Woodbury Man Sentenced To 6 Years For Killing Infant Son

WOODBURY, MN— A Woodbury man was sentenced Friday to six years and two months in prison for fatally dropping his infant son on his head in 2019, Cathy Rochel, executive assistant for the Washington County Attorney's Office, said.

Hoisser plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter in August, the office said.

In addition to prison, Matthew Hoisser must pay $50 in fines and must register as a predatory offender, the office said.

Hoisser, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, intentionally dropped his four-month-old son on his head, causing the infant to die of head injuries and a skull fracture in April 2019, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Minnesota's 10th Judicial District Court.

The infant was said to have been very colicky, especially in the months leading up to his death due to him getting over Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, officials said.

Officials said that on April 24, 2019, Hoisser was having trouble getting his son to bed and got "so frustrated he intentionally dropped the infant head first into the ground."

The next morning, Hoisser's wife noticed the infant was more colicky than usual and wouldn't eat much, officials said. Not knowing about her son's head injuries, she gave him Tylenol for his Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease and brought him to daycare, officials said.

The infant's daycare provider said he had been crying before she started to change his diaper, but when she turned around to get a fresh diaper, he went limp and stopped breathing, officials said.

The infant was brought to St. Paul Children's Hospital and placed on life support before being taken off on April 30, 2019, officials said.

The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was homicide as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, officials said.

In addition to the head injuries and skull fractures he got on April 24, officials said the infant also had older signs of head injuries, which may have been why he was fussing in the weeks leading up to his death, officials said.

Following the infant's death, officials found out that Hoisser's wife was pregnant with another baby and determined that Hoisser posed a serious threat to his future child, as well as other children in his care, officials said.