Murder In America - EP. 99 CALIFORNIA - The Torture and Murder of 8-Year-Old Gabriel Fernandez

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

In the late hours of May 23rd, 2013, paramedics in Palmdale, California, responded to a call about an 8-year-old boy who wasn't breathing. Most parents would be in hysteria if their child were put in this situation – but Gabriel’s mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre were both agitated, repeatedly telling the first responders that it happened when the brothers were playing instead. However, the injuries on the little boy’s body told a different story. This is the story of the torture and murder of 8-Year-Old Gabriel Fernandez, and you are listening to Murder in America. - Try HelloFresh today- America's #1 Meal Kit! Just go to https://www.HelloFresh.com/state21 and use code STATE21 for 21 free meals plus free shipping! - Stay Connected:  Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Life is a journey. I know this. I think we all know this. Some days feel good and other days feel absolutely overwhelming. Whatever's keeping you up at night, it's easy sometimes to feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. But the truth is, nobody has all the answers. And no journey should be taken alone.

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I've personally used BetterHelp in the past, and I think that if you're on the edge, if you're thinking maybe it's time to start therapy, I say just go ahead and do it. There's literally no downside because you don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash MIA. That's BetterHELP.com slash MIA. Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories

by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. No one, one, when you're urgent to? Yeah, I would like to, um, my son is not breathing. Your son is what?

He's not breathing. Hold on one second. I'm going to transfer. I go into that. My son is your son. Okay. And he's not breathing? No.

Does he have a misceasure? No, he was wrestling with my other son. And I came in and he just wasn't conscious. Okay. Do you have the paramedics on the way right now? Are you right there with him? Yeah, I'm right here. Okay.

I'm just being the compulsion from the chair right now. Okay. You need to be right. This is not breathing. You need to be paramedics. Okay, they're on their way. They're coming as fast as they can. In the late hours of May 22nd, 2013,

paramedics in Palmdale, California, respond to a call about an eight-year-old boy who isn't breathing. They quickly make their way over to the apartment complex. And standing outside is a frantic 12-year-old boy who directs the first responders to a set of stairs. At the top of those stairs is apartment, number eight. The paramedics make their way inside and they're led to a back bedroom, where eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez is lying on the ground unresponsive. They check for a

pulse, but it's clear he's in cardiac arrest, so they immediately get to work trying to resuscitate him. But as they perform these life-saving measures, they couldn't help but notice all of the trauma all over his little body. These were, were seasoned paramedics who had seen a lot throughout their years, but nothing to this magnitude. Gabriel's face was swollen, covered in cuts and bruises. Part of his skull was caving in. On his neck, pieces of skin were missing. Some of his teeth were missing as well. As the paramedics hover over Gabriel trying to resuscitate him, Pearl Fernandez, Gabriel's mother, and her boyfriend, Sorrow Aguirre aren't hysterical or inconsolable like most parents in this situation.

They're nervous, repeatedly telling the first responders that Gabriel got hurt while he was playing with his brother. But if that was true, then why were their cigarette burns all over his body? Why did his ankles have deep ligature marks? As they took a closer look, they found burn marks and cuts and bruises all over him, even around his genitals. Near his groin, there was a bullet from a BB gun lodged into his skin. Another bullet was in his lung. Every single inch of this little boy's body was covered in injuries. At first glance, you'd think he'd been in a terrible car accident. But if you took a closer look, these injuries didn't come from one single traumatic event. Some of the bruises and burns on his body were partially healed, meaning whatever happened to this

little boy had been happening for a while. The paramedics quickly load Gabriel into an ambulance and start driving to the Antelope Valley Hospital. Gabriel was rushed into emergency surgery, but time was one of the many things that was not on his side. As the seconds passed, the eight-year-old boy was slowly slipping away. He would survive the night but was in a coma. In the following day, he was declared dead. Gabriel's small little body gave up, after a severe and torturous beating at the hands of his mom and her boyfriend.

And I wish I could say that they were the only people to blame. here. Sadly, Gabriel was failed by everyone on every single level. He was failed by his parents, school, his social workers, the Department of Children and Family Services, the police department, and our country. In the months before his death, social workers and sheriff deputies had gone by the Fernandez apartment many times after multiple reports of suspect. abuse. Gabriel was walking around town with black eyes, cigarette burns, and bruises covering his face and body. These social workers and sheriff deputies saw his injuries, but instead of taking action, they all looked in the other direction, revealing a systematic failure in the very

agencies that were created to keep our children safe. This is the story of Gabriel Fernandez. And warning, this is a tough one. But I'm Courtney Browne. And I'm Colin Browne. And you're listening to Murder in America. Her story starts in February of 2005, in the city of Palmdale, California. Pearl Fernandez and Arnold Contreras are expecting their third child together. There was Ezekiel, who was four years old at the time, Virginia, who was two, and then Gabriel, who was going to be born in a couple of weeks. But life was already difficult, for Gabriel, even before he came into the world. For one, his mother, Pearl, didn't even want to have another baby.

She and her children's father were no longer together, and he had a history of incarceration, so she wasn't excited when she found out she was pregnant. In fact, she was going to have an abortion, but her family eventually talked her out of it. Everyone probably thought that once Gabriel actually came into the world, Pearl would take one look at him and fall in love. After all, the bond between a mother and child

is supposed to be one of the strongest connections in the world. But on February 20th, 2005, when Gabriel Daniel Fernandez was born, Pearl didn't feel that connection at all, and she wasn't even willing to give it a chance. Just three days after Gabriel was born, Pearl left him at the hospital. She wasn't interested in raising him, but her uncle, Michael Lamos Carranza, and his partner, David Martinez, had always wanted a child. So Pearl agreed to give them custody. In fact, according to David, after she left the hospital, she called them and said, quote,

come get your kid. He's getting on my nerves already. And from here, Michael and David were Gabriel's guardians. The first few years of Gabriel's life were, without a doubt, the happiest. He was healthy, clean, loved, cared for. Pictures from this time show him with his uncles, always smiling, and having a good time. They described Gabriel as a very good kid who was always playful and loving. In the first few years of his life, he was always trying to help the people around him.

If anyone was ever upset, he would do his best to make them feel better. They also said that even though Pearl had no interest in her son, Gabriel was always asking about her and how she was doing. Now after living with his uncles, for about four years, Pearl's father calls them and says that he's going to take Gabriel because, quote, a baby shouldn't be raised by two gay men. Michael and David were devastated. And they didn't think it was fair because for the last four years, no one ever cared about Gabriel. They had given him

everything. He was their child. And now that he's older, they wanted to take him away. Shortly after this, in 2009, Gabriel would be taken from his uncles and he went to live with his maternal grandparents, Robert and Sandra Fernandez. Here is Robert years later. Regarding him, Gabriel, was he raised by him and Samuel? Yes, Brad to me. Was he left to him? Yes. After moving in with his grandparents, Gabriel, was still very happy and cared for, and it seemed to be a really good environment, especially because his older siblings were living there too. Was Ezekiel and Virginia also living with you in Santer for some time?

Yes, I happen on most of their lives, yeah. And then they would go live with your daughter, Perl, and his one? Yes. Pearl never had custody of Gabriel, but she did care for her other children, Ezekiel and Virginia, on occasion. Then, when she was going through hard times, she would send them to live with their grandparents. Now, in 2011, Pearl was dating a man named DeSuara Aguirre, who also went by the name Tony. And at first, Pearl's family was really excited about their relationship. She had a history of dating guys who had been in gangs, or were always going to jail. But his sorrow was

different. He didn't do drugs. He had a clean record, and he was really good to her. And things seemed to be going really well for them. In 2011, they even got custody of Ezekiel and Virginia. but for whatever reason, they left Gabriel with her parents. Then the following year, in October of 2012, the two came over to Robert and Sandra's home and told them they were going to take Gabriel to a barbecue. But once they left with him, they never gave him back. Gabriel was now living with his mother and her boyfriend

for the first time in his life. Her family would later say that at first, they were worried about Gabriel living with them because Pearl was known to have a temper, and she wasn't exactly the best parent. But they all hoped that maybe a sorrow or a Tony would be a good male figure in Gabriel's life. Here's Pearl's sister talking about these concerns.

With your sister and Tony, you were concerned at that moment for Gabriel's safety, right? Yes. And you were concerned for his safety at that moment because you knew that your sister, Pearl, had that temper. Yes. Tony is the name that everybody in your family used

to refer to Mr. Adiri, right? Yes. He was nice to you, wasn't he? Yes. He sometimes bought things for you. Yes. I'd have to assume that when Gabriel first moved in with his mother and her boyfriend, he was probably excited.

