Tahir Riley. (Credit: Montgomery County District Attorney)
The child also is the son of woman in prison for vehicular homicide for I-95 deaths of state troopers and pedestrian
Telling him that “a child needs love, not abuse … not a fractured skull,” Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O’Neill sentenced a Perkiomen Township father to two to four years in state prison for violently abusing his then two-month-old son on April 18, 2024.
Under a limited agreement in exchange for Tahir Marcel Riley’s guilty plea, prosecutors promised not to seek a sentence of more than two to four years in prison on the charges, according to The Mercury.
Riley, 28, formerly of the 200 block of Concord Road, admitted in court in June 2025 to violently fracturing his son’s skull, arms and legs while in his care. He pleaded guilty to felony counts of aggravated assault of a child and endangering the welfare of a child.
Riley, his son’s main provider and protector, per his testimony, has to have no contact with the child, O’Neill said.
“The charges in this case are serious. Without a doubt, this child was abused. This child was abused by his father. That child suffered trauma,” O’Neill said, according to the report. “I’ve heard no remorse. We don’t know what led him to commit such violence against a 2-month-old child. We don’t know the evil that lurks in the back alley of your soul….”
At one point in the pre-trial hearing, a defense character witness and friend of Riley, testified that Riley told him he was innocent and took a plea deal to avoid the possibility of lengthy prison time via trial, per the report.
When O’Neill reminded Riley and his lawyer Benjamin Cooper that the guilty plea must be voluntary and without “competing narratives” and that he cannot accept Riley’s plea if he is telling people he is innocent, the defendant opted to proceed to sentencing and not withdraw his guilty plea.
Assistant District Attorney Jediah Grobstein described the child’s wounds as “extensive” and covered every part of the child’s body.
“(Riley had to) brutally and repeatedly strike, twist, rip or otherwise assault the infant … these injuries were not a mistake,” Grobstein said, according to The Mercury.
Cooper played his client to the court as a “great man and loving father” and asked for leniency.
“This event … is completely out of character and the soul of Tahir Riley,” Cooper argued, according to The Mercury. “This is a good guy who made a terrible mistake, and he’s got to pay for it. He exemplifies someone who is a good person. Things happen, and there’s no taking it back. And it’s a serious situation.”
The child is in custody of his maternal grandmother and is now 18 months old and has recovered from his injuries. Long-term developmental impairment is uncertain.
The sentencing marked the final grim chapter in a case that has left the young child at the heart of an unimaginable family crisis.
With his mother incarcerated and his father facing prison, the boy is left without either parent — his early life shaped by two separate acts of devastating harm.
He abused the infant in April 2024 – less than a month after the child’s mother, Jayana Tanae Webb, 25, was sentenced for a DUI crash that killed two Pennsylvania State Police troopers and a civilian.
The abuse came to light after medical professionals raised concerns during a pediatric visit on April 19, 2024. The baby had appeared healthy just four days earlier during a routine checkup.
But when Riley brought him back to Pediatric Medical Associates in East Norriton Township, the child had visible head swelling and facial bruising. A subsequent evaluation at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia confirmed the injuries were consistent with physical abuse, authorities said.
Riley gave inconsistent accounts of the events leading up to the child’s injuries, at one point citing stress, lack of sleep, and frustration. Investigators ultimately concluded that the trauma occurred while the child was solely in Riley’s care overnight on April 18, 2024.
Following his arrest, Riley was initially held on $1 million cash bail. That amount was later reduced to $100,000 unsecured, and he was released with electronic monitoring, according to court records.
The case has drawn wider public attention because of the boy’s family background. Webb is currently serving a sentence of 27½ to 60 years in prison for a crash that occurred on March 21, 2022, on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.
Webb was convicted of third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle, and DUI after driving drunk and fatally striking state troopers Branden T. Sisca and Martin F. Mack III, as well as pedestrian Reyes Rivera Oliveras.
Sisca, 29, was the fire chief of Trappe Fire Company and a graduate of Perkiomen Valley High School and West Chester University. Mack, 33, of Bristol, was a Monsignor Bonner High School and Albright College alumnus. Both were members of Troop K in Philadelphia.
Webb, who was seven months pregnant at the time of her November 2023 sentencing, was allowed to remain free until she gave birth. She surrendered to begin her prison term in March 2024.
A park opened in Trappe Borough recently, dedicated to Sisca’s memory.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
