The murder of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez shocked Los Angeles. d. They had also tortured him for eight months before his brutal death. Even worse, the misuse was no secret. Gabriel often showed up to school with bruises besides extra visible injuries. His teacher told social workers. But, they did little to help. Besides, tragically, no one came to his rescue beforehand, and he was killed in May 2013! The article describes the murder in brief.
Who was Pearl Fernandez?
She was born on 29 August , 1983. On August 1983, Robert and Sandra Fernandez welcomed a daughter, Pearl Sinthia. Fernandez’s mother stated hit her when she was a child and did not love her, while her father was in and out of jail during her childhood. Howover, starting to use the drug and drink alcohol at the age of nine, Fernandez made the decision to leave his family when she was eleven years old.Why did she, besides Isauro Aguirre, start agonizing an innocent child who couldn’t defend himself? And why did she contest so hard for custody of Gabriel, only to kill him a calendar month later?
The Troubled Past Of Pearl Fernandez
Pearl had a coarse childhood. Her father often got in trouble with the law. Her mother supposedly beat her, according to Oxygen. Pearl would advance the claim that she endured abuse from other relatives. An uncle tried to rape her.
By the age of nine, Pearl was now drinking alcohol and doing unlawful drugs. She is young. About experts say this behaviour may have hurt her brain’s development. Besides school, she never got anything additional than an eighth-grade education. As she got older, she would later be diagnosed with many health conditions. These included depressive disorder, a developmental disability, and maybe post-traumatic stress disorder. This was a turbulent situation — and it would only worsen once she converted into a mother.
What happened to Pearl Fernandez?
Fernandez went into diagnosis for several mental health problems consisting of depressive disorder, personality disorder, development disability, and after trauma stress disorder. In 2011, Fernandez took an in-depth scoring in the 3rd percentile in verbal comprehension section of the test, which is with typical 2nd grade student.
Inside The Brutal Murder Of Gabriel Fernandez
Gabriel Fernandez had spent his early years on Earth in relative calm, while being a wild child at birth. He initially lived with his great-uncle Michael Lemos Carranza, then his partner David Martinez, who doted on him. Then, Gabriel’s grandparents, Robert and Sandra Fernandez, decided to take him in. They did so because they didn’t want their grandson’s life to be raised by two gay men.
However Garcia quickly termed a child misuse hotline, the social workers in the care of Gabriel’s case did petite to help him. One welfare worker, Stefanie Rodriguez, goes to the Fernandez household. She noted that the children at the home seemed “well dressed, healthy, and had no marks or bruises.” And so the abuse of Gabriel worsened.Rendering to The Atlantic, Pearl Fernandez besides Isauro Aguirre shot Gabriel through a BB gun. They tortured him by pepper spray, beat him with a baseball bat, besides forced him to eat cat feces. The couple also bound and gagged him before forcing him to sleep in a small cabinet that they termed the “cubby.” At one point, Gabriel was also forced to perform oral sex on a male qualified.
Furthermore, this torture went on for eight months until Pearl and Aguirre offered Gabriel a final, fatal beating. In2013, on 22 may , Pearl called 911 to report that her son was not breathing. When paramedics arrived, they were surprised. They found the boy with a cracked skull, broken ribs, BB pellet wounds, and many bruises. Even worse than any paramedic she has ever seen, according to one paramedic.
How did the California social care system fail Gabriel Fernandez?
From 2003-2012, over 60 grievances were filed against Pearl and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. These criticisms prompted eight investigations. Both Los Angeles County Child Protective Services and the Department of Children and Family Services did. But, both agencies found that all but one of these complaints were unsupported.In the days following this tragic demise, questions began to emerge about Gabriel’s short but painful life.
In 2003, Gabriel’s mother, Pearl , was investigated by county social workers. It was for an accusation of severe neglect. She and her son, the elder sibling of Gabriel, were involved in a car accident in which her son suffered a head injury because he was not wearing a seatbelt. A year afterward, a relative filed a complaint with Child Caring Services claiming that Fernandez was beating that same son. Social workers specified the claim was unfounded. Fernandez kept her children.Shortly after his birth in 2005, Gabriel expired to live with his maternal grandmother.
In 2007, another complaint was made against Fernandez. It claimed that she failed to feed one of her daughters and threatened to break her jaw when she cried. Fernandez was likewise convicted of using a weapon recklessly and was penalised to two weeks in a Texas jail.Despite all this, Fernandez took back the care of Gabriel in October 2012. She told social workers that she was worried about how her relatives were paying for him.
Where Is Pearl Fernandez Now?
After Gabriel Fernandez passed away,his mom and her boyfriend were charged with murder.NBC Los Angeles reported that in court, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami said he thought Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre(Her’s boyfriend) tortured the boy because they thought he was gay.
Gabriel’s older siblings, Ezequiel and Virginia, both backed this claim in court. They said the couple “often” called the 8-year-old gay and forced him to wear girls’ clothing. Pearl and Aguirre’s homophobic explanations may have come from them catching the boy playing with dolls. Or, from Gabriel’s brief time with his gay great-uncle.
Ultimately, Pearl Fernandez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime. Aguirre was also found guilty of first-degree murder. Although Aguirre was sentenced to death, California has currently suspended the death penalty, so she remains in prison for now. Four social workers including Stephanie Rodriguez — were also charged in connection to the case, but these charges were eventually dropped.
Conclusion
Pearl Fernandez has been locked up in the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California. She hates it there and has tried to fight for resentencing, even claiming in 2021 that she was not her son’s “actual killer” and did not aim to murder him.Just a couple of months later, the resentencing demand was denied. Outside the court, a group of persons who had gathered in sustenance of Gabriel cheered.