After all, most of the time, the best case scenario is to keep a family together. But in reality, Pearl and DeSarro didn't want Gabriel there. Most people that follow this case believe that the only reason they took him in was to get money from the state. And in fact, right as Gabriel moved in, they said, started receiving around $600 to $700 a month in welfare checks. So they did benefit from having custody of their kids. Now, this wasn't the easiest transition. Not only did Gabriel have to move homes, but he also had to move schools, and his life was very different than it was before. A very important part of child development is having stability and consistency, constantly moving around

switching guardians every few years is not ideal. And yes, he was now living with his mom and siblings, but this was far from an ideal environment. Pearl and Asaro were mean to Gabriel, always excessively disciplining him over the smallest things, but everything was about to take a turn for the worse. Not long after Gabriel moved in with his mother, someone called Pearl to tell her that Gabriel had possibly been,

molested by his uncle David. Now these claims have never been substantiated and David would later say that this was completely false. He said he would have never done anything to hurt Gabriel, but we obviously don't know. But when Pearl heard this, she didn't react the way you would think a mother would react. She wasn't concerned for her son. She didn't think to get him counseling or to see if he was okay. Instead, she was disgusted with him. And it's around this time when they start accusing Gabriel of being gay. Which is just so sad because it's obviously never a child's fault if they get molested by an adult. And it definitely doesn't mean they're gay.

Even further, Gabriel had never mentioned anything about his sexual orientation. I mean, he's a seven-year-old. but his parents were fully convinced he was homosexual. And from here forward, Gabriel lived the worst life you could possibly imagine. Following these rumors, Pearl and Asarro would force Gabriel to wear dresses. At one point, they even made him wear it to school just to humiliate him. And when they would beat him, they'd call him homophobic slurs. and Gabriel's beatings weren't just spankings.

They would full-on beat him up. Isarro worked as a security guard in the city, and like most security guards, he was a big guy, around 6-2 and 270 pounds. I'm a grown man, and I definitely wouldn't want to go up against this guy, so I can't imagine what it must have been like for Gabriel. He was only seven years old, four feet tall, and about 59 pounds, but Asarro beat him like he was a grown man. At first, it started off as brutal spankings.

But as the weeks went on, it began to escalate. And it wasn't always just Asarro administered the beatings. It was Pearl too. According to Pearl's family, she always had a pretty bad temper, and she was notorious for being extremely controlling, especially with her boyfriends. If a man didn't do exactly as she said, she would break up with them. Her family also said that she would beat the shit out of her boyfriends in front of everyone.

On many occasions, she was seen scratching His sorrow's face and hitting him as hard as she could. And as a little background on Gabriel's mother, Pearl, she had severe intellectual disability. She dropped out of school after the eighth grade, and throughout her adolescent years, she experimented with a lot of drugs. In fact, according to her records, at just nine years old,

she was drinking liquor and taking prescription pills. Then a few years later, when she was 12, she tried crack cocaine for the first time. And because of this drug abuse at such a young age, it's likely that it affected her development. Throughout her life, she was diagnosed with developmental disabilities, depressive disorders, eating disorders,

possible PTSD, and personality. disorders, which makes sense because she clearly didn't have an easy upbringing. Her father was in and out of jail throughout her life, and when he was home, there was a lot of domestic violence. Pearl also didn't have a great relationship with her mother. She even claimed that her mom hated her, and because of that, she actually ran away from home at just 11 years old. At one point growing up, one of Pearl's family members tried to rape her, and years later, Pearl was gang raped by a group of men. So, as you can see, she didn't have a very pleasant upbringing, which is absolutely no excuse for what she would go on to do, but it really does show that people who grow up with abuse

oftentimes grow up to be abusers themselves. When Gabriel would get in trouble at home, a sorrow was known to hit him in the face with a closed fist. His mother, Pearl, would kick him in the groin as hard as she could. When Gabriel first came to live with them, he was a happy and healthy little boy. But as the weeks passed, more and more bruises could be seen all over his little body. A few months into living with his mother and her boyfriend, Gabriel's teacher started to notice that there were problems at home. I think of 2012 to May 2015 wait. Summerwind Elementary School. Are you still working? Yes.

Are you still teaching the first day? Yes. One day, Jennifer Garcia was sitting at her desk when Gabriel came up to ask her a question. Is it normal for your mom to hit you with a belt? he asks. Jennifer was a little caught off guard, but she gave him an honest answer. Yeah, some parents do that to discipline their children. Gabriel pauses for a moment and then he asks, Is it normal to bleed?

Because my mom hits me with the men. metal part of the belt. I'm not sure how Jennifer answered his question, but she knew right then that she needed to report what she just heard. So she called the child abuse hotline that very day. Are you to make a report or not? Okay. Are you mandated reporter? Yeah. Okay. You want to write a mind first to see if it's reportable? Yeah. I'm a teacher and so the student comes up to me and he mentioned his mom hit him with a belt. And he said, so it's not normal to hit with a belt. And I'm like, well, I don't really know, you know, what else?

You know, what else happened? And he's like, well, sometimes my mom makes me bleed. And I said, well, where do you believe? And he says, well, on my bottom, because she hits me with a belt. And he's like, you know, that part with the metal on it? He's like, that part. Okay. Yeah, let me stop you there.

Yeah. Yeah, that'll be reportable. Jennifer also reported that during Red Ribbon Week, where they teach children to stay away from drugs, Gabriel announced to his class that he knew what cocaine was. Then he proceeded to show the students how to sniff a line. Now clearly this is very alarming, so a social worker from DCFS was notified. Did somebody call you that day and the next day? you know, saying they're assigned to the case or, what do you remember? Yes, I got a phone call from somebody who identified herself as Stephanie Rodriguez,

and she said she was assigned to the case. The social worker, Stephanie Rodriguez, was new to the emergency response department, which is a very important job because they're the ones that respond to these horrific child abuse cases, hearing that a child was bleeding from being hit with the metal part of the belt should have warranted immediate action. If she would have done what she was supposed to do, would have taken Gabriel to see a doctor or a psychologist or anyone that could have given a third party evaluation on what Gabriel was going through. But that didn't happen. Stephanie did talk to Pearl and she saw Gabriel's injury, but Pearl told her that Gabriel was a liar. He didn't get that

injury from a belt. He got it from roughhousing with his brother. And Stephanie believed her. And that's the scariest thing about these kinds of situations. Is that now Pearl and his sorrow know that Gabriel is telling people about the abuse. So as a consequence, they beat him even harder. And a strange part of this that's seen in a lot of child abuse cases is that Pearl and Asaro never abused their other two children, Ezekiel and Virginia. There was one single instance when Pearl hit her daughter, but that was it. They had a great life compared to Gabriel. And this is common. A lot of the time, parents will be overly loving to one child and very abusive towards the other. In this case, they took all their anger out on Gabriel. His siblings would later reveal that Pearl and

Asarro were constantly punishing Gabriel. Even when he didn't do anything wrong, it was obvious that they just didn't like him. Ezekiel, his older brother, would later say that the first time he ever saw Sorrow really hurt Gabriel was one day when he got really mad. Ezekiel didn't even know why Gabriel was in trouble. But suddenly, Asarro started choking him up against the wall, while Gabriel's feet were dangling at least four feet off the ground. really bad at home i seen him pick him up and choke him okay so is gabriel standing up yeah and tony

picks him up how you stand up show me that's fine you pick up like he would have my hand and have him over because he was tall okay so he put him against the wall yeah and when he hold his hand against his neck yeah one hand or two one hand yeah and when he pick up off his feet Yeah. How high off his feet? His feet would be up here. His feet would be up there? Yeah.

There was a lot of physical abuse going on here, but another way Perlin Osoro would punish him was by withholding food. When it was time to eat dinner, they would make a plate for everyone except Gabriel. All he was allowed to eat was the expired food in the fridge. There were some nights when Gabriel was so. so hungry, he was forced to eat rotten spinach. And if you've ever seen or smelled rotten spinach, it's disgusting. But Gabriel was hungry and they weren't giving him anything else. So he was forced to eat it.

Sometimes the food was so expired, he would vomit afterwards. Rotten food usually doesn't settle well in someone's stomach. But any time he would throw it up, a sorrow would force him to eat his own vomit. and according to his siblings, Gabriel did what he was told because eating his vomit was better than getting punched in the face by a grown man. The family also had cats

and one of Gabriel's chores every week was to clean their litter boxes. According to Gabriel's sister, one day, being the curious seven-year-old he was, he decided to pee in the litter box just like the cats did. And when Asaro saw this, he forced Gabriel to eat the litter and cat feces inside of the box. Gabriel used to clean the kitty litter.

