Testimony that a 5-year-old Delmont boy was tortured by his adoptive parents will be admissible at an upcoming trial, a Westmoreland County judge ruled on Monday.

Following a daylong hearing, Common Pleas Judge Scott Mears said he will allow prosecutors to present the evidence of torture against parents Lauren and Jacob Maloberti, who are awaiting trial for the death of their young son in February 2023.

Lauren, 36, and her husband, Jacob, 35, are jailed without bail on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and related offenses, which include allegations that they emotionally abused and beat the child they adopted in 2019.

According to court records, Landon Maloberti for months was physically abused and suffered multiple injuries. Records include allegations that he was struck in the head with a frying pan before he was found unresponsive and hospitalized. An investigation found the boy’s injuries were inflicted by his parents in what witnesses described as a long-term series of physical and emotional abuse and medical neglect, which officials have since characterized as torture.

Defense attorneys Adam Gorzelsky and Ken Noga contended the allegation of torture should be excluded. Gorzelsky argued it was prejudicial and based on a medical report that contains no specific causes of the child’s injuries.

Dr. Michelle Clayton, chief of the Child Advocacy Center at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, testified dozens of bruises and other physical injuries, along with reports of multiple emotional abuses, led to the torture diagnosis. Investigatory reports suggest the child suffered from nutritional deprivation, which necessitated he drink from a toilet and forage for food in the family kitchen after bedtime.

“There is no plausible history aside from abuse to account for his critically ill condition,” Clayton testified. She said the child’s injuries included multiple bruises that cannot be explained by accidents.

“Even clumsy children don’t have dozens and dozens of injuries,” Clayton testified.

The torture claim is based on what medical experts contend is a diagnosis that was formalized in 2014 to characterize unusual and excessive cases of child abuse.

Dr. Lori Fraiser, a professor of pediatrics at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, testified doctors for years struggled to characterize and classify specific child abuse cases. She said she was among a group of doctors who created the torture designation related to child abuse.

“It had been talked about before and then there was an aha moment for us that there were certain kinds of child abuse we had all been seeing that was so egregious and included both physical and emotional abuse. We developed a paper that became the first definition of (child abuse-related) torture,” Fraiser said.

That definition includes evidence of physical assault and at least two forms of emotional abuse.

Prosecutors hired Fraiser to conduct an independent review of the Maloberti case. Fraiser testified the child’s medical records and investigatory reports substantiated a finding of torture. She said the records suggest multiple incidents of emotional abuse that included reports the child was deprived of food, humiliated by his parents and isolated from other family members, neighbors and school.

Gorzelsky, who represents Lauren Maloberti, argued both doctors’ testimony is based on reports from third parties and cannot be substantiated at trial.

“There is nothing in the medical records to support this,” Gorzelsky said.

A defense bid to introduce analysis from a private epidemiologist who questioned the torture claims was withdrawn at the start of Monday’s hearing. Attorneys said a pathology report turned over last week by prosecutors successfully refuted the defense expert’s anticipated testimony.

No trial date has been scheduled.

Noga told the judge as a result of evidence introduced at Monday’s hearing, he may seek a separate trial for Jacob Maloberti.

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