her child.”