And Gabriel used to say he was done. So my dad would check and the whole kitty litter was peeling. When you would say if you could have right or make you eat it. And what did Gabriel do? When Gabriel didn't pick it up right, he said, get in this corner and eat it. Really? Did he eat it? He had to.

Now this was the first time Gabriel had to eat cat litter, but throughout the next few months, that was a way they would punish him. In fact, after his death, when his autopsy was performed, the medical examiner only found cat litter in his stomach. which meant sometimes. That was the only thing Gabriel was eating. Another horrific part of this case had to do with the wooden cubby or the box. The apartment that they lived in had two bedrooms, one for Pearl and Asarro and one for the children. But Gabriel wasn't allowed to sleep there.

Every night when it was time for bed, they would force him into this tiny little wooden cupboard inside of their room. It didn't have blankets or pillows, and there was barely enough room for Gabriel to even lay down. And to make it even more uncomfortable for him, they would handcuff his wrist and ankles to the cupboard so he couldn't get out. Ezekiel and Virginia said that Gabriel spent a lot of time in that cupboard. When he wasn't getting beaten by his parents, they would make him go in there for hours on end. They didn't give him food or water or even let him use the bathroom. Sometimes when his parents weren't looking, he would look through the crack of the cupboard

and beg his siblings to slip him some food. At one point, Ezekiel felt bad for him, so he tried to give him a banana. But when Pearl found out about it, she pulled Gabriel out of the cupboard and beat him. After this, they didn't want Gabriel speaking to a banana. his siblings while in the box. So from here forward, they started putting a sock in his mouth to gag him. They even tied a bandana around his face so he couldn't see anything. And the saddest part about all of this is that Gabriel wasn't just put in here at night. On the weekends, when he wasn't in school, Pearl and Osario would sometimes make him stay in there all day long. He couldn't even come

out to use the restroom. So he just had to go in his clothes inside of the cubby. When they would see that he used the restroom in there, they would beat him and make him clean it up. And unfortunately, this cubby was sometimes the best case scenario for Gabriel. It was better being in there, safe, than to be out in the open for his parents to beat him. After the severe abuse and neglect Gabriel went through for months, he was no longer the happy little boy that he was when he first moved there. Understandably so. He was in a constant state of fear and pain at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend. Around this time, Pearl took the children to visit her sister, Melissa. She said that when Gabriel walked through the door, he looked horrible.

He had a black guy, his bottom lip was swollen and busted open, and he had a very strange haircut. There were chunks of hair missing all over his head and cuts all over his scalp. Melissa said that it looked so bad she even took a photo of him. he had a man. Yes. Melissa asked Gabriel what happened, and he initially told her that he and his brother were roughhousing.

A lie. Pearl and Osaro told him to tell people if anyone asked. But when Melissa asked him again, Gabriel finally told her the truth. In the black guy, did you ask, Gabriel, how did that the black guy?

Yes, we all did. Said he was playing fighting with his brother. And regarding that black guy, did Gabriel ever tell you any of anything else to do that? I got a black line. Yes. Did you tell you what happened?

Yes. And what did he say? He said, he said, he's not. He said. Gabriel's teacher and classmates noticed his injuries as well. Yes, especially if you could have to see that photograph. Yes. There's at least some of that in Africa that can make you show me this order to appear to consistently punch on.

Gabriel's hair around it. Yeah. She, does her any London head? were doing this missing hair or do you remember anything like that? Yes, there was a lot of cuts under the parts that were shaved, really, really short, and then there was a pretty big cut in his ear. And the district shows a little bit of a fat lip or something. Yes.

Do you have something like that around that time period? Yes. Yes. Did you ask, Abraham and Gabriel tell you how can you a lip? Yes. He said his mom, bunched in the mouth. Seeing and hearing this, Jennifer, called her principal over to her classroom. She even brought Gabriel out into the hallway so he could

really take a look at his injuries. She wanted to take pictures of it to make sure it was all documented, but as soon as the principal got there, he immediately told Gabriel to go back to his desk, and then told Jennifer, we don't do that. We don't investigate or take pictures of this kind of stuff. If you see something reported, but we aren't supposed to do any kind of investigating. Jennifer was shocked. Gabriel had injuries on his face, and the principal didn't even seem to care. So after this, she decides to call Stephanie Rodriguez, Gabriel's social worker. She told her all about the black eye, busted lip, and strange haircut. But the entire time, Jennifer said that it didn't even seem like Stephanie even cared.

She just repeated everything she said, and then said, okay, well, thanks for calling. Now is the end of the conversation. Now, sometime after this, a social worker would go to Pearl's sister's house to ask her about Gabriel's injuries. And Ms. Fernandez, when the question was, did Gabriel ever tell you how he got that's correct? Black eye, answer is yes. He said my, my sister's boyfriend, the sorrow had held him down, and they were sopping him.

When he said that they were socking him, who was sacking him? That was the question, my sister. And so there was multiple occasions where he saw him with a black eye at the time I was living with, if that interesting. Yes. And now we're going to take our first ad break. Mia Coupa with Michael Cohen delivers political news raw and unfiltered from the man who dared to defy Donald

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Back to today's story. All of Gabriel's extended family were concerned about his safety, and they would later talk to social workers and police officers multiple times about. the abuse. But nothing was ever done, and the abuse only got worse from here. At one point, while Gabriel was home, Pearl got mad and grabbed a wooden bat. She began beating Gabriel with the bat, and while he was on the ground crying, she delivered one final blow right down on his face. Gabriel was screaming, his mouth full of blood. Pearl had knocked out his two-fellers. Pearl had knocked out his two front teeth, and they obviously never took him to the doctor or dentist because they didn't want people asking questions about how he lost his teeth. Gabriel's abuse was quickly

escalating, and despite it being out in the open for everyone to see, nothing was done. His teacher Jennifer Garcia said that it was around this time, that when it was time to go home from school every day, Gabriel would start weeping, telling her that he didn't want to go. School was the only time Gabriel was safe. He didn't have to worry about getting beat, eating cat feces, or staying inside of the box for hours on end. Sometimes he even asked Jennifer if she could, quote, call that lady again. Jennifer said she was confused because she obviously never told Gabriel that she reported the abuse. But the fact that he knew about this

meant that Stephanie was actually going by the home. Maybe Gabriel thought that if the social worker was called, she would take him away from his abusive parents. I mean, that's their job, right? But sadly, Stephanie always left the home leaving Gabriel in the hands of his abusers. And the big question is,

if Stephanie was seeing all of Gabriel's injuries, then why didn't she remove him? Well, according to the records, Pearl always had an excuse for Gabriel's injuries. She would tell her, I didn't punch Gabriel in the face. He's a liar. He fell off his bike, or older kids in the neighborhood beat him up. And for whatever reason, Stephanie always believed her. But after multiple reports of abuse, social workers had to come by the home pretty often to make sure everything was okay. At one point, a woman named Carmen Lenorgat from the Antelope Valley Children's Center came by their apartment for their mandatory family service visit.

Apparently, the visit actually went well. But right when she was about to leave, Pearl stops her and says, I have to show you something. She then leaves the room and comes back with a letter that Gabriel wrote a few weeks prior that reads, I love you so much that I will kill myself. It's unclear why Pearl decided to show her this letter. Maybe she wanted to seem like a concerned parent. Or maybe she just wanted them to take Gabriel away so they wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. But after seeing this, Carmen sits Gabriel down and says,

I read your note you wrote a few weeks ago about wanting to kill yourself. Do you still want to do that right now? Gabriel tells her that yes, he still wants to kill himself. We aren't sure if she asked him why, but shortly after this, Carmen calls to report Gabriel's suicide note. The cell protection hotline, Dave Hamilton, how may help you? Hi, I'm a name is Carmen, and I am a... an in-home counselor. Okay.

And a six-year-child, like, a big child, mom showed me some notes they agreed if you wanted to kill himself. And when I did ask him

and you just know if you've got to do that today or now I think he said yes. Now you would think they'd want to speak with Gabriel about the suicide note,

but no. Instead, they decided to talk to Pearl about it. Okay, if I gave you the phone to the mom? Mm-hmm. Okay, hold on.

Hello? Okay, so you said that you saw the note that your son wrote, when was this? It was that day he saw yesterday. How did you get hold in a note? My oldest ex-de-jave-doned. The first day wasn't ready. So had anything been escalating through this week or so,

then you notice any type of odd behavior with him? No. But this isn't her first time dealing with DCFS. Pearl knows exactly what to say to stay out of trouble. So she tells them that the reason Gabe, Gabriel is saying all of this is only because he misses his grandparents and he wants to go live with them. You had a conversation with him about to know? Yeah.

