Gabriel Fernandez
Gabriel Fernandez
Gabriel Fernandez was an 8 year old boy he hails from PalmdalePalmdale, California. He died in 2013 after suffering eight months of abuse at the hands of his mother Pearl Fernandez and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre.
Biography
As the Netflix documentary depicts, prior to moving in with his mother, Pearl Fernandez, her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, and two siblings in Palmdale, located north of Los Angeles, California, Gabriel was shuffled between the homes of his relatives. He lived with an uncle Michael Lemos Carranza and his partner David Martinez for a time, and also lived with his grandparents before going to live with his mother. Footage of his time with his uncles shows an apparently happy and healthy child. Pearl Fernandez took him in, reportedly to gain welfare benefits, despite concerns from her family that she was neglectful toward her other children.[5][6]
After joining his mother and Aguirre, Gabriel landed at a new school.
Shortly after starting there, his teacher, Jennifer Garcia, sensed that things were not okay at home.
Garcia said that a couple weeks after he started in her classroom, Gabriel asked her, “Is it normal for moms to hit their kids?” When she pressed him, Gabriel asked if it was normal to be hit with a belt buckle.
“Is it normal for you to bleed?” he asked, according to Garcia.[5]
Gabriel Fernandez reported the exchange to the Los Angeles County child abuse hotline and the case ended up with a social worker, Stefanie Rodriguez. According to the Netflix documentary, Rodriguez never adequately made the inquiries needed to determine the condition of Gabriel’s home life. A 2018 investigation into Gabriel’s case published in The Atlantic by the journalist Garrett Therolf, cites L.A. Department of Children and Family Services records to show that Rodriguez never received information that showed Pearl Fernandez had a history of abusing or neglecting her other children. And although Rodriguez and other representatives from agencies designed to protect children visited Gabriel’s home multiple times, the social workers never found signs of abuse strong enough to warrant removing him from his home. Prosecutors would later charge Rodriguez and three other social workers with child abuse and falsifying records in Gabriel’s case. In a brief statement to The Atlantic, Rodriguez said that at the time she was responsible for Gabriel, she was overseeing other children whose conditions she felt were equally or more dangerous. [5]
As the school year went on, the abuse Gabriel endured worsened.
He began coming to class with patches of hair missing, scabs on his scalp, injured lips from being punched in the face and bruises all over his face after his mother shot him with a BB gun.
According to grand jury testimony obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Gabriel’s siblings said he was forced to eat cat litter and was kept locked in a cabinet in his mother’s room. They said Fernandez and Aguirre called him “gay” and punished him for exhibiting feminine qualities, like playing with dolls. [5]
After Pearl Fernandez called 911 on May 22, 2013 to report that Gabriel was not breathing, the paramedics who responded found him with broken ribs, a cracked skull and BB pellets stuck in his body.
In the Netflix documentary, one paramedic who arrived at the scene says Gabriel’s case was the worst she ever encountered in her career. The severe abuse was immediately obvious to first responders. [5]
Gabriel was taken to the hospital and later declared brain-dead.
He died on May 24, 2013.[5]
Parents
Arnold Contreras is Gabriel Fernandez’s biological father.
He is also the father of Gabriel’s older siblings, Ezequiel and Virginia.
During the time his son was being abused by Pearl and Isauro, Arnold was behind bars for robbery and possession.
Arnold learnt from the prison chaplain that his son had been taken off life support in May 2013.
Arnold returned to prison after being convicted on two separate charges in 2018 and 2019.
Oxygen.com reported that Contreras was convicted in May 2018 on a first charge of acquiring and retaining personal identification information.
He was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
In January 2019, he was convicted on a second charge and given a one-year and four-month sentence.
He was eligible for parole in June 2019 and it is currently unknown if he has been released.[6]
Aguirre was sentenced to death in 2018 following a conviction for first-degree murder with the special circumstance of intentional murder by torture in Gabriel’s death.
Pearl Fernandez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a life sentence in prison without parole.[5] Pearl is currently serving her life sentence at Chowchilla State Women’ Prison and Isauro is on death row at the San Quentin Jail, both situated in California.[6]
Memory
Netflix's The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez with documentarian Brian Knappenberger is a thorough and heartbreaking examination of the systemic forces that allow child abuse to flourish undetected in the United States. The project includes interviews with members of Gabriel’s family, courtroom testimony, and insight from experts on psychology and family relationships.[5]