Lambing pleads guilty to killing boy
The ordeal for the family of a young boy who died at the hands of his mother's boyfriend came to an end Monday when the boy's accused killer accepted a plea deal that puts him away for 30 to 60 years.
Keith Jordan Lambing pleaded guilty Monday to killing 4-year-old Bentley Thomas Miller in 2017, just days after his defense argued it would be difficult to select a fair and impartial jury for his upcoming trial.
The 22-year-old Butler man accepted the plea deal offered by the Butler County District Attorney's Office.
Under the agreement, Lambing pleaded guilty to murder in the third degree, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child, all felonies.
In accepting the plea deal, Lambing admitted to killing Bentley, but is absolved of sexually assaulting the child, which was alleged in the prosecutions's original criminal complaint.
Assistant District Attorney Terri Schultz, who prosecuted the case, said she previously made the same offer to Lambing. In return for accepting the plea deal, Schultz agreed to drop involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, recklessly endangering another person, criminal homicide and aggravated assault of a victim less than 13 by a defendant 18 or older.
“The family was happy with this deal,” she said — Bentley's father, Tyler Miller, especially. “They didn't want this to be in the media anymore.”
Lambing will be sentenced next week, and Bentley's family will have the opportunity to make victim impact statements before the court.
“The (district attorney) made a plea offer we found acceptable,” said Kevin Flaherty, who heads the public defender's office. “Mr. Lambing found it acceptable, and we felt it was an absolutely fair resolution of the case. Mr. Lambing was always willing to take responsibility for his actions. We felt this offer reflects his responsibility and a level of his responsibility in that it was never an intentional act.”
The saturation of media coverage around Lambing's case was the subject of a hearing last week as Lambing's public defender, Charles Nedz, asked a county judge to select an out-of-county jury for a scheduled January trial. Nedz said the particularly gruesome facts surrounding Bentley's death captivated media outlets throughout the region.For that reason, he asked Judge Timothy McCune to look past county lines for a pool of jurors.The plea deal reached Monday reflects Lambing's insistent claims to police that he didn't rape Bentley.According to an autopsy, Bentley died from blood loss after suffering internal injuries. At the time, Bentley and Lambing were staying at a Super 8 Motel with the boy's mother, Mackenzie Paige Peters, according to police.Officials would later determine the boy's injuries were the result of a sexual assault.But District Attorney Richard Goldinger said Monday that further investigation into the case revealed there was no evidence to support the charge that Lambing raped Bentley.Goldinger confirmed Lambing did something to cause Bentley's death, but it wasn't rape. He declined to elaborate on the cause.Also charged in the case of Bentley's death were Peters and Lambing's mother, Kristen L. Herold.Peters pleaded guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of children and was sentenced in May 2018 to three years probation. She pleaded guilty in March 2019 to four counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of hindering apprehension in an unrelated 2018 drive-by shooting case and was sentenced to 18 to 72 months in prison.Herold pleaded guilty to felony hindering apprehension and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children. She was sentenced in May 2018 to 1½ to 5 years in state prison and released with time served.
