BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors in western Pennsylvania are considering seeking the death penalty against a man accused of having raped and killed his girlfriend's 4-year-old son at the motel where they had been staying.

Twenty-year-old Keith Lambing is charged in Butler County in the March 21 death of Bentley Miller. Authorities allege that he assaulted the boy earlier, and the child's mother was rushing him to the hospital but pulled over and called 911 after he stopped breathing. She was charged with endangerment and hindering apprehension after she and Lambing were found hiding in the attic of an abandoned home.District Attorney Richard Goldinger called the case "horrific" and said "It would appear on its face it asks for the death penalty," but a decision didn't have to be made immediately.