Woman given 10 years for death of son, 2

The toddler's mother maintained she does not know how her son died.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- "This was your best?" Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court asked Jennifer Wolfe as she held up coroner's photographs of Wolfe's 2-year-old son, Jesse.
"I did my best," Wolfe said when Judge Cronin questioned her about caring for her son, whom prosecutors said weighed 17 pounds at his death.
Judge Cronin sentenced Wolfe on Thursday to 10 years in prison and five years' probation for involuntary manslaughter in the Oct. 22, 2003, death of her son. She will receive credit for 601 days served in the Mahoning County Jail.
Wolfe was 22 at the time of her son's death and living in Austintown. Austintown police arrested her in March 2004.
As she questioned Wolfe before sentencing, Judge Cronin held up coroner's photographs of the toddler and described them in detail. She said the toddler's hair was falling out because he was malnourished, and his ribs were visible.
The boy had new and old bruises all over his body, including bruising on his face, the back of his head, his legs, buttocks and genitals. He died with a bruise imprint of an adult hand on his face.
"You can see the imprint of each finger," Judge Cronin said slowly, raising each finger of her own hand one at a time. "There are bruises on his arms and his stomach. You can see they are fist marks ... and no one knows how this happened?"
Defendant's account
Judge Cronin asked Wolfe several times to tell her what happened. Wolfe said Jesse was sleeping and was fine, and that she went to the neighbor's for about 20 minutes to return a pan she had borrowed. She said she didn't know how her baby was bruised, except that he usually had a bruise on his forehead because he would bump his head while climbing on furniture.
"I want you to tell me what happened," Judge Cronin said, continuing to hold up the coroner's photos.
"I don't know," Wolfe said.
Wolfe said Jesse's father is in jail. Her daughter, Chelsea, now 8, is staying with family members.
Judge Cronin questioned Wolfe at length about taking care of her children.
"The minute you have a baby, you become responsible for its care," she said. "Whether you killed him, or you allowed someone else to kill him and you're covering up for them, or if you just simply failed to take proper care of him, the end result is the same," Judge Cronin said.
"You wanted to give him up for adoption and then you changed your mind, and you killed him," Judge Cronin said. "You took him to the hospital with a 104 temperature, and then you left with him. If you would have left him at the hospital, he might still be alive today. You took him from the hospital because you knew they would find the bruises."
Harsh words
"There is a special place in hell reserved for Jennifer Wolfe," said Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejeko. "In all my years as a prosecutor, I've seen a lot of killers come and go, and this is the saddest case of all. This little boy did not have to die. There were a lot of people who could have helped -- people who wanted to help."
Macejko said that township police did an excellent job and worked through a very detailed process of elimination to arrive at Wolfe as the suspect.
Macejko said police had eliminated as suspects other family members and people who had been around the boy before his death, including Wolfe's boyfriend, who found Jesse not breathing in his mother's Compass West apartment about 7:35 p.m.
The toddler was pronounced dead at Forum Health Northside Medical Center. The Trumbull County coroner's office later ruled the death a homicide and said he had been asphyxiated.