Inset, left to right: Jason Godleski in court (WFTV) and Noah Godleski (Palm Bay Police). Background: The Florida home where Jason Godleski fatally beat Noah Godleski (WOFL).
A 38-year-old Florida father will spend several decades behind bars for fatally beating his 12-year-old son and leaving him to die alone in a laundry room. Brevard County Circuit Judge Steve Henderson on Wednesday ordered Jason Godleski to serve 38 years in a state correctional facility for the 2021 slaying of Noah Godleski, court records show.
Henderson handed down the sentence after Godleski reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder. He had initially been charged with first-degree murder and faced a possible life sentence.
Godleski was also convicted of aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, child neglect with great bodily harm, and tampering with physical evidence.
As Law&Crime previously reported, investigators said Godleski viciously beat Noah after confining him to a laundry room as punishment. Following the beating, Noah was unable to walk and soon lost the ability to form complete sentences. Instead of seeking medical care, Godleski and his girlfriend, Samarial Renee Dubose, decided to wait to see whether Noah”s condition improved.
When Noah’s condition continued to deteriorate, the couple fled the state, driving to Connecticut with their other children while leaving Noah to die “alone in the laundry room.”
Dubose later admitted that when they left for Connecticut, she knew that Noah was either dead or in grave danger.
Days later, Godleski walked into the Palm Bay Police Department and reported that his son had “passed away in his sleep.”
“I will give you guys my address and keys,” he told officers, according to court filings. “Come down here and take me away, but can I just have a cigarette?”
Officers found Noah’s battered body inside the home with signs he had been dead for an extended period.
Police also alleged Godleski later confessed to a relative that Noah had been struck “too hard” in the face and back of the head. Investigators further accused him of staging portions of the scene by using the boy’s hands to make some of his injuries appear self-inflicted.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, the judge questioned whether the negotiated punishment adequately reflected the crime before ultimately accepting the plea agreement.
“I don’t think 38 years is enough,” the judge said, according to a courtroom report from Orlando-based ABC affiliate WFTV.
Dubose, who prosecutors said ignored Noah’s deteriorating condition despite repeated opportunities to help him, accepted her own plea agreement in 2023. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading no contest to aggravated manslaughter, aggravated child abuse, child neglect and other charges.
Noah’s mother, Melinda Lester, said she spent nearly five years expecting a trial and was devastated the case ended with a plea agreement.
“For five years, we’ve been waiting for a trial so at least he could speak and say something,” she told Orlando NBC affiliate WESH. “Now he just says, ‘Yes, I’ll take a slap on the wrist.’ That’s crazy.”
In a statement to WESH, Noah’s aunt, Brittany Palmer, said the plea left her family without the answers they had waited years to hear.
“Noah could’ve had a chance,” Palmer said. “We have been waiting five years for this, and I feel torn by [Godleski] taking a plea deal.”
