Left: Lauren E. Maloberti (Westmoreland County Prison). Right: Jacob N. Maloberti (Westmoreland County Prison). Inset: Landon Maloberti (WPXI).
A Pennsylvania woman turned her duty as an adoptive parent into “cruelty” when she tortured her 5-year-old son to death, prosecutors say.
Lauren Maloberti, 36, stands charged with criminal homicide in the death of Landon Maloberti, as well as aggravated assault and child endangerment. Her trial began this week in Westmoreland County.
Jacob Maloberti, 36, Lauren Maloberti”s ex-husband, also faces the same charges. He is expected to testify against her, according to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
“She took a sacred responsibility and chose to be a mother. Then it turned into cruelty,” Assistant District Attorney Cassidy Hatten told jurors on Tuesday. “Landon was isolated, mistreated, terrorized and killed. Not by a stranger but by a person who was supposed to protect him.”
On Jan. 30, 2023, the parents brought an unconscious Landon to a Pittsburgh-area hospital. He was then transferred to a children’s hospital and died about a week later.
“Landon was in the care and supervision of his adoptive family leading up to his death,” the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office said at the time. “A forensic examination revealed previous injuries and evidence of abuse prior to his death, as well.”
The couple was arrested and charged. As Law&Crime previously reported, medical staff at the first hospital allegedly told investigators that when the couple arrived at the facility, they appeared to show “no urgency” and said the child was just “wobbly from COVID a month prior.”
Prosecutors broke down their timeline of events in court this week as they seek to tie Lauren Maloberti to Landon’s death.
She assumed custody of the boy in 2017, about two months after her cousin gave birth to him, authorities said. About two years later, she adopted him.
Lauren Maloberti then married her high school sweetheart — Jacob Maloberti — in 2021, but conditions in their home reportedly worsened — as did her relationship with her adoptive son. When the two adults brought the boy to the hospital on that fateful January 2023 day, medical staff allegedly found dozens of bruises on his body and diagnosed him with catastrophic brain trauma.
He died from blunt-force trauma, the assistant DA said.
Erika Dilascio, Lauren Maloberti’s sister-in-law, testified this week that she would sometimes care for Landon. According to The Tribune-Review, she said the mother was loving and caring at first, but eventually her patience wore thin and she complained that her son misbehaved and didn’t show her affection.
The woman also told jurors that she questioned the defendant about the injuries that led to her son’s death.
“She said after he slipped and fell he lay there for a while, then got up and was fine. I was expecting more,” Dilascio stated. “Just a slip and fall isn’t enough for a child not to wake up.”
Lauren Maloberti’s defense team described the case as “complicated” and suggested that prosecutors are misrepresenting what happened.
“It’s an emotional case,” Adam Gozelsky, her attorney, said, per Pittsburgh ABC affiliate WTAE. “We have a child who’s deceased. I’m not even sure the commonwealth knows what happened with Landon. It’s a complicated situation.”
“They’re taking every opportunity to try and tell everyone how bad of a mother Lauren was and paint a picture of her,” he added of prosecutors. “It’s just not there. The facts of this case are complicated. They are not straightforward by any means.”
As prosecutors tell it, the alleged abuse was not a one-time thing. Other children in the house reportedly told investigators that Landon was smacked by his mother, sprayed with water, ignored and isolated, forced to drink from a toilet, disciplined more than anyone else, and monitored by a camera.
Jacob Maloberti’s mother, Tammy Kemerer, suggested to jurors that Lauren Maloberti showed love to her other children in a way she didn’t with Landon.
“[Lauren] was an amazing mother with Kaden, Bella and Lilly,” Kemerer said, per WTAE. “She was loving towards the other kids, but not Landon.”
The trial is expected to last two weeks, with testimony continuing on Wednesday.
