Matthew Toth Lebanon Daily News
As 12-year-old Max Schollenberger’s health was deteriorating, his parents would have been able to see warning signs, Dr. Lori Fraiser told a jury in the Lebanon County Courthouse on Thursday.
“He’d look incredibly thin, (and) had no fat on his bones,” the medical director for the center for the protection of children at Penn State Health said. “He wasn’t moving, wasn’t able to stand, wasn’t able to do any bodily functions…no doubt in the last few weeks of Max’s life that he was very, very impaired.”
Max weighed 47.5 pounds and measured 50 inches tall at the time of death, significantly under what a child that age should be, according to officials. This showed that he was provided insufficient nutrition for physical growth, bone muscle or fat, according to Fraiser.
Children have to grow or they die,” she said. “There is no middle ground.”
That was one of the last pieces of testimony heard by jurors before the prosecution, led by Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf, rested its case against Kimberly Maurer in her alleged role in Max’s death Thursday.
The homicide trial for Maurer began Tuesday morning before Judge Bradford Charles. Charges include criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of children, and criminal conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children.
On May 26, 2020, Annville Township Police and members of the Lebanon County Detective Bureau found Max’s body in his second-floor room.
In September 2020, police filed charges against Maurer and Max’s father, Scott Schollenberger Jr. The couple, engaged at the time, lived with Max and the other children in the first block of South White Oak Street in Annville Township.
Graf, along with co-counsel and Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann, presented a case saying that Maurer was a loving mother to her other five children, but would constantly ignore and mistreat Max up till his death in 2020.
Witnesses over three days testified that Maurer failed to enroll the 12-year-old in school for years, give him proper medical care, or give him proper treatment for possible physical and psychological problems Max might have been developing over the years.
Most of the prosecution’s case Thursday focused on Maurer’s Facebook posts, along with text messages and video recovered from her cell phone. Authorities recovered more than 32,000 text messages, 7,000 pictures and video, and more than 102,000 pages of Facebook messages and posts.
Selected portions of these messages by Graf’s team showed Maurer describing an inability to control Max’s behavior, along with instances of Max peeing and defecating in the family’s home.
“You should see Max’s dinner plate, maybe I should start taking pictures to prove I feed the asshole,” county detective David Shaffer read from Maurer’s text messages Thursday.
Prosecutors also read messages from Scott Shollenberger to Maurer, which included his father saying Max is a problem and that “If I have to come home, I will beat his ass.”
Officials said that after Maurer found the body, she packed up the rest of her children and left her Annville residence. Later that day she went to neighbor Rhonnda Bentz to call 911.
“(Maurer’s) tracking him (Scott Schollenberger) on his phone,” Bentz said in the 911 call, played for the jury on Wednesday. “His phone is turned off. There’s a location in Blue Marsh (National Recreation Area), and she said his gun is missing.”
Officials said that after Maurer found the body, Scott Schollenberger took a gun and headed to Berks County. While Schollenberger did call the police, officials speculated that he considered ending his life with the gun in a park when police found him
Maxwell’s cause of death was prolonged starvation, malnutrition and blunt force trauma, according to officials. Maxwell also showed signs of multiple blunt force trauma on his head.
Detectives also discovered Scott Schollenberger and Maurer had not taken the boy for doctor’s visits for the past decade and never enrolled him in school.
Prosecutors presented video to the jury of a interview conducted with investigators with Maurer in May 28, 2020. On the tape, she described Max’s father as lazy and not doing anything for Max. According to Maurer’s interview, she did not call Lebanon County Children and Youth Agency about Max’s condition.
“I would feed the child or he would never eat, because Scott wouldn’t go up to his room and do anything,” Maurer said on the tape.
Scott Schollenberger pleaded guilty in February to charges that included criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of children, and criminal conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children
He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Maurer’s attorney, Andrew Race, contended in opening arguments Tuesday thatScott Schollenberger orchestrated the abuse of the 12-year-old boy. Race said that Schollenberger was allegedly abusive to Maurer and told her she was not allowed to make decisions regarding the care of Max.
Several witnesses Wednesday described Scott Schollenberger as “mean and off-putting,” and said that Max was scared of his father.
Maurer’s 17-year-old daughter, Erika, testified Wednesday that one time she saw Scott pick Max up by his shoulders and scream in his face.
“He would just yell at us (kids),” she said, adding that she was afraid of Scott Schollenberger.
Maurer’s attorneys began their defense Friday morning.
The Department of Human Services operates a 24/7 hotline to report suspected child abuse or concerns about the welfare of a child. ChildLine can be reached at 800-932-0313.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @DAMattToth
Author: Amaury Abreu
