Smith Township father not guilty in infant son’s shaking death
Jury deliberated for less than 90 minutes before returning verdict

Joshua George hugged family members, embraced his attorneys and walked out of the Washington County Courthouse a free man Thursday after he was found not guilty on all charges in the shaking death of his son nearly four years ago.
It took the jury of seven men and five women less than 90 minutes to acquit George of felony charges of homicide, aggravated assault and child endangerment in connection with the injuries suffered by his 6-month-old son, Oliver, at their family’s Smith Township home on Dec. 30, 2021.
“It feels amazing,” George said as he walked out of the courthouse hand-in-hand with his mother, Ronda, and stepfather, Paul Porter.
Moments earlier, family members who were gathered behind George in the gallery inside President Judge Valarie Costanzo’s courtroom erupted into cheers and applause when the jury foreman read the not guilty verdict. Some sheriff’s deputies had to block family members from reaching across the bar to hug George, who then walked into the gallery to visit with them.
“You are no longer in the custody of the commonwealth,” Costanzo said. “You are a free man. You can leave the courtroom with your family.”
George had been facing the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in Oliver’s death.
“I’m coming home,” said George, who has been held without bond at the Washington County jail since his arrest in February 2022.
Some of Oliver’s maternal relatives, who were seated on the other side of the gallery, wept or shook their heads in disapproval before deputies escorted them out of the courtroom to ensure the two families remained separated.
George embraced his lead attorney, Stanley Booker, and thanked him for his legal team’s work during the trial.
“You saved my life. You never gave up on me,” George told Booker. “Thank you so much.”
Just a few hours earlier Thursday, Booker delivered a searing closing argument blaming investigators and prosecutors for charging the wrong person in Oliver’s death, instead pointing the finger at the child’s step-grandmother who was babysitting the boy on Dec. 30, 2021, when he began exhibiting signs of trauma.
Booker went as far as displaying “Commonwealth vs. Cheska Rotenelli” as the headline on his slideshow presentation during closing arguments, placing the blame for Oliver’s death strictly on her and laying out the reasons why the defense thought she should be the one on trial instead of George.
“Let’s talk about Cheska. Imagine if she was charged in this case. Would you have convicted her?” Booker asked the jury.
Booker questioned the investigation into George and why police did not consider Rotenelli the prime suspect, considering her past history of parenting issues and a variety of statements she made to investigators following Oliver’s death. He also noted how unusual it was for the prosecution not to call any of the investigating police officers to testify or provide any physical evidence showing George assaulted his baby.
“There’s just no evidence in this case. No direct evidence. No DNA evidence,” Booker said. “Did Cheska sign the (criminal) indictment? Were there any officers involved in this case? There was no investigation. None. They didn’t do their job.”
Rotenelli, who sat with Oliver’s maternal family members in the gallery a few feet away, crossed her arms and shook her head at times while Booker pinned the blame on her.
Investigators accused George of assaulting the boy at his family’s Francis Road home in Smith Township before taking him and two other children to the maternal grandparents’ house on nearby Colony Road to be watched by Rotenelli, who was Oliver’s step-grandmother.
Booker walked the jury through the timeline of the day when Oliver was injured, showing that George dropped the boy off at Rotenelli’s house at 8:26 a.m. By 8:56 a.m., Rotenelli began running brief errands, leaving Oliver and other children at the house in the care of her husband, Micheal Riffle. By 9:15 a.m., Riffle left the house to go to physical therapy, which Booker surmised gave Rotenelli the time to assault the boy.
She called a pediatrician at 9:59 a.m., speaking on the phone for three minutes before calling Riffle six times over the next eight minutes, but she was unable to reach him. She called the pediatrician again at 10:21 a.m., and they spoke briefly before Riffle came home from his therapy appointment. Rotenelli testified that Oliver had been acting abnormally since George dropped him off, but that accelerated after Riffle came home as the boy’s ears and extremities began turning purple. She called 911 for help more than 90 minutes later at 11:52 a.m. and the boy was unresponsive with medics at 12:19 p.m. on the way to Weirton Medical Center in West Virginia.
Later that day, Oliver was transferred to Children’s Hospital in PIttsburgh, where he died Jan. 3, 2022. George, who is now 34, was charged the following month with homicide and other felony counts, and faced the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
In a phone interview following the verdict, Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said he considered the case closed and would not be reopening or considering any other suspects.
“We charged and brought our case, and the jury made its decision. The investigation and evidence led to the charges,” Walsh said. “Will not reopen the (case). It is closed, unless something else occurs.”
Earlier in the day Thursday, the defense called Dr. Santa Bartholomew, a critical care pediatrician who studied the case and evidence, to testify through video conferencing. She disputed claims that Oliver would’ve been exhibiting symptoms that mimic “teething,” as Rotenelli claimed, and that a child going through that process might be a “little fussy” compared to the pain from the “catastrophic brain injury” of a skull fracture caused by blunt force trauma.
“This brain injury is like standing on the beach and getting hit by a tsunami,” Bartholomew said of the symptoms. “These are completely different injuries.”
She said Oliver suffered a “fatal injury” and likely would’ve become unresponsive within 30 minutes to an hour – although possibly as long as 90 minutes – after suffering the blow to his head.
“This child would rapidly become unconscious based on the CT (scan) very quickly after the injury. This baby would be inconsolably irritated, not a little fussy. He would’ve been crying inconsolably.”
In cross-examination, Washington County First District Attorney Leslie Mylan noted that Bartholomew’s original report on the case stated such serious symptoms would take 30 to 60 minutes to present themselves, questioning why she elongated the timeframe to 90 minutes.
“Your testimony has changed,” Mylan said.
“It’s not changed,” Bartholomew responded. “In my report, I wrote 30 to 60 minutes. In my testimony I said 30 to 60, but no longer than 90.”
During her closing statements, Mylan said George predicted his intentions when he told a family friend the night before Oliver was injured that he was “going to shake him.”
“I told you this case was about the chilling words of a father who turned those words into action on Dec. 31 of 2021. And that hasn’t changed,” Mylan said. “Joshua George wasn’t predicting the future. He was bringing it to life.”
Mylan disputed the defense’s assertion that Rotenelli assaulted Oliver, later playing for the jury the step-grandmother’s 911 call with her frantic pleas for help.
“It was clear (the defense) put her on trial. They pick at her for everything. Every single thing,” Mylan said. “She called 911. She rode (in the ambulance) to the hospital with him. She did not hurt Oliver. She did not kill Oliver. She loved him.”
After closing statements, Costanzo sent the jury out for deliberations and they returned about 90 minutes later with the acquittal. The four-day trial at the Washington County Courthouse began Monday.