Investigators said Noah Godleski was left without medical care as his condition declined over several days inside the family home.
PALM BAY, Fla. — Days after leaving his badly injured son alone in a laundry room, Jason D. Godleski walked into a police station, handed over access to his home and reported that the 12-year-old had died.
That delayed report began a homicide investigation that ended nearly five years later with Godleski receiving 38 years in state prison. He pleaded no contest July 8 to second-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, child neglect causing great bodily harm and related counts in the death of Noah Godleski. Police and prosecutors said the boy’s death followed a severe beating and a series of decisions not to obtain medical care, even as he lost the ability to walk and struggled to speak in complete sentences.
When Godleski appeared at the Palm Bay Police Department in October 2021, he initially described Noah as having “passed away in his sleep.” Court filings quoted him as telling officers that he would provide the address and keys and accept being taken into custody, but asking whether he could first have a cigarette. Police found Noah inside the laundry room of the family’s home. The medical examiner concluded that the child had been dead for several days before anyone notified authorities.
The police station encounter was the final step in a sequence investigators reconstructed through interviews, phone calls and statements attributed to the adults in the home. Authorities said Noah had been put in the laundry room as punishment and isolated from the rest of the family. Dubose told investigators she heard Godleski yelling and sounds that suggested a severe beating. Prosecutors later said Godleski struck Noah with a baseball bat. When Godleski left the room, the boy remained inside with serious injuries.
Noah’s condition did not remain hidden because there were no outward signs, investigators said. According to the probable cause account, he became unable to walk after the assault. Within days, he could no longer form complete sentences. Godleski allegedly told a relative that the child had been hit too hard in the face and the back of the head, although he characterized what happened as an accident and said he had not intended to kill him. The deterioration described by police indicated a medical emergency, but no ambulance was called.
Investigators said Godleski and his live-in girlfriend, Samarial R. Dubose, discussed taking Noah to a hospital but decided to wait. One account said they would seek treatment if the boy remained unable to walk the next day. Police also alleged that Godleski searched online for information about treating a concussion. That search, authorities said, occurred as the adults attempted to manage the crisis themselves rather than place the child in the care of medical professionals who could assess the extent of his injuries.
The delay turned into abandonment when the adults prepared to leave Florida. Police said Godleski proposed driving Dubose and their three other children to Connecticut so she could have a break from Noah. Authorities said Noah was left locked inside the Palm Bay home while the others began the roughly 1,000-mile trip north. Although a friend was supposedly going to watch him, investigators said that person had not been asked to provide care and had no plan to visit the house.
Dubose later acknowledged that she understood Noah was dead or in grave danger when the family departed, according to court accounts. She did not contact emergency services before leaving. Prosecutors said her inaction continued despite repeated chances to intervene during the child’s decline. Her failure to seek help became a central part of the case against her and eventually resulted in a separate 30-year prison sentence imposed in 2023.
As police examined what happened before and after the family left, they also alleged that the adults tried to create a misleading explanation for Noah’s injuries. Investigators said Godleski and Dubose rehearsed a story intended to reduce Dubose’s exposure while Godleski accepted primary blame. The affidavit alleged that Noah’s hands were used in an attempt to make some wounds look self-inflicted. Authorities also said the other children were coached about what to tell investigators. Police noted injuries on both sides of Noah’s face but did not initially determine whether particular wounds were self-inflicted or caused after death.
The investigation extended beyond the fatal injuries. Prosecutors said they believed Noah had been starved before he was beaten. At 12, he weighed 62 pounds, which the State Attorney’s Office said placed him in the bottom fifth percentile for boys his age. Police photographs showed that the refrigerator in the home contained food. Assistant State Attorney Julia Lynch later said Noah had been the targeted child in the household, a description that tied his low weight, confinement and fatal punishment into a broader pattern alleged by the prosecution.
Godleski was initially accused of first-degree murder, an offense that could have led to life imprisonment. He faced additional charges involving child abuse, manslaughter, neglect and tampering with evidence. A trial was scheduled to begin Aug. 31, 2026, and prosecutors Julia Lynch and Samantha Barrett were preparing to present the case to a jury. Instead, Godleski entered a negotiated plea on July 8, accepting convictions and a fixed prison term while avoiding the first-degree murder trial.
Brevard County Circuit Judge Steve Henderson openly questioned the agreement during the hearing. After reviewing the facts and hearing the terms, Henderson said he did not believe 38 years was enough. The judge nevertheless accepted the resolution and imposed the negotiated sentence. His comment underscored the difficulty of measuring the punishment against a case in which the fatal assault was followed not by an immediate request for help, but by waiting, an interstate trip and a report made only after Noah had been dead for days.
The plea was not Godleski’s first opportunity to settle the prosecution. In August 2023, after Dubose received her sentence, Godleski rejected a proposed agreement during a court hearing. He remained in the Brevard County case for almost three additional years before accepting the later deal. The final resolution places both adults in state prison for decades: Dubose for 30 years and Godleski for 38.
With the sentence imposed, no trial will test the evidence before a jury or produce a first-degree murder verdict. The public record instead closes with the decisions investigators said were made during Noah’s final days: to isolate him, to wait as his condition worsened, to leave him without a caregiver and to delay telling police. Godleski’s prison term began after the court accepted responsibility through his no-contest pleas, ending the prosecution but not the questions raised by the lost opportunities to obtain help.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 3, 2026.