A couple in Connecticut has been sentenced to over ten years in prison for their involvement in the tragic death of their two-year-old son, whose remains were found in a shallow grave at a local park almost three years ago.

On Tuesday, Iris Rivera-Santos and Edgar Ismalej-Gomez entered guilty pleas to various charges related to the death of young Liam Rivera, according to court records. The charges against them included intentional cruelty to a child, risk of injury to a child, tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and unauthorized moving of a deceased body.

Their guilty pleas resulted in a plea agreement in which a judge at Fairfield County Superior Court sentenced both parents to 16 years in a state prison, as reported by the Stamford Advocate. This deal was made in exchange for their admissions.

Interestingly, neither parent confessed to being directly responsible for Liam’s death, despite the medical examiner’s autopsy revealing that the boy died from “multiple blunt force traumas to the head.”

Despite his guilty plea, Edgar Ismalej-Gomez’s lawyer, Dominick Angotta, stated that his client continues to assert his innocence.

“Edgar adamantly maintains that he had nothing to do with the child’s death,” the attorney told New York-based cable news station News 12 after the plea hearing. “Obviously, he made some horrible choices and for that, he has today accepted full responsibility.”

Rivera-Santos and her attorney reportedly declined to comment following Tuesday’s hearing.

As Law&Crime previously reported, police found Liam wrapped in plastic bags and buried in Cummings Park on Jan. 2, 2023. The park is about 40 miles northeast of Manhattan. Ismalej-Gomez was arrested within 24 hours and his wife was taken into custody about a month later.

Police said the investigation began with a call about Liam being kidnapped, but investigators soon “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 previous 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 initially claimed she was held hostage by Ismalej-Gomez after their son’s death.

The mother told investigators that after she found Liam dead in her room, Ismalej-Gomez held her at gunpoint for several days and made her go with him to and from West Virginia. She claimed she eventually escaped, bought a phone, and called her attorney. However, investigators said text messages that Rivera-Santos deleted from her phone showed that the mother’s story about being kidnapped had been fabricated.

Ismalej-Gomez and Rivera-Santos are currently scheduled to appear in court again for their formal sentencing hearing Feb. 10, 2026, records show.