She had a conversation and he had to bring that one of the therapist with him. He had said because recently he's been wanting to go to my mom. Do you want to go to your mom? Uh-huh. Then she tells them that she really thinks Gabriel is just doing all of this for attention. So how is he doing right now as her speaking? Good. And it doesn't sound like there's no imminent risk

if you're doing something to himself, is that correct? No, I think that if you want to do something, he would have it a long time ago. Right. Yeah, and it's been a week and a half. It's been a week. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

All he said, all he's in time, they want to put his grandma. Mm-hmm. And he's sorry because he couldn't do it. And this is partly true. Gabriel did want to go back to his grandparents' house. In fact, shortly before his death, his grandpa recalled Gabriel asking if he could come back to live with them. I remember that one time that I don't know what I think I was at the store.

And he started telling me that he wanted to come home. He said what? He said he wanted to come home. I told me that they were being on, the AFS was investigating the case. and I couldn't bring them home, but they're going to, one of these days, free. Let them come home.

And I'd run. I brought a step. Too late. Following this suicide note incident, an LAPD deputy named Frederico Gonzalez actually came by the home to check on Gabriel. It was about 2 a.m., so Asarro answered the door, and he told the deputy that Gabriel was just a spoiled kid

who said he wanted to kill himself because he didn't get his way. This deputy never even saw. Gabriel once. And instead of doing anything about it, he offered to come back the following morning when Gabriel was awake to scare him so that he wouldn't make these claims anymore. And according to neighbors at the apartment complex, the officer did in fact come by the apartment the next day, and he actually put Gabriel in the back of the police car trying to scare him, saying that if he kept lying and making false claims, he was going to be taken to jail. Life was getting significantly worse for little Gabriel, and the abuse was only escalating,

despite social workers and sheriff deputies constantly coming by the home. At one point, his older brother Ezekiel said that Pearl and Asaro threw Gabriel into the bathtub and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. Gabriel tried to run out of the bathroom, but they had locked the door and were blocking him from getting out. Afterwards, they sent him into the box for the remainder of the night. And I just can't even fathom the torture that he had to face every single day. I mean, I've seen grown military men cry after getting sprayed with pepper spray. And this is a seven-year-old.

And unfortunately, the pepper spray wasn't even the worst of it. His parents were still calling him gay. They were still making a meat cat litter. And they even started putting their cigarettes out on his body. mostly by his mom. At times, there were as many as 20 burns on the back of his head, neck, and behind his ears. Pearl and Asarro would sometimes send Gabriel to school with beanies on to cover them up. Gabriel's teacher and classmates said that they really started to see a change in Gabriel around this time.

At the beginning of the year, he was really happy and friendly, and he loved to play with other kids. But then he started missing a lot of class as the year went on. and after a while he became very irritable and withdrawn. He even started lashing out at the other students and getting mad over the simplest of things. Instead of going to recess every day and playing with the other kids, he was by himself kicking the walls or he would just stay in the classroom with his teacher. He even started telling some of his classmates that his mom's boyfriend was beating him. It's clear that Gabriel's home life was causing stress in all aspects of his life.

I'm sure he looked at the other kids and wondered why his life couldn't be like theirs. None of the other children in his class had to sit in freezing cold baths to reduce bruising. None of the other kids' mothers were putting makeup on their bruises before school so social workers couldn't get called. And on top of the physical abuse, Gabriel never felt loved. His parents never told him that they were proud of him. They never just hugged him and made him feel safe. And it just makes me so emotional because every child deserves that. And this next part just makes me sob, but apparently one day in his class, they had an award ceremony and out in the crowd all of the kids' parents were there to celebrate them in their accomplishments.

But Gabriel didn't have anyone in the crowd. Pictures from this day show him holding his award. He has a beanie on, likely to cover up his injuries. and he has what looks like a black eye. He even told his friend that he was sad because he wished his parents were there. And I don't know why that makes me just so sad because despite everything they had put him through, he still wanted them there to support him. He loved them, but he never felt that love in return.

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Hello Fresh, America's number one meal kit. And now, back to today's story. At this point in our story, we're about halfway through the 2012-13 school year. On February 20th, 2013, Gabriel turned 8 years old. But this wasn't a year to celebrate. The abuse Gabriel was facing at the hands of his mom and her boyfriend was worse than ever. And Gabriel was terrified to tell anybody about what was actually going on at home. Pearl always made sure to tell him that if anyone asks you about these bruises, tell them you fell off your bike.

If you tell them the truth, we're going to beat you harder than we ever have. But his injuries were bad. And everyone knew that he was getting them from Pearl and his sorrow. Pearl's own family members were so worried about Gabriel that they called DCFS three different times to talk with them about Gabriel's abuse. but for some reason nothing ever happened. Pearl and Asario continued to put their cigarettes out on Gabriel's skin. Asaro started choking Gabriel more frequently, sometimes to the point where he would pass out.

They beat him with bats and broomsticks, made him walk around the house and dresses. Ezekiel even said that sometimes they would force him to hit Gabriel. He didn't want to, but they made him. So beforehand, he would whisper to Gabriel to fall on the ground to make it look real. Ezekiel also said that the entire time they would beat Gabriel, he would be screaming in pain, and Pearl and Asarro would be laughing, taunting him. Inside of their apartment, they also had BB guns.

if the two got tired from punching Gabriel in the face, they would just pull out the BB gun and began shooting him with it. And BB guns are painful. They can penetrate the skin and even kill people. There are countless stories of children fracturing bones or even losing an eye from being shot with one. Pearl was usually the one who would shoot him with it, and she did it so much.

there was actually babies lodged into Gabriel's skin. One was even found in his lung. And when she would shoot him with it, she wasn't being careful with her aim. A couple months before his death, Gabriel walked into class a little late. All of the other kids were already at their desk. And when he walked through the door,

the entire class led out a gasp, including Gabriel's teacher, Jennifer Garcia. According to her, Gabriel looked horrible. His face was covered in bruises, and his eyes were nearly swollen shut. Jennifer waited until recess to pull him aside.

What happened to your face? Gabriel looked nervous, and he quickly told his teacher that he fell when he was playing. But Jennifer knew that he couldn't have gotten those injuries from falling. So she asks him, what really happened? Gabriel becomes visibly frustrated, and he tells his teacher, okay, my mom shot me in the face with a BB gun. And I said, why did you lie? Why didn't you tell me that? And he said, because when I tell you and then that lady comes, then I get her worse. That lady goes, sir? Yes. I assume it at that point.

So every time it was tired and social work, yes. And I think you feel. I don't want to call. I don't know what to do. And I like to look at his face and, you know,

not be able to assure him that that wasn't going to happen again when I couldn't say that. I was kind of stuck in a heart spot, not knowing what the best thing to do was to protect him. Jennifer was torn. The last thing she wanted was for Gabriel to get more hurt, but she knew she had to report it. So again, she calls Stephanie Rodriguez and tells her what happened. Not long afterwards, Stephanie goes by their apartment to talk about the BB gun incident.

When she knocks on the door, Pearl answers. And she tells Stephanie that the entire BB gun incident was just an accident. We aren't sure if she said Gabriel did it himself or one of the other kids did it, but it definitely wasn't intentional. And again, nothing happens. Stephanie takes Pearl's word for it and leaves, which is just wrong on so many levels, because even if Gabriel did shoot himself in the face, it had nothing to do with his mother's

abuse. Stephanie still should have made sure Gabriel went to the doctor to get treated. I mean, she saw his swollen and bruised face, and those are considered to be severe injuries. So why didn't she make sure he saw a doctor? Guess we'll never know. And she wasn't even properly documenting everything. According to DCFS rules, you're supposed to mark injuries down on a body chart every single time you see them.

But throughout all the times she came by the home, she only marked down one of his injuries, and that was the injury on his buttocks from when he was hit with the metal part of the belt. So Stephanie just wasn't doing any part of her job correctly. And as soon as she left their apartment, Gabriel got the beating of a lifetime. They told Gabriel not to tell anyone about what happened, which is why he lied to his teacher when she asked him about it in the first place. And because Gabriel told the truth, he suffered the worst consequences imaginable. Over the next few days, Gabriel endured his worst beating yet. Morrow punched him in the face over and over again to the point where the whites of his eyes were now red.

Pearl grabbed a thick computer cord and repeatedly whipped his body. They kicked him with steel-toed boots. They beat him with a bat. They burned him with cigarettes all over the back of his head. On his forehead, pieces of a skin were missing, almost like it had been. been peeled off. Gabriel's beating was so bad, he actually had to miss two entire weeks of school. Perlinasaro knew that they had to let his injuries heal before they could send him back. His teacher Jennifer said that after missing two weeks of class, Gabriel walked inside of her

classroom, and all of her students went, ooh. Gabriel was unrecognizable. Some of the kids were even scared of him. Gabriel still had two severe black eyes, burn marks covering his body, cuts all over his head and hands. There were deep purple marks on his neck, and parts of his skin were still missing on his forehead. And keep in mind, this is after two weeks of healing. Imagine what he looked like when it first happened. Again, Jennifer pulled Gabriel aside and asked him about his injuries, but this time he wasn't going to tell the truth. He learned his lesson from last time. So he tells Jennifer that he fell off his bike. After school that day, Jennifer places yet another call to his social worker, Stephanie Rodriguez, and leaves her a message about his injuries.

