Northview Heights man pleads guilty to killing of newborn son

Shawn Martin stood before the judge and kept his head down.

The 31-year-old man didn’t lift it when the prosecutor described the scene at his Northview Heights home the night his baby stopped breathing.

He didn’t lift it as she described the brutal injuries Martin inflicted on the 5-day-old boy.

Not even when she said that injuries like the ones Jah’Shawn Martin sustained could only occur in an adult who had fallen 20 to 30 stories, or after they’d been struck by a tractor trailer.

Martin, in a jail uniform with his hands cuffed in front of him, pleaded guilty on Monday to third-degree murder, admitting that he struck his son’s head so hard that the skull pieces separated from each other and shattered.

Neither the prosecutor nor police have said exactly what happened to Jah’Shawn that night.

Martin will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Elliot Howsie on Sept. 5.

For third-degree murder there is no mandatory minimum penalty unless the victim is younger than 13.

As part of the plea agreement, the district attorney’s office waived the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 to 30 years.

Howsie has discretion to go below that or up to the maximum of 20 to 40 years in prison

Martin has been in custody since his arrest on Jan. 12, 2024.

Abnormal scream

According to Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel, Jah’Shawn was born on Dec. 11, 2023. He and his mother, De’Azaia Abram, were released from the hospital two days later, but she had to return because of complications. She left Jah’Shawn at home in the care of his father, who also had their 2-year-old at home.

On Dec. 15, Schoedel said, Martin took the newborn for his first pediatrician’s appointment and then returned home.

That evening, Schoedel said, Martin and Abram were on the phone together, when they both fell asleep with the phone line open.

Abram told police she woke up around 10:45 to hear the baby screaming in a way that was not normal. She yelled for Martin to wake up but could not get him to respond.

She hung up and tried to call him 20 times unsuccessfully. Abram then called a friend and asked him to go to their home to check on the baby.

The friend, Hezekiah Odom, arrived around 11:15 p.m. and entered the house. He told Abram the baby was in a baby seat sleeping, and that Martin was sleeping on the couch nearby. Odom took a picture and sent it to Abram, who recognized Jah’Shawn was not positioned appropriately. She asked Odom to wake Martin.

Odom did and then left the house. Martin called Abram, the criminal complaint said, and reported that Jah’Shawn was not breathing.

They called 911, and Jah’Shawn was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he died a few hours later.

Claimed confusion

Imaging of Jah’Shawn’s body showed that he sustained at least one — but possibly multiple — blows to the head. He had bleeding as well as multiple skull fractures, and sustained trauma to his right upper arm, as well.

Doctors called it “forcibly inflicted trauma,” that could not have been caused accidentally.

In interviews with Pittsburgh detectives, Martin said he did not know what happened to his son because he was asleep.

Martin said that after Odom woke him up, Odom left, and Martin went to the bathroom. When he returned to Jah’Shawn, Martin said he picked him up and started to give him kisses.

It was then, Martin said, that he noticed the baby was limp and unresponsive.

In his interview with detectives, Martin said he had no idea what happened to Jah’Shawn.

“Mr. Martin said he was just as confused as detectives,” the complaint said.

When the detectives said Jah’Shawn died from powerful blows to the head, “Mr. Martin said he doesn’t know how that happened because he was asleep.”