A Jacksonville Beach woman pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the 2020 death of her 3-year-old son, according to Duval County court records.
Court records show Amy Oliver, 48, also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a paramedic.
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A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 15, but she will not be sentenced that day. As part of the plea agreement, according to the State Attorney’s Office, Oliver will be sentenced to 40 years in state prison.
Oliver was arrested in January 2021 and then indicted on first-degree murder in June 2021 after her son was found unresponsive in a bedroom at a home on Republic Drive in Jacksonville Beach in October 2020.
On Oct. 27, 2020, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department responded to assist the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department at the home after the child’s father called for help, saying the boy, Henry, was not breathing and he was attempting CPR, authorities said. According to prosecutors, the father said the boy’s mother “tried to kill” the child.
After first responders found the child in the bedroom and took him to a hospital, where he died, they found Oliver had locked herself in a bathroom and refused to come out, according to an arrest report.
The arrest report said the father of the child forced the door open and JFRD personnel entered and found Oliver holding an uncapped syringe. Oliver then lunged toward a JFRD member in his full uniform, “making a stabbing motion with the syringe,” the report said. Officers said they were eventually able to place Oliver into custody.
According to the State Attorney’s Office, an investigation revealed Oliver was at the home to pick up the boy and asked to take a nap. Prosecutors said the boy’s father obliged but became concerned when he received several ominous text messages from Oliver, who also had sent several scheduled emails to others about her and her child’s death.
The medical examiner ruled the 3-year-old’s death as “drug toxicity” through a lethal level of a medication Oliver was prescribed that she administered to him, prosecutors said.
Court records show the child was at the center of a custody dispute between his parents.