She tells her that Gabriel looks worse than ever and something has to be done. But this time, Jennifer doesn't even get a call back. Now, shortly after this, parole would take her children to the L.A. Gain office, which is where she would pick up her welfare checks. A security guard named Arturo Martinez was standing near the entrance when he saw the family walk inside. Good morning. He told the jury what we got to be. I'm an armed guard for the San Jose County County County County County and the sheriff's apartments.

Where were we working, if you remember after the 26th. At the San Luis UPSS. In office, in Palno. As Perl and her kids come inside, Arturo watches. as they walk up to the receptionist desk, and he couldn't help but notice that the youngest kid, Gabriel, had horrible injuries to the back of his head. Even from far away, he could tell that some of the injuries were cigarette burns.

It's easy to tell because they're tiny little holes shaped like cigarettes. Arturo said that he counted as many as 20 little burns all over the back of his head. He also noticed that some were partially healed and others were fresh. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Then after a few minutes, Pearl and the children turned around to leave the building. And Arturo saw Gabriel's face, which was covered in green, purple, and black bruises, mostly around his eyes. He said that as they walked out, Gabriel kind of brushed up against him. and glanced at the security guard out of the corner of his eye.

He even lifted his arm up in front of his chest, almost like he was showing him the injuries on his hands. As soon as the family left, Arturo ran up to the receptionist, Marcella Corona, and says, Did you see that little boy's injuries? I saw a strange haircut. He had cigarette burns all over the back of his head and two black eyes. We got to report this.

Marcella had actually been promoted to work, in domestic violence situations, so Arturo told her to go do her job and tell her supervisor about it. So Marcella walks to the back and a few minutes later, she returns and says, yeah, my boss doesn't even want us to report it because we'd have to work overtime. It was a little past 4.30 p.m. at that point, and the office was about to close. So making a report would mean that they would have to stay past closing. And it was a Friday, so their bosses just didn't want to deal with it. Arturo was shocked. A little boy just came into their office with severe injuries,

and all they were worried about was having to pay their employees overtime. So Marcella tells Arturo, well, why don't I give you the mom's name and address so you can report it? Which is crazy, because if she works in the domestic violence department, then why would she make the security guard report it? According to Arturo, she said she would do it, but she just didn't want to lose her job. Sitting here today, do you know who's name?

Um, Gabriel for minutes. regarding getting the information where that little boy lived. Did somebody give that to you or how did you get them? I got it from Maricella Corona, the worker that was at the window. She wanted to report it, but she was told now to buy her seniorizer. And that made you feel sad that nobody else in that office but you was going to record these injuries on that. These injuries are not going to avoid them.

Yes, they actually pissed me, I can ask. Afterwards, Arturo spoke to his supervisor named Suzanne Harms, and she told him, why are you trying to get involved in this? This is not a part of your duties. I wouldn't get involved if I were you and don't make me write you up. Arturo couldn't believe it. No one seemed to care about this little boy's safety at all.

You believe in that day that gave him to D.C.? Yes. Arturo knew that he couldn't just sit back and not do anything, so against his supervisor's wishes, he decided to call 911. Hello, hi. I worked for the county here at the Gain office, and there was a woman who came in earlier

to pick up just a paper, and she had four little boys with her. And I noticed that one of the little boys, he had, all of his head was, bruised up and he had lumped and he also had black eyes and believe it or not

the dispatcher wasn't even taking the situation seriously in fact they even told him you know this line is for emergencies only in Arturo's eyes this was an emergency

but no one was listening to him the dispatcher ended up taking down all of the information and they told Arturo that they would send a deputy over to the home. He said that he felt relieved after reporting it. Surely, the officer would see Gabriel's injuries and they'd realize just how serious the situation actually was. Now, an officer would end up going by the home, but no one came to the door. I'm in L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy. My assignment was I worked for at Palmdale Station. I was a school

resource officer. Later that day, he went by the apartment again, but still no answer. I left and went to some other schools. And did you return to that? Yes, yes, I did. At the same day? Yes. And what happened when you returned to the adjo? I knocked at the door again and there was no answer. What did you do that? That was the end of my day, so I went home. The third time the officer came by the apartment, Pearl knew she had to do that. to talk with him. She couldn't keep avoiding it because he just keep coming back. She also knew that she couldn't let the officer see Gabriel. He was still covered in burns and bruises. So she quickly shoves a sock in Gabriel's mouth and forces him into the wooden cubby.

This wasn't the first time she had done this. Sometimes when social workers would come by, she would hide Gabriel in there so they wouldn't see his injuries. And when they'd ask where he was, she would tell them that he was staying with a relative. On this day, when the officer asked about Gabriel, she told him that he moved to Texas. You know, I don't remember the entire conversation. It's about four and a half years ago,

but I do remember her stating that she moved the child to Texas. So you believe that... I did. Yes, I did. that Gabriel had been in the mother yes. After this, the officer left, closing the investigation. This was just one week before Gabriel's murder. At this point in our story, it's May of 2013. Mother's Day was just around the corner.

Like many elementary schools, the children will make Mother's Day cards and little crafts to show their mom just how much they love them. Gabriel was happy to participate, despite the horrible abuse his mother had put him through. After everything, he still loved her. For days, Gabriel worked on these little crafts for his mother. One was a card with a house on the front that read,

Open the door to see who loves you. And when you open the little flap, there's a picture of Gabriel. On the inside of the card, Gabriel wrote, My mom is special. She's a loving mom, and I love her because she's beautiful. I'm tearing up reading this, actually. It also reads, I love it when she helps me. My mom is as pretty as a flower and heart.

I love my mom because she gives me love. She is beautiful than a flower. She is a butterfly. He also wrote her little coupons. One of them was a coupon for him to do the dishes. Another one read, quote, Time for me and you. And that one just broke me because Gabriel truly just wanted quality time with his mom.

No beatings, no abusive boyfriend, just quality mother and son time. On the last coupon, Gabriel wrote, quote, I will be good. Another thing his class did for Mother's Day were three pictures that they took with letters that read, Mom. Gabriel had a smile on his face and all of the pictures, but the smile is hard to see

when all you can really see are the swollen black eyes of an eight-year-old child. And now his head is bald and covered in cuts and bruises. His chin has a deep cut. The whites of his eyes are dark red. There's purple marks on his neck. Even on his little hands that are holding up the poster, you can see that there's injuries all over them.

Every single visible part of his body is covered in trauma. And who knows what under his clothes look like. But despite everything, he smiles for the pictures. and he happily makes the crafts for his mom because at the end of the day, he still wanted her to know that he loved her and that he wanted to be good for her. But none of that mattered to Pearl Fernandez. Gabriel's love for his mother is actually what initiated the beating that would end his life.

Which brings us to May 22nd, 2013. It was a Thursday night. According to Virginia, Gabriel had gotten in trouble that day for playing with her toys. They didn't like when Gabriel played at all. And she witnessed her mother punched Gabriel in the face several times. At some point in the night, it appears that there may have been an argument between Pearl and Asarro, because according to her, Gabriel said something along the lines of, Why do you let him treat you like that?

If this was true, Gabriel was only looking out for his mom. But Pearl didn't care. And she quickly dragged Gabriel into their bedroom to tell Osaro about what he just said. Is that true, Gabriel? You don't think I treat your mom well? He asks. Gabriel denied saying anything. He was scared and he could see Asarro growing more and more angry.

According to his sorrow, the fact that Gabriel was trying to get in between him and Pearl made him fly into a rage. And from here, they shut the door to the bedroom and began beating Gabriel. Ezekiel and Virginia said that all they could hear were the sounds of loud bangs. On the other side of that door, Asarro was grabbing Gabriel by the neck with one hand and throwing him up against the wall. Then with his other hand, he punched him in the face as hard as he could. Gabriel fell to the ground, bleeding. And Asarro stood over his body and punched him again,

all while calling him gay. Gabriel is helpless and severely injured. But that doesn't stop the beating. From here, both Pearl and Asaro began kicking him as hard as they could. And in between kicks, Asaro continues to punch him. The 6-2-2-270-pound man stands over him and punches him ten times in the face. Then 20 more times all over his body, Gabriel eventually passes out. At the end of the beating, a part of his skull was caved in.

