Jeremiah Oliver’s mother pleads guilty to abusing and endangering surviving children
The mother of a 5-year-old Fitchburg boy whose body was found in 2014 in a suitcase dumped along a Sterling highway pleaded guilty yesterday to assault and battery and two counts of reckless endangerment of her surviving children, but will not face charges in connection with his disappearance and death, prosecutors said.
Worcester Superior Court Judge Richard Tucker sentenced Elsa Oliver to 7 1⁄ 2 years in prison for assaulting one of Jeremiah Oliver’s siblings and allowing her boyfriend, Alberto L. Sierra Jr., to assault two of them.
Early’s office agreed, for the time being, to drop six other charges against Oliver, 32, for her alleged role in the disappearance and death of Jeremiah, whose body was found off Interstate 190 in April 2014, seven months after he went missing. But prosecutors reserved the right to pursue charges against her in the future, said Lindsay Corcoran, a spokeswoman for Early’s office.
“The current charges involving the defendant and Jeremiah Oliver were ended at this time to allow the death investigation to continue and to eliminate any possible double jeopardy claim in connection with his death,” the DA’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors took similar measures against Sierra last week, when he pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless endangerment of a child for assaulting the surviving children and Oliver.
He was sentenced to six to seven years in prison, followed by three years of probation.
In the wake of Jeremiah’s death, three state Department of Children and Families employees were fired for failing to properly oversee his care, and Olga Roche, the department’s commissioner, resigned.