Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan announced Sept. 8 that a man previously convicted of killing his infant daughter in 2013 in Whitehall Township was back in court to have his original conviction vacated and sentence reduced.

Matthew Wolfe, 40, was charged in 2015 with murder of the third degree and endangering the welfare of a child. He was convicted by a jury of those charges in 2017 and was sentenced to serve 20-40 years in prison.

At a hearing Sept. 8 before Judge James Anthony, Wolfe pleaded no contest to those same charges and received a sentence of four-and-a-half to nine years, with two years of consecutive probation.

Wolfe’s case was back before the judge based on the 2017 trial testimony of now-disgraced Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen, according to Holihan. For two years, doctors who investigated the infant’s death concluded her injuries occurred within a window of time at least 30 hours and potentially up to four days before the infant’s arrival at a hospital.

In 2015, Jenssen reached the conclusion that the injuries must have occurred within a three-hour time frame when only Wolfe had access to the child.

Based on that opinion, Wolfe was arrested, tried and convicted. After taking office, Holihan began a review of cases in which Jenssen’s opinions and testimony contradicted other medical treatment providers. In Wolfe’s case, a third-party review included a forensic pathologist who contradicted Jenssen’s findings. There are currently no other cases under review by the DA’s office based on similar circumstances.

On Nov. 12, 2013, Whitehall Township Police Department received a report that a 2-month-old infant was near death. The department received information that Wolfe, the baby’s father, had taken the baby to St. Luke’s Hospital where the mother, Cristen Sanchez, worked. Upon arrival at the hospital, the infant was flaccid and lethargic.

The infant had multiple traumatic injuries and was listed in critical condition. Those injuries included hemorrhages, a skull fracture and multiple rib and leg fractures.

The infant had died Nov. 18, 2013, at St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia medical examiner’s office listed the cause of death as neurotrauma and the manner of death as homicide.

Wolfe had been questioned about the events of Nov. 11 and 12, 2013. He said, on the evening of Nov. 11, 2013, he checked on the infant and she was crying normally. He said he picked her up and put her in a crib for the night at their home at 1296 Forest Road in Whitehall Township.

He said Sanchez left the home 10 a.m. the next morning to go to the store, a medical appointment and then to work. She left the infant in Wolfe’s care.

Wolfe said he gave the infant medicine and a bottle and burped her. Wolfe said when he later checked on the infant, she had vomited and looked flaccid. He picked the infant up and noticed she was limp, whimpering and gasping when she cried.

Wolfe said he took the infant to St. Luke’s Hospital, where Sanchez worked as a nurse. Sanchez had taken the infant to a doctor’s appointment Nov. 11, 2013, and a pediatrician who examined the infant found no sign of injury.

Sanchez had also woken up between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Nov. 12, 2013, to feed the infant, who she said was acting normally and had no signs of injury. Sanchez said after she left the home Nov. 12, 2013, the infant was acting normal.