A Westerville man will spend at least six years in prison after admitting to not seeking medical attention for his 4-month-old daughter after she was seriously injured while in his care.
Joseph S. Blair, 24, was sentenced April 16 to six to nine years in prison. Blair previously pleaded guilty to endangering children in connection with the April 2022 death of Janiya Blair, his daughter.
While Blair did not plead guilty to charges directly related to the injuries that led to Janiya’s death, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown said the easiest answer is often the simplest: Blair was the only person around Janiya when she was hurt, and no one else could have caused her injuries.
“We know what happened – you beat this child; you shook this child,” Brown said.
On April 5, 2022, Blair took 4-month-old Janiya to Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital unresponsive, according to court documents. Janiya had critical injuries, including brain bleeds, and was transferred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital for more treatment.
Janiya underwent several days of care, including surgeries, but was removed from life support and died April 10, 2022.
Court documents state that Blair initially told police detectives that Janiya had fallen in the bathtub, but then changed his story several times. Blair waited several hours before taking Janiya to his mother’s home, who told him to take her to the hospital.
Blair arrived at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital in Westerville around 11:20 a.m. April 5, parked in one of the furthest lots from the emergency room entrance and walked the baby into the hospital.
An initial autopsy by the Montgomery County Coroner’s office could not determine what specifically led to Janiya’s death. A review of the autopsy in 2023 by the Franklin County Coroner’s office ruled Janiya’s death a homicide.
Part of the reason Blair took a plea deal is because medical experts could not agree on Janiya’s manner of death.
“His lack of urgency in getting medical care for his daughter certainly exacerbated the significant and, ultimately, fatal injuries that she suffered,” Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Billie Gallagher said. “The source of those injuries, the person responsible for those injuries … is this defendant.”
Blair’s attorney, Diane Menashe, argued that Blair’s IQ, which tested as borderline functioning, as well as other testing showing he has low or extremely low ability to process information, played a factor in Blair’s choices on April 5, 2022, the day his daughter was hurt.
Menashe showed photos Blair took on the morning Janiya was hurt which show him holding the baby, who is clearly unresponsive and limp. Menashe said that by themselves, they may seem to show a callous person, but in the context of his mental capabilities, the photos show Blair didn’t understand the situation.
“They show a man who is not processing the severity of the health of the only person he’s biologically related to,” Menashe said.
“It doesn’t make sense; make it make sense,” Menashe said. “How could he have not have gotten her to the hospital? How did he not know to call 911? Drive faster. He’s not processing at the speed anyone in the courtroom would have.”
Blair’s father, Dennis Blair, was a member of the Westerville City Council at the time of Janiya’s death and Blair’s arrest. Dennis Blair resigned from the council in 2024.
Janiya’s mother, Lanea Cochran, told Brown about the varying stories Blair gave her about how their daughter got hurt, none of which made sense with the injuries she saw on her child when she arrived at the hospital. She described seeing a stretcher “in a size she didn’t realize they made” and spending what should have been her newborn’s start of a college fund on a quarter casket and funeral services.
“It took everything out of me not to pick her up one last time,” Cochran said of the funeral. “All of her scars were visible but so was her beauty.”
Cochran and her father both asked Brown to impose the maximum possible sentence, which was eight years in prison.
“The maximum punishment is the minimum we can do,” Cochran said.
Blair offered a statement himself, apologizing for what he did.
“I loved Janiya so much. I have to live with this for the rest of my life that I didn’t make the right decisions on that day and it hurts me so much,” he said.
Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Westerville man sentenced in death of 4-month-old daughter
Reporting by Bethany Bruner, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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