His ribs were broken, and his face was swollen beyond recognition. There were injuries all over his hands, arms, legs, neck. The beating likely stopped when they were tired. Hitting something as hard as you can over 30 times is a lot of work. When they were finished, there was blood everywhere. and Gabriel wasn't breathing. From here they quickly throw him in the shower, hoping the cold water will wake him up.

But it doesn't. Ezekiel and Virginia could hear them yelling at Gabriel to wake up, but after a few minutes, they realized they have to call the police. But before doing so, Pearl tells Virginia to grab some rags and help her clean up all the blood. She then turns to Ezekiel and says, When the cops get here, tell them that you were playing, and he fell and hit his head.

Once the blood was somewhat clean, and they got their story straight, Pearl then places a call to 911. I would like to, my son is not breathing. Okay, we're going to do compressions, okay? I want you to do 30 compression on his chest. With your hand, if you see that done, you know how to do it? You're trying. Okay.

Are you on your side right now and let any things that are in there in the mouth coming out? No. Okay, because you can not check the on you. No. If there are 80s on hotkin, let's come to the shower, go cold water,

and I know that now there's fun. Shortly after this, first responders arrive at the home. One of them being a man, James Sermak. After Ezekiel told the paramedics where to go, they entered the apartment and found Gabriel on the ground unresponsive. Here is Sean Fox, one of those first responders. I was the first, he gave him brother. He was on the floor, face up. I can tell from, you know, not by out of time but at the close justice that he was what appeared to be in severe stress I

instructed the male subject at the house to pick up the boy and bring him out in the room because I had I had a chance with that from here the paramedics got to work on Gabriel whose heart had stopped beating we noticed that the child was not breathing He had no heartbeat. So he was in cardiac arrest. So we started CPR. At that point, it was a team effort. And we started compressions.

We started ventilations, which is a drug one to try to restart the heart. We had no idea what was happening, obviously. So you just think it's a cardiac arrest. But what had happened is when we were doing CPR, we just started noticing all the trauma on his body. Gabriel had burn marks covering his neck, and parts of his skin were missing. The trauma on his body was so severe. The paramedics originally thought he had some kind of skin disease.

Like he had rash, like abrasions to his face, strangulation marks around his neck. His angles were swollen, I believe his left pole and looked like it was burned, bite marks, bruises, head to toe, skull fractures, depressed skull fracture. Like, little holes as if he was shot like with a BB gun or something. He just, the more you look, the more you saw, it's just, it was just unbelievable damage inflicted to a child. As the first responders worked to resuscitate Gabriel, Pearl and Asaro were standing behind them. They weren't in hysterics or inconsolable like most parents would be in this situation. They were just repeatedly trying to explain what happened, telling them that Gabriel got hurt while he was playing with his brother.

The statements that were making, that makes sense. We want to, um, for the condition of the patient. they didn't seem to be consistent with the level of severity of my general oppression on the patient that were nervous, concern, argumentative, standoffish. Pearl was also more concerned about her other children and her cats than she was about Gabriel. Do you see that photograph? Sir? Yes.

And who is that? That's Gabriel with another girl. She kept asking about her daughter and her other son, but never asked about Gabriel about what was happening with him or where he may be going. He was transported. Is she expressing concern to you about anything like her cats? What do you think you would call her saying? She was been telling that they did laugh at me apart and alone in a cage.

But more concerning than anything, while her son was dying on her living room floor, Pearl and Asario were telling the officers that Gabriel was a liar and that he often hits himself. They also told him that he was gay, as if that had anything to do with what was going on. I remember stating, this boy's a liar, and no matter what, he's going to mind you. And did you say that in the presence of the mail? Yes. You remember what the mail said? I remember him making one comment that I remember stating that the boy was gay. From here, they load Gabriel into the ambulance and make their way over to Antelope Valley Hospital.

And they're actually able to get his pulse back for the time being. The nurses and doctors at the hospital get word that an 8-year-old boy is coming in for cardiac arrest. They also learn that the circumstances around his injuries are unknown and sketchy, so they quickly prepped an OR and waited for his arrival. The ambulance eventually pulls up to the hospital, but by the time they get Gabriel on a gurney, his heart stops again. One nurse quickly straddles over him and begins CPR as they take him over to get a cat scan. They have to know exactly what's going on in his little body before they begin surgery.

Luckily, they're able to get a pulse, but during his cat scan, his heart stops again. So they pull him out and start CPR for the fourth time. Once they find a pulse, they quickly get his scans and rush him into surgery. 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez would end up surviving through the night, but he was in critical condition, and it was clear that he wasn't going to make it. As Gabriel was being taken away in an ambulance, Pearl and Asaro were brought to the police station. Clearly, no one believed the story that Gabriel hurt himself while playing with his brother. So the detectives are nice to his sorrow. They even empathize with him hoping to get a confession.

And it works. with monsters and you can turn on the TV and watch and see and then we deal with people and make mistakes okay last night for some reason Gabriel did something to upset to you what happened last night in your bedroom okay what did he do do you know what i'm saying what do you do to upset you the kids were saying something about because he has a problem of lying yeah you saw about why you know what why is trying to listen he's always hurting you know if you leave they if you leave on i'll start being good so i got mad i was like why don't why don't you say this why every time i leave you know

Sorry, you'll see this. Back things to your mom in my daughter, that crying, and then you know what this is, what he told me like. So I spent on, I said, why, have you seen this? You're like, oh, I didn't see that. And my wife, quite a few people there. And she said, told me that about men's before. They said, no, they didn't tell you that.

I didn't see you like that long. I deal with monsters, and you can turn on the TV and watch and see. And then we deal with people that make mistakes. Okay. Last night, for some reason, Gabriel did something to upset you. What happened last night in your bedroom? Okay. What did he do? He just fell out of the car. What do you do to upset you? The kids were saying something about, because he has a problem with lying.

Yeah. You saw about why you know what? Why is trying to say, why he's trying to wasting but he's always hurting you know if you leave they can leave on I'm starting good so I got mad I was like why don't why don't she said say this why every time I need the phone I'm worried to start you'll say this that things to your mom in your mother they're crying and then you know what this boy told me what's talking about so it's back to know why are you saying this you're like oh I didn't say that and my wife quite you're saying and she's like told me that by Minnesota.

It didn't tell you that. I didn't say you like that one. The doctors have told us what happened then, okay, and what you tell me it doesn't match up. And you know that. You're in the world, you know, did any of you, either of you heard, or you hit him with something. I never seen her hand,

something in just her face or her head. So you hit him in the front of the face, the back of the face, the face, the back and the face, the side of the head, you hear the mega word. Everywhere, not the face. If you saw the sides of the head and the sides of the head, the body, front and back, how did that feel when that happened? Afterwards, seeing them crying and that. You had to walk out, but when you saw them crying,

you got that one instant. You got that one instant. Maybe you feel good. Then you start feeling bad, right? With this, they place both him and Pearl under arrest. A Palmdale mother and her boyfriend are behind bars tonight, suspected of abusing and terrorizing her eight-year-old son. He is now listed in critical condition.

L.A. County Sheriff's Department says his injuries suggest he may have been tortured. Shortly after their arrests, Gabriel would be taken off life support. His little body just couldn't handle the trauma he endured. at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend. And on May 24, 2013, Gabriel Fernandez was pronounced dead. And there would be a long and thorough investigation ahead. During his autopsy,

Dr. James Reby was shocked at the amount of injuries to Gabriel's body. He had a depressed skull fracture, broken ribs, cuts and bruises all down his body, bite marks, dozens of burns, ligature marks on his ankles and neck. He also found a metal be able to. Bibi embedded in his groin and another was found in his lung.

There were cuts all around his penis, wounds on his feet, almost like he had been dragged across the concrete. Every single inch of his body had been injured. So much so that his autopsy took a lot longer than usual. Can you tell the jury how long the autopsy took? It took two days. And is this normal that takes two days for an autopsy? No.

Dr. Doverie, did you examine Gabriel's head for injuries? Yes. He had a subdural hematoma, bleeding inside the head caused by blunt force trauma. The doctors were also able to tell that Gabriel had experienced prolonged abuse. This was not just one single incident. You could tell that by looking at the partially healed bruises and burns that covered his body. Could all of those injuries been caused by falling off? alive?

No. All the injuries that you found would be a privilege to accidental events? No. Gabriel's death was caused by sequelae of blunt force trauma and child neglect. What does sequela mean? Consequences. And what is the basis for that opinion? That is that I saw Gabriel had suffered these injuries.

suffered these injuries over a period of weeks or months, and he had not received any medical treatment for them. Were you able to determine the manner of death? Yes. And what is your opinion? The real's death was homicidal. They were also able to determine this prolonged abuse by taking a look at Gabriel's thymus gland. Was there something about Gabriel's thymus gland? How long and what is thymus gland? The dynum's gland is a gland in the throat upper chest area of children and young people.

