A Connecticut mother and father will serve more than a decade in jail for their roles in the death of their 2-year-old son, whose body was discovered buried in a shallow grave at a local park about three years earlier.
According to court records, Iris Rivera-Santos and Edgar Ismalej-Gomez formally pled guilty on Tuesday to all charges in the death of little Liam Rivera. The allegations against each included counts of intentional cruelty to a kid, endangering a child, tampering with physical evidence, conspiracy, and transferring a dead body without a permit.
A Fairfield County Superior Court judge accepted plea pleas that required the mother and father to serve 16 years in a state penitentiary facility, according to the Stamford Advocate.
Notably, neither parent admitted to killing Liam, even though the medical examiner who performed the boy’s autopsy ruled that his cause of death was “multiple blunt force traumas to the head.”
Despite his plea, Dominick Angotta, Ismalej-Gomez’s defense counsel, stated that his client continues to assert his innocence.
“Edgar adamantly maintains that he had nothing to do with the child’s death,” the lawyer told New York-based cable news channel News 12 during the plea hearing. “Obviously, he made some horrible choices and for that, he has today accepted full responsibility.”
Rivera-Santos and her lawyer reportedly declined to speak after Tuesday’s session.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, authorities discovered Liam wrapped in plastic bags and buried in Cummings Park on January 2, 2023. The park is approximately 40 miles northeast of Manhattan. Ismalej-Gomez was captured within 24 hours, and his wife was detained roughly a month later.
Police claimed the inquiry began with a call regarding Liam’s kidnapping, but they immediately “received information” that led them to Cummings Park.
“Officers responded, and the preliminary information was that [Liam] may have been buried in an area of Cummings Park,” Stamford Police Chief Timothy Shaw said in a prior statement. “Officers located a possible area with fresh dirt moved around and unearthed a plastic bag where the two year old was inside.”
Rivera-Santos first alleged that Ismalej-Gomez held her hostage following the murder of their son.
The mother told authorities that after finding Liam dead in her room, Ismalej-Gomez detained her at gunpoint for several days and forced her to accompany him to and from West Virginia. She claimed she eventually fled, purchased a phone, and contacted her attorney. However, investigators said text messages removed from Rivera-Santos’ phone revealed that the mother’s story about being kidnapped was falsified.
Ismalej-Gomez and Rivera-Santos are slated to return to court on February 10, 2026, for their formal sentencing hearing, according to records.
