BUTLER TWP — The sole suspect in the death of a 4-year-old boy who bled to death last week was charged Monday morning with homicide and sex offenses by Butler County prosecutors.

Keith Jordan Lambing, 20, who court documents listed as having a Wexford address, is being held in Butler County Prison without bail on an unrelated burglary case. On Monday investigators looking into the bleeding death of Bentley Thomas Miller filed another criminal complaint against Lambing, accusing him of sexually assaulting the boy in an attack that caused the internal injuries which ultimately killed him.

In court documents filed Monday investigators say Lambing assaulted the 4-year-old boy sometime in the morning of March 21, while they were in Room 138 of the Super 8 motel on Route 8 in Butler Township. They said Lambing was the only adult in the room at the time of the assault, which apparently occurred sometime between Bentley’s mother leaving for work and Lambing’s mother arriving to pick up the boy.

The assault left Bentley with visible bruising, severe internal injuries and visible bleeding, investigators said. When Lambing’s mother, Kristen Herold, picked the boy up from the motel at about 9:30 a.m. she began driving him to his father’s house. But Bentley became unresponsive in her vehicle and she pulled into the Pullman Square parking lot and called emergency responders.

Bentley was declared dead at Butler Memorial Hospital around 10:15 a.m. March 21.

An autopsy performed last week determined that the injuries the boy sustained resulted in “excessive” bleeding. Though investigators did not make clear in court documents exactly when the assault took place Tuesday morning, they said Bentley could not have survived for long given the severity of the bleeding.

“The injuries that (Bentley) sustained would have caused (his) death in a short time frame,” police wrote in an affidavit attached to the criminal charges.

Investigators said they also found bruises on the boy’s head, trunk and extremities, as well as an untreated “severe burn” on his left hand that he is thought to have sustained on either March 16 or March 17 while in Lambing’s care.

Lambing has been charged with one felony count each of criminal homicide, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with serious bodily injury, rape of a child, rape of a child with serious bodily injury, aggravated indecent assault of a child, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children, as well as one misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person.

Leaving court from a custody hearing on Thursday afternoon, Lambing, responding to questions from reporters, denied hurting the boy. He is currently in administrative protective custody at Butler County Prison, said warden Joe DeMore. That means Lambing is being held in a private cell away from the prison’s general population, and is segregated during his recreation and commissary time as well. DeMore said the measures were taken for Lambing’s safety given the high-profile nature of the case, and because he is accused of a sex offense involving a child — crimes that are notorious for provoking violence from other inmates.

“It could change, but as we sit now this is the expected housing situation,” he said.

District Attorney Richard Goldinger said he expects the charge of criminal homicide against Lambing to ultimately be refined into charges of first and third degree murder — though that decision doesn’t have to be made until trial.

Goldinger also said his office is considering whether to seek the death penalty against Lambing — a punishment that has been sidelined by Gov. Tom Wolf, but is still an option for prosecutors under the state’s criminal code. There are various aggravating factors that play into a jury’s determination of whether someone is guilty of first degree murder, but in general the offense is defined as a intentional killing with malice.

“It (the offense) sort of asks for it I think,” Goldinger said. “But we don’t have to make that decision yet.

Herold, who along with Lambing was found by police late Wednesday afternoon hiding in a house on Walker Avenue, is accused of obstructing the investigation into the boy’s death and helping Lambing hide from the police.

She has been charged with two counts of felony hindering apprehension or prosecution, one count of endangering the welfare of children and one count of recklessly endangering another person. She was arraigned Thursday on those charges and remains in Butler County Prison on $200,000 bail.

Butler Township Police Lt. Matthew Pearson declined to speak about the state of the department’s investigation on Monday.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said that county officials expect more people to be interviewed and are still awaiting the results of a DNA test as well as other physical evidence collected by a state police forensics team.

Court documents listed Pittsburgh-based attorney Frank C. Walker II as Lambing’s counsel. As of press time today, Walker had not returned messages left seeking comment.