Judge Bradford Charles of the Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas has sentenced one Pennsylvania woman to the remainder of her life in prison over her role in the absolutely horrifying torture and murder of her fiancé’s 12-year-old son.
37-year-old Kimberly Marie Maurer received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for the gut-churning, monstrous 2020 death of Max Schollenberger.
Back in March, it took jurors less than an hour in total to find Maurer guilty of multiple felony charges in relation to the horrifying life and ultimate gruesome death of her stepson Max, who prosecutors described as existing “in a state of perpetual suffering.”
Maurer was ultimately convicted on seven felony charges by the jury on the case — including first-degree homicide, conspiracy, and endangering the welfare of a child. Law & Crime spoke with Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office who confirmed that, under Pennsylvania state law, both charges carry mandatory life sentences.
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According to a report on the matter from The Patriot-News, Judge Charles said during today’s sentencing hearing: “I have always been raised to believe there is no such thing as an unforgivable sin. But this is as close as it gets.”
Judge Charles reportedly went on to lambast Maurer over her attempts to pin the blame for Max’s gruesome death on the child’s father, her fiance, 43-year-old Scott Schollenberger.
“Any attempt to put all blame on one is misguided or misplaced,” Charles reportedly chastised Maurer. “You are not a parent, but you are a human being, and no human being should allow this to happen.”
Max’s father pleaded guilty back in February to numerous felonies, including criminal homicide, child endangerment, and conspiracy. Scott was similarly sentenced to a life behind bars by the same judge as his fiance.
Maurer reportedly addressed the court during today’s hearing, where she read from a prepared statement, according to the Lebanon Daily News:
I thought I was doing everything I could to help Max. I wish I could go back in time to bring him back. It still makes me sick to this day. This makes me a coward and a failure. I know I failed and did not do enough.”
Maurer was sentenced to an additional consecutive sentence of 10 to 20 years behind bars on top of her sentence to life without parole.
Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf held a press conference following the jury’s verdict and said, “The consecutive sentences were based on the endangering the welfare of a child charge and that’s based over the course of conduct, meaning the 10 years of malnutrition, abuse, and neglect that the two defendants would have inflicted on Maxwell.”
“I think we have as good of an outcome as you can get,” he added. “It’s not justice. There’s not justice in this. There’s no bringing this child back. There’s no undoing what occurred.”
Reports previously indicated that Max’s emaciated body was discovered by Annville Township Police, along with members of the Lebanon County Detective Bureau, in the second-floor bedroom of the home Max lived in with Maurer and Schollenberger on May 26, 2020.
Prosecutors described an absolutely horrifying, gut-wrenching scene, where Max’s naked, lifeless body, along with the entire bed he lay on was “wholly covered in fecal matter.”
“Claw marks appeared in the child victim’s sheets; said marks made indentations on the stained feces,” prosecutors revealed. “Police removed the bedding and located piles of moldy fecal matter under the frame itself.”
Law & Crime further details the heinous abuse in their report.
Featured image via Lebanon County