It's located right up here, like where my tie is, inside the rib cage in the front. And in a child eight years old, that's quite a large plump, white, soft gland that weighs 35 to 50 grams, sometimes even 100 grams. Gabriel's case, the thymus gland, was barely even there. It was extremely shriveled and thin and weighed only 10 grams. And what does that tell you? It's called stress atrophy, and that means he's been under severe, emotional, and physiological stress for a long period of time, meaning months. Senior criminalist Defon Shibi also looked into Gabriel's stomach contents.

Sadly, they found no food, just cat litter. Did you examine Gabriel's stomach? Yes. And can you tell the jury what, if anything, that you found? Hard, really material that I described as looking like sand. It felt like sand when I picked it up. After I had examined visually in a stereoscope, I noticed that there were gray colored particles.

in the stomach contents. This shows some of the gray particulate material that I have removed from the stomach contents. I did a couple of different, two different types of instrumental tests on both the gray particles from the stomach contents and also the exemplar cat litter material. So they were similar?

Yes, I could not tell them apart. The following day, a search warrant was issued for the apartment, so the police taped off the area and began investigating the scene. There were bloody rags found, where Pearl and Virginia attempted to wipe up the blood. They also found what I can only describe as torture tools. They found the belts used to beat Gabriel, steel-toed boots used to kick him, a computer cord that was all worn from whipping him. They also found wooden bats and clubs that were covered in Gabriel's DNA.

Here is senior criminalist Tiffany Shue. This is a wood club. Those red stickers are pointing to my brown stains that I had visualized on the wood bat or club, and it tested positive for blood. The DNA profile from the wooden club was a single source profile that matched the profile of Gabriel Fernandez. This is the black bat that I analyzed in the laboratory. The blue arrows in this case are pointing to red-brown stains that I had visualized on the bat. They tested positive for blood.

And did you do a conduct a comparison of each of the weapons profile to a known sample? Yes, I did. Take the first one, the black bat. Did it come back to a match to a known sample? Oh, yes, it did. Who did it match? The DNA profile from the samples on this DNA table matched the profile from Gay Girl Fernandez.

And this wasn't the only place where she found blood. Gabriel's DNA was found all over the apartment. On the torture tools, the walls, the floor, the wooden cubby he sat in every night. It was everywhere. Every time she did find Gabriel's DNA, She had to mark the spot with a red sticker. Eventually, there were so many spots found around the home

that she ran out of red stickers and had to start using yellow ones. Investigators also found all of Gabriel's clothes in a bag under the sink. The only clothes that were hung up for him were the two dresses that they would force him to wear around the home. The evidence was painting a clear picture of how horrible Gabriel's, Gabriel's life was while in the custody of his mother and her boyfriend. Gabriel had only lived with them for about eight months, eight months of pure hell for the eight-year-old boy.

This was quickly becoming one of the most disturbing cases Tomdale, California, had ever seen. Shortly after Gabriel's death, detectives questioned Ezekiel and Virginia, hoping to get an idea of exactly what they witnessed in the home. And at first, it was clear that they were. trying to protect Pearl's reputation. She had been telling her children to lie about the abuse far before Gabriel even died. And it was obvious that they were still trying to do that here. But after the detectives talked with them for a while, they gradually revealed more and more. Here's audio from Virginia's interview with Detective Susan Velasquez.

Can you tell me what a truth is? Can you define that word truth? It means that you're telling the real thing and not the thing that you don't want to say. Okay. What about a lie? What does a lie mean? I mean that you're not telling the truth, and you're saying another thing that's not the word that you want to. After getting the full story on Gabriel's abuse, it was clear to the detectives that both Virginia and Ezekiel felt a lot of guilt about their brother's death,

something no 10 and 12-year-old should ever have to carry on their shoulders. You know, I did something to Gabriel. What did you do to Gabriel? I never want to go see him or tell him I was sorry. To tell him you were sorry? What were we going to tell them at? Because every time we would play together, I would always tell him that he can't play with me. Why? Why couldn't he play with you?

Because every time he wanted to play with me, I was with my friends. And so that's what you did bad to him? Because you didn't want to play with him? And he always stayed in the dark with me. He stayed in the dark where? Inside my mom's room. Here's a part of Ezekiel's interview with detectives. I'm going to tell you this, because you're going to talk to all kinds of people. You already have.

Would you say you've already had to talk to a bunch of people in two weeks, right? You're going to talk to them more people, okay? But this is coming, the reason this is what I'm saying, I know I eat with you, is so important. Is I'm the policeman who's investigating the whole case. I'm the guy in charge. Okay? From the guy in charge, I'm telling you none of this was your fault. None of it.

Do you believe me? I want you to believe me. That's the guy in charge. So you can hear from a lot of different people about this and that and the other thing. But when you go to bed at night, I want you to try to remember the head guy told me it's not my fault. Okay? Because it's not. Nothing that happened and nothing that you were told to do, nothing that they made you do, is your fault.

And I want you to believe that. You're a good, you're a good guy. All right? And we're going to work through this. All right? Gabriel's first grade teacher, Jennifer Garcia, was absolutely devastated when she learned about what happened. She said she just cried and cried for hours. And then she had to do the heartbreaking task.

of telling her students, Gabriel's friends. That day, she gathered everyone to the front of the class, and they all sat down in a circle, and that's where she told them that Gabriel passed away. She said that afterwards everyone just sat there and cried. It's unclear exactly what she told them about Gabriel's death, but they had all been there every day, watching him come to class with bruises and cuts all over his body.

Gabriel even talked with some students about how his mom's boyfriend would beat him. And it's always just so sad to me that you even have to have these conversations with children. Kids are innocent and their friends shouldn't be dying. Their parents likely had to sit them down that night and tell them that Gabriel's mommy and daddy killed him. How can a child even wrap their head around that? For Jennifer, she felt an incredible amount of guilt that she didn't do more. Technically, she did everything she was supposed to do. Every time she noticed an injury, she reported it.

But no one seemed to ever care. And we will talk about the social workers here in a bit because I have a lot to say about them. But first, let's talk about Pearl and Asaro and their vile acts even after, they were arrested. On the night of May 22nd, 2013, after a sorrow confessed to beating Gabriel to death, both he and Pearl were arrested and brought to the Antelope Valley Courthouse.

Usually, investigators would separate the two, but in this case, the lead investigator Tim O'Quinn decided to put them in adjacent holding cells to see if they would say anything to each other. At the Antelope Valley Courthouse lockup in the basement of the Analy Court are holding cells. The two persons involved in this case, including the defendant, were brought for a court appearance. I coordinated with the high-tech detail of the County Sheriff's Department to wire two adjacent cells for recording audio

recording. So one cell was Pearl Fernandez? Yes. And one cell was a Sarajevo. Yes. The device in Defendant Aguirre's cell did not function properly. The device in Pearl Fernandez's cell did. And then with the court's permission, we're going to play what's previously needed in Marcus, as a notebook, eight page business time. Pearl was obviously more worried about herself. than she was her own son. Pearl wanted to make sure that their stories matched up, as if she could possibly get away with this. The two would go on to talk for a few more minutes.

Then at one point, they started getting sexual with each other. When I heard this, I was just so shocked. I mean, we all knew she was a horrible person, but her child was just murdered hours before this, and she's trying to be sexy? I just, I'll never understand that. Now, one would think that an eight-year-old murder would be national news, but that wasn't really the case.

Murder is so common in L.A., the news around Gabriel Fernandez was kind of drowned out amongst everything else. But then the board of supervisors picked it up, and it started gaining more attention. If you don't know what the board of supervisors, supervisors is, don't worry, we didn't know either, but it essentially governs L.A. County. They're a very powerful group that are over public hospitals, the beaches and harbors, police departments, the district attorney's office, they pretty much govern all of L.A.

And they're extremely powerful because they control all of these departments' budgets. Right now, their budget is around $39 billion. And the reason they relate to this story is that they also control all children and family services, including DCFS, the very department that was over Gabriel Fernandez's case. Clearly, once word started to spread about how DCFS gravely mishandled everything here, people were outraged with both DCFS and the board of supervisors for allowing this to happen, and soon enough, the people of L'A. came together to protest. NBC4 is Lolita Lottes is live in Palmdale, where a protest is underway, Lulita.

