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Pierce Twp. man indicted on murder charge in 2010 ‘shaken baby’ case after boy dies

Coroner: Boy's death 'direct result' of injuries as an infant
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Posted at 6:00 PM, Dec 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-22 18:10:02-05

A Pierce Township man, who pleaded guilty to assaulting a 1-year-old child in 2010, has been indicted on a murder charge Tuesday after the boy, now 11 years old, died of his injuries.

In June 2010, authorities said then-25-year-old Joshua McClanahan assaulted the child by shaking him at a home in Amelia.

“Attending physicians at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital determined that the child’s injuries were consistent with ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome,’ which McClanahan eventually confessed to detectives,” read a release from the Clermont County Sheriff and county prosecutor.

McClanahan pleaded guilty to felonious assault in December 2010. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and has since been released.

In the decade following the assault, the child “required constant care” and underwent more than 20 “extensive medical procedures,” prosecutors said. The boy died at his Pierce Township home on Nov. 25.

Clermont County Coroner Dr. Brian Treon determined the boy’s death was “a direct result of medical problems stemming from the original injuries he sustained in 2010," according to a release from prosecutors.

McClanahan, now 35, is currently being held in the Clermont County Jail without bond, and he is set to be arraigned before Judge Anthony Brock on Wednesday morning.