Shawn Martin received 11 to 28 years in prison after entering a no-contest plea to third-degree murder and child endangerment.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — A Pittsburgh man has been sentenced to 11 to 28 years in state prison after entering a no-contest plea to third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of his 5-day-old son, bringing a case that began with a late-night emergency call in December 2023 to a close without a trial.

Shawn Martin, 32, entered the plea July 28 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in connection with the death of Jah’Shawn Martin. Judge Eliot Howsie imposed concurrent sentences of 11 to 28 years for third-degree murder and 10 to 20 years for child endangerment under the negotiated resolution reported from the courtroom. The sentence followed more than two years of court proceedings, including an earlier guilty plea that Martin later withdrew. Martin has been in custody since Pittsburgh police arrested him in January 2024.

Howsie used the sentencing hearing to emphasize the severity of the case. The judge said the circumstances were among the worst he had encountered during his career as a lawyer or judge and told Martin that, in his view, the conduct was serious enough that someone could argue for a death sentence. Martin was not sentenced on a first-degree murder conviction, however. His case was resolved through the no-contest plea to third-degree murder, which carried a possible prison term substantially longer than the minimum sentence he ultimately received.

The final agreement was not the first attempt to resolve the prosecution. In June 2025, Martin pleaded guilty to third-degree murder after prosecutors described evidence surrounding Jah’Shawn’s death. At that proceeding, the proposed agreement contemplated a minimum term of about 12 years, according to courtroom reporting. Martin later withdrew that plea before sentencing, returning the case to the trial track. By July 2026, jurors had been brought to the courthouse for a scheduled trial before another agreement was reached and Martin instead entered the no-contest plea that produced his 11-to-28-year sentence.

The prosecution arose from what happened inside a Northview Heights residence on Dec. 15, 2023. Jah’Shawn had been born Dec. 11 and had been home from the hospital only a short time. His mother had returned to a hospital because of medical complications, leaving the newborn and an older child in Martin’s care. Prosecutors said Martin took the baby to his first pediatric appointment that afternoon before returning home. Later that night, Jah’Shawn’s mother became worried after hearing the baby crying while she and Martin were connected by phone and then being unable to get Martin to answer her calls.

A family friend, Hezekiah Odom, went to the home after the mother asked him to check on the child. At a 2024 preliminary hearing, Odom testified that he entered the residence and found Martin asleep. He photographed Jah’Shawn in a baby seat at 11:18 p.m. and sent the image to the infant’s mother. She believed the newborn’s position looked wrong and asked Odom to wake Martin. Odom left after doing so. Soon afterward, the mother called him again and told him the baby was not breathing. Emergency crews were sent to the residence, and Jah’Shawn was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Jah’Shawn was pronounced dead shortly after 3 a.m. Dec. 16. Medical evidence became the central feature of the case. Forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Hammers testified at Martin’s preliminary hearing that the newborn suffered extensive blunt-force injuries to his head and fractures around his skull. She described the injuries as extraordinarily severe for an infant and said they could not have resulted from the short accidental falls investigators asked her to consider. She also testified that a 2-year-old child could not have generated the force needed to cause them. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that blunt-force trauma to the head caused Jah’Shawn’s death.

Investigators said Martin repeatedly maintained that he did not know how the injuries occurred. Detectives testified that he told them he had been sleeping and had no idea what had happened. Police explored possible accidental explanations during interviews, including whether Martin had fallen while carrying the child or whether some other mishap had occurred. According to testimony at the preliminary hearing, Martin rejected those scenarios while maintaining that the only people in the residence were himself, Jah’Shawn and the 2-year-old. A detective also testified that Martin could be heard saying he was sorry in the background of the 911 call.

Police arrested Martin on Jan. 12, 2024, with help from the U.S. Marshals Western Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force. Pittsburgh police announced at the time that he faced criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of a child charges. At the preliminary hearing the following month, Martin’s defense focused in part on the absence of an identified weapon and argued that the evidence did not establish exactly what happened inside the residence. Prosecutors responded that no separate weapon was required for the injuries described by the pathologist and argued that the medical evidence ruled out an ordinary household accident.

The death also left Jah’Shawn’s family dealing with the loss of a child who had been alive for less than a week. In an interview shortly after Martin’s arrest, the baby’s mother said she had spent only about 12 hours with Jah’Shawn outside the hospital because she had to be readmitted for a blood infection after giving birth. She remembered him sleeping on her chest and described wanting the chance to raise him. At the 2026 sentencing, she again addressed the effect of his death, telling the court through tears that her life had been left in shambles and that she remained deeply disappointed by what had happened.

The sentencing hearing also showed the legal significance of Martin’s decision to resolve the case rather than proceed with the jury trial that had been scheduled. A no-contest plea does not require a defendant to make the same formal admission of the prosecution’s factual allegations as a guilty plea, but it permits the court to enter a conviction and impose sentence. First Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Spangler described the negotiated outcome as a just resolution in light of the surrounding circumstances, according to the courtroom report, but did not publicly detail all of the considerations that led prosecutors to accept the agreement.

Martin spoke little during the hearing beyond responding to questions from the judge. The concurrent structure of his sentences means the 10-to-20-year child-endangerment term does not extend the 11-to-28-year term imposed for third-degree murder. The sentence ends the trial-level prosecution that began after Jah’Shawn’s death in December 2023 and Martin’s arrest the following month. Martin will remain in state custody under the sentence imposed by Howsie, with any future release governed by the minimum and maximum terms and Pennsylvania’s applicable corrections and parole procedures.

Author note: Last updated August 30, 2026.