Fernandez’s mom files petition for re-sentencing
PALMDALE — Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, who pleaded guilty in February 2018 to first-degree murder and torture of her eight-year-old son Gabriel Fernandez, filed a petition for re-sentencing.
Eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez was routinely beaten, tortured, starved, gagged, and forced to sleep in a box until his May 2013 death.
He was taken May 22, 2013, from the family’s apartment on Avenue Q-10 by authorities who had received a report of a child not breathing. Gabriel had a skull fracture, burns and other injuries, according to investigating officers, and died two days later in a Los Angeles hospital.
Fernandez and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, were convicted in the 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 changes made in state law that became effective in January 2019.
A hearing on the petition for re-sentencing is set for June 1 before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli, who sentenced the now 37-year-old woman in June 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“The policies and directives from my office and these new laws created by the legislature are emboldening murderers of children to apply to be re-sentenced,” Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami said in a statement to the Antelope Valle Press. “This is completely unfair to the surviving families and their loved ones. Families now have to relive all the horror that was perpetrated upon a small and helpless child. It is plain wrong and completely unjust.”
Fernandez pleaded guilty
in February 2018 to the first-degree murder charge. She also admitted a special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture. Her plea came two months after a downtown Los Angeles jury recommended that Aguirre, now 40, be sentenced to death for the boy’s killing. Aguirre is now on death row.
During Aguirre’s trial, Gabriel’s older brother and sister testified that Gabriel was forced to eat cat litter and cat feces, made to sleep in a cabinet instead of a bed, shot in the face and groin with a BB gun, and beaten with a metal hanger, a wooden club and a baseball bat.
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. Aguirre hated the boy because he thought he was gay, according to the prosecutor,
Judge Lomeli called the couple’s actions “horrendous, inhumane and nothing short of evil” before sentencing Fernandez and Aguirre in June 2018.
“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. It’s beyond animalistic,” Lomeli said. He also told the couple that he hopes they wake up in the middle of the night and think of the injuries they inflicted on Gabriel.
“I can only wish ... that it tortures you,” the judge said.
Hatami and the families of Gabriel Anthony Avalos and Noah Cuatro, two other Antelope Valley children who died at the hands of the people who were supposed to care for them, will host a potluck community picnic on Saturday.
The purpose is to bring awareness to Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Sgt. Steve Owen Memorial Park, 43063 10th St. West in Lancaster. Attendees are invited to bring sharable sides, as mains and drinks will be provided.