The first criminal court case to be reopened due to the controversy surrounding a former Lehigh Valley Health Network child abuse expert resulted in a stunning Lehigh County Court hearing Monday in which a man convicted of killing his infant daughter will soon walk out of prison.
Matthew Wolfe, 40, was serving a 20- to 40-year sentence in the November 2013 death of 2-month-old Quinn Wolfe. Through an agreement with the Lehigh County district attorney’s office, that sentence was reduced to 4½ to nine years, making Wolfe eligible for release in November.
With the guilty verdict handed down by a jury withdrawn, Wolfe on Monday was permitted to plead no contest to third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. His attorney, Craig Cooley, praised District Attorney Gavin Holihan for making what both sides said was a tough call.
“Ninety-nine percent of district attorneys wouldn’t have done this,” Cooley said.
The case against Wolfe began to unravel soon after Holihan took office in January 2024. The DA said the conviction was among several that his office was taking a second look at. He was also urged to revisit it by Wolfe’s attorney and Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, one of the first officials to raise questions about the doctor’s qualifications.
More than two dozen families have filed child abuse misdiagnosis lawsuits against Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen in her role as the former medical director of the John Van Brakle Child Advocacy Center at Lehigh Valley Health Network. She retired last year.
At issue in the Wolfe case was Esernio-Jenssen’s testimony at trial, which prosecutors said went “far beyond” what was in her report.
While several medical experts who investigated the baby’s death were unable to agree on the time in which Quinn’s fatal injuries occurred, placing the abuse anywhere between 30 hours to fours days before she was hospitalized, Esernio-Jenssen told the jury that she could narrow it down to within three hours that Wolfe was alone with his daughter.
Additionally, a child abuse expert hired by the defense did not appear for the trial, so Esernio-Jenssen’s testimony went unquestioned.
In court Monday, Quinn’s mother, Cristen Sanchez, showed Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony photos of her baby daughter. She said she could hardly believe the turn the case took.
“I have to live with the justice system. I respect it,” she said. “If that expert was discredited, then so be it, though she was right in this case. He should be in prison a lot longer. He got out on a technicality, in my opinion.”
In a no contest plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.
Wolfe did not speak at the hearing. Cooley, who did not represent Wolfe at trial but has been handling his appeal since 2017, said his client has always maintained his innocence.
“When we looked at this case it always came down to Jenssen, Jenssen, Jenssen,” he said.
Wolfe was charged in December 2015 following a two-year investigation. On Nov. 12, 2013, Whitehall Township police received a report that Quinn was “near death” after Wolfe took her to St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill to see Sanchez, who worked there as a nurse.
When the baby arrived at the hospital, she was “flaccid and lethargic,” police reports said.
After a pediatrician examined her, Quinn was flown to St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia, which was better equipped to deal with her injuries. The day before, Sanchez had taken her daughter to a doctor’s appointment and that pediatrician “found no signs of injury,” according to police reports.
Wolfe was watching the baby while Sanchez worked. Wolfe told police he fed the baby formula and then put her in her crib while he showered.
When he checked on the baby 20 minutes later, Wolfe told police, she was limp. He took her to the hospital, a police report states.
Esernio-Jenssen determined the baby was a victim of abusive head trauma — previously called shaken baby syndrome. The baby also had other new and healing injuries, including a cracked rib and fractured leg and fractured skull. Quinn died at St. Christopher’s that week.
A jury deliberated for more than 10 hours before finding Wolfe guilty.
An independent medical expert paid for by Wolfe’s defense team reviewed the case before the agreement was reached.
Holihan said there are no other cases under review by his office based on similar circumstances. He conceded that it was difficult to revisit Wolfe’s sentence because Sanchez and her family didn’t agree and were upset.
“This is not an exoneration. He is still being held accountable. But this is the right thing to do,” Holihan said.
Laurie Mason Schroeder is a freelance writer.
This story has been updated: A grand jury was involved in the two-year investigation, but was not responsible for the arrest. An earlier version mischaracterized its role.
