BROWNS: Alberto Sierra pleads not guilty in 2013 killing of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver

Arheel's Uncle

Senior Reporter


Alberto Sierra pleads not guilty in 2013 killing of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver​

  • Updated: May. 18, 2023, 11:31 a.m.|
  • Published: May. 18, 2023, 11:02 a.m.
Alberto Sierra

Alberto Sierra in Worcester Superior Court May 18, 2023.




By
After serving time for abusing Jeremiah Oliver’s siblings and mother, Alberto Sierra pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges in connection with killing the 5-year-old whose remains were found in a suitcase off a highway in Sterling in 2014.

Worcester Superior Court Judge Karin Bell ordered Sierra, 32, be held without bail without prejudice. A bail hearing is scheduled for May 25.

Sierra has been charged with murder and disinterring of a body. A Worcester County Grand Jury handed up the indictments for both charges Wednesday.




Oliver was discovered missing in 2013 and his body was later found on April 18, 2014 in a suitcase off I-190 in Sterling.


The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the 5-year-old’s death a homicide in 2016 after completing an autopsy.


The autopsy report on Oliver listed the cause of death as “homicidal violence of undetermined etiology,” according to a press release from the Worcester County District Attorney’s office at the time.




Sierra was dating Elsa Oliver, Jeremiah’s mother, at the time of the boy’s disappearance.


Jeremiah’s two siblings were abused by both Sierra and their mother before they were placed in state custody in December 2013, according to authorities.


Jeremiah Oliver

Jeremiah Oliver, 5, went missing from Fitchburg in September 2013. His body was found months later off the side of Interstate 190 in Sterling. Courtesy photo.


Elsa Oliver pleaded guilty to charges of child assault and battery and reckless endangerment of a child in August 2017, prior to which Sierra was sentenced to serve six to seven years in prison for assaulting her and Jeremiah’s siblings. Oliver was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.


Sierra took on the role of disciplinarian when he moved into a Kimball Street residence in Fitchburg with Oliver and her children in September 2013, authorities said. Jeremiah’s siblings, then 7 and 9, told investigators Sierra would strike them with a belt.


Investigators have also said Sierra and Oliver would make Jeremiah’s siblings kneel in a cold shower as punishment.


Sierra and Oliver had previously faced charges for abusing Jeremiah, but those charges were dropped. Dropping the charges kept the door open for the possibility of future charges to be filed against them in connection with Jeremiah’s killing.
 
Back
Top