"I think they both pointed the fingers at each other, which sometimes happens in co-defendant cases,'' Hatami responded after Fernandez's plea. One of Aguirre's attorneys, Michael Sklar, contended that Fernandez was the one who hit the boy with a belt, shot him with a BB gun and was responsible for much of the abuse prior to his death. He was declared brain-dead that day and taken off life support two days later. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel went to the family's home in the 200 block of East Avenue Q-10 in Palmdale on May 22, 2013, in response to a call that Gabriel was not breathing. The boy was 7 when the abuse began and was killed three months after he turned 8. Hatami called Aguirre an "evil'' man who "liked torturing'' the boy and did so systematically in the months leading up to the child's death.Īguirre hated Gabriel because he thought the boy was gay, according to the prosecutor. Every day I wish that I made better choices.''ĭuring Aguirre's trial, prosecutors told jurors that Gabriel was routinely beaten, shot with a BB gun, forced to eat cat feces and sleep inside a small cabinet while gagged and bound. In a brief statement shortly before she was sentenced, the boy's mother said, "I want to say I'm sorry to my family for what I did. "The weight of this factor alone is simply enormous.'' This case is without a doubt the most aggravated and egregious case of torture this court has ever witnessed,'' Lomeli said. The judge also denied the defense's motion for a new trial for Aguirre. In denying an automatic motion to reduce the jury's recommendation of a death sentence for Aguirre to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the judge cited the "repeated beating, binding, burning and starving'' of the youngster. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. Prosecutors will drop charges against four social workers in the case of Gabriel Fernandez. It's beyond animalistic,'' the judge said in sentencing the two, noting that he hoped the two defendants would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what they had done to the boy. "You want to say that the conduct was animalistic, but that would be wrong because even animals know how to take care of their young. The plea came about two months after jurors recommended that Aguirre be sentenced to death for the boy's killing. She had been facing a possible death sentence if the case against her had gone to trial and if she had been convicted as charged. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News on Wednesday, July 15, 2020.įernandez pleaded guilty in February 2018 and admitted the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture. Lomeli, who sentenced the now 37-year-old woman in June 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.Ī judge dismissed charges Thursday against four social workers who were accused of failing to protect an 8-year-old Antelope Valley boy whose mother and her boyfriend were convicted in his torture and May 2013 death. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, who was convicted along with her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, in the May 2013 killing of Gabriel Fernandez, alleges in the petition for re-sentencing that she could not now be convicted of first-degree murder or second-degree murder because of recent changes made in state law.Ī hearing on the petition for re-sentencing is set for June 1 before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. An autopsy showed that the boy had a fractured skull, several broken ribs and burns over much of his body.Ī Palmdale woman who pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of her 8-year-old son - who was routinely beaten, starved, forced to sleep in a closet and tortured until his 2013 death - has filed court papers seeking a new hearing in her case.Isauro Aguirre - the boyfriend of the child's mother - was sentenced to death in June 2018.The boy's mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading to first-degree murder and admitting the torture allegation.
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