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Lambing charged with homicide, sex offenses

BUTLER TWP — The 20-year-old man accused of killing a 4-year-old Butler boy has been charged with homicide and sex offenses by Butler County prosecutors.

The office of Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger filed the charges against Keith Jordan Lambing Monday morning at the Butler Township office of District Judge Kevin O'Donnell. Lambing is charged with one count each of general homicide, rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child with serious bodily injury, rape of a child with serious bodily injury, aggravated indecent assault of a child, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment.

The court filing comes after Goldinger said investigators performed some follow-up work this weekend — though he added that the investigation intothe child's death was far from complete. Goldinger said prosecutors expect more people to be interviewed by police, and the office continues to wait on the results of a DNA test as well as the processing of other physical evidence collected by a state police forensic team.

“You never know who might come forward,” Goldinger said. “It (the investigation) is certainly not complete. We don't have all of the evidence we want right now.”

The charges come later than expected, after Goldinger announced multiple times last week that his office intended to charge Lambing — who was on the run from police for more than a day — with homicide in Bentley Miller's death.

The boy died Tuesday morning after being taken by Lambing's mother, Kristen Herold, from the Super 8 motel on Route 8 in Butler Township and becoming unresponsive in her vehicle as she was driving him to his father's house. Emergency responders and investigators have repeatedly called his injuries horrific.

Herold was charged last week with child endangerment and two counts of felony hindering apprehension, after police caught her and Lambing hiding in a home on Walker Avenue.

Herold is being held on $200,000 bail, and Lambing was denied bond at a bench warrant hearing Friday, in an unrelated case. Both are being held in Butler County Prison.

Lambing this morning was placed in administrative protective custody at the prison, said Warden Joe DeMore.

“That means he will have no contact with other inmates when he's out of his cell.”

He will have no cell mates.

“He's being housed where he is safe,” DeMore said.

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