That's right, Lucy, and it started about an hour ago, and they're still here asking cars to hog and chanting justice for Gabriel. Now the worst-case scenario has taken place. Our group is mad and there's enough. It's enough. A single candle burns tonight in the apparent beating death of an eight-year-old boy inside his Palmdale home. Now, mother and her living boyfriend have been charged with capital murder in the beating death of her eight-year-old son. The 29-year-old Pearl Fernandez is jailed on $100,000 bond.

Her boyfriend, 32-year-old Izaro Aguirre, is also in custody. His bail a million dollars. So let's take a deep dive on these four. social workers and where exactly they went wrong. Now within DCFS there's a department called the Emergency Response Department and they're in charge of investigating these child abuse cases. Like we mentioned earlier Stephanie Rodriguez was the social worker in charge of Gabriel's case and she was very new to the department. After investigators looked through her reports it was

very clear that one, Stephanie just didn't thoroughly do her job. For instance, she was supposed to mark down every time Gabriel had an injury. She never did that. When she saw injuries on Gabriel, she was supposed to get him evaluated. She never did that either. Another huge mistake she made was, when she would investigate Gabriel's child abuse claims, she mostly only spoke to Pearl. In her notes, Stephanie wrote things like, Gabriel hurt himself, Gabriel fell off a bunk bed, or Gabriel hit his face on a door.

She seemed to just believe Pearl every time she gave an excuse on why Gabriel was covered in injuries. If she were to have done her job correctly, she would have spoken to other people, like Gabriel or Pearl's family members. You're never supposed to just take a person's, word for it time and time again without getting third party accounts. Because obviously, abusers are going to lie. A lot of people think that since Stephanie was new, she was just naive and gullible.

But I don't know about that. After all, Gabriel's teacher told Stephanie that Pearl was shooting Gabriel in the face with a BB gun, and she didn't do anything about it. Stephanie also saw Gabriel with chunks of hair missing, busted lips, scabs all over his scalp, and she chose to look the other way. If you are responding to a home that many times and you're constantly seeing this boy with severe injuries all over his body, I'm sorry, but that's just not an excuse. Those sorts of injuries just don't happen by accident, and any person walking on the street would have known that Gabriel was being abused. So why she was unable to see that, we don't know. But Stephanie isn't the only person to blame here. Her supervisor was a man named Kevin Bourne and he was supposed to be

signing off on everything Stephanie did. So for instance, when Stephanie saw that Gabriel got shot in the face with a BB gun and she never got him medical attention, Kevin was supposed to catch that and ensure Stephanie was following protocol. He was supposed to make sure she was filling out the body charts correctly, which she wasn't. He was also supposed to be making sure Stephanie was getting third-party accounts of the abuse, like talking with Gabriel's family members, but he didn't. So his negligence in this case was that he wasn't supervising very well and making sure Stephanie was doing her job. The other two social workers involved in this case were a part of the family preservation department, whose main goal is to work with families so that they can be kept

together. You know, a lot of us have seen these horrible videos of children screaming as social workers and police are prying these kids away to take them to foster homes. And it's heartbreaking. It's also very traumatic for everyone involved. And studies have shown that the best thing you can do for children is to keep them with their biological parents. Now, obviously, there are exceptions, like cases of severe physical and sexual abuse. In those situations, the child obviously needs to be taken away, but in DCFS, that's a last resort. The entire goal of family preservation is to work with parents

so that they're creating a safe and healthy environment for their children. Now, the family preservation social worker in charge of Gabriel's case was a woman named Patricia Clement. According to her coworkers, Patricia was described as very rude, unprofessional, and profane, which is interesting because before she got into social work, she was a nun. But nonetheless, after Gabriel was murdered, an internal affairs investigation was open where they reviewed Patricia's negligence. And like Stephanie, she just didn't do her job. She had gone by the Fernandez home many times, and again, like Stephanie, she only spoke to Pearl about what was going on.

She never spoke to Gabriel's family or teachers or anyone. She just took Pearl's word. In this internal affairs interview, Patricia also said that she was well aware of Gabriel's injuries. In fact, in the report, she says that she saw his swollen face and black eyes from where, when he was shot with a BB gun. But later on, when she spoke with the district attorney, she said that she had no idea about the physical abuse. The transcript from this interview specifically reads,

quote, there were never any mentions, I got to tell you, a physical abuse. That wasn't what the case was about. The case was about neglect. I was there, I did my job, and I gave the referrals. I was sitting there with the family and no one ever said anything, no one. Not the children, not the older children, not the neighbors,

no nothing said anything to me about any physical abuse going on. And there were never any bruises. End quote. Which is a complete lie because she admitted to DCFS that she saw Gabriel with a black eye. In addition to this, Patricia's reporting on the entire case was just straight up false. For instance, she said that Gabriel had great attendance at school, when in reality he was barely showing up to class. Again, she never spoke to the school or his

teachers. She only talked to Pearl about it. Patricia also said that the family dynamic was getting better and that Gabriel was at a low risk in terms of being abused, which clearly wasn't the case. And to wrap everything up, Patricia was the one who wrote up the report on Gabriel's suicide note. After doing very little investigating, she wrote that there was no safety risk to Gabe's and she even recommended closing the case. And what's really disturbing is that Patricia closed Gabriel's case in April, about a month before he died. Then after he passed away,

she went into the report and switched it to where it said she closed his case in March. She knew that closing the case so close to his death wasn't a good look. So she just switched the date, thinking no one would notice. And I was watching the amazing Netflix docu-series on this case called The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. I highly recommend you watch it. But in it, they posted the recording of when the district attorney's office reached out to her. And she was terrified.

I mean, any time you're getting a call from the DA's office, it's probably not good news. But the entire phone call, Patricia is sobbing and she's saying, I'm not a terrible person. I did not hurt that child. His mother and her boyfriend killed him. I did not. I had nothing to do with this. I didn't miss anything.

Not true. It breaks my heart and it ripped me apart when people in this community call him by his first name. They did not know that child. And excuse me very much, but why don't you create? crucify the person that did this to him. I don't have any control in what goes on in that family because a social worker has no

control on what goes on in families. Ew, and hearing her whine and cry just, it was so annoying because, yes, she may not have had any control on what went on in the family, but her entire job

is to make sure that Gabriel was safe. She saw the bruises, she saw the black eyes, and she didn't do what she was supposed to do to ensure his safety. And at the end of the day, if they would have done their jobs correctly, Gabriel would still be here. Patricia also had a supervisor named Gregory Merritt, and again, he was supposed to be making sure Patricia was doing her job correctly. Now, Greg would later claim that, yes, there were missteps within their department, but that's partly because DCFS workers are incredibly overworked, which is important to consider. Most social workers will have about 30 cases at a time, and the supervisors are in charge of everyone,

so at one point Greg was handling hundreds of cases at a time. And another thing to note is that the Emergency Response Command Post, the place in charge of Gabriel's case, was filled with hundreds of children that were living there. So let me explain. Anytime a child had to be taken away from their families, they would be brought to the Emergency Response Command Post until they found a place for them to go, whether it be with a relative or a foster parent. But the problem is, there were too many children. and not enough places to put them.

So after a while, children were basically just living at this command post. At first, there were about 15 to 16 children a month, but as time went on, they got up to about 350 kids a month living there. It was essentially an orphanage for the children of L.A. So obviously, with all these kids living at the facility and all the cases they have to deal with, DCFS is clearly overworked. But even knowing all of this,

it still doesn't excuse what the social workers did. I mean, they knew that Gabriel was getting shot, in the face with the BB gun. They knew that chunks of his hair were missing. They knew he was bleeding from the metal part of the belt after his beatings. They physically saw the bruises all over his body. They knew all of that, and he still wasn't taken away. But it's also important to look at the department as a whole.

There are clearly faults in the system. If the Board of Supervisors who governed DCFS gave them more resources, more funding, and more employees, the mistakes like this probably wouldn't happen as often. and the board of supervisors are involved in this case in other aspects as well. Now, bear with me because we will make the connection here in a bit, but remember the security guard that reported Gabriel's injuries and how he wanted the welfare office to report it, but they didn't want to because they didn't want to pay their employees overtime?

Well, that office is contracted by a company called Maximus, and Maximus is contracted by the government. And one thing that is very important to know is that Maximus makes a ton of money. In fact, within the last decade, they've had a contract with L.A. County that's worth about $110 million. You can even buy stocks in it.

So why would a company with all of this money not want to pay their employees overtime, time, especially when it comes to reporting child abuse. And it's just disturbing because there are countless companies out there that are supposed to be servicing the poor and are making millions, sometimes billions off of these contracts. But after looking through their reports, it's clear that they don't care about poor people at all. And all they seem to care about is money. In February of 2013, Maximus had an assessment report regarding foster children, and a lot of the report was how they can profit off of these children. In fact, they even refer to foster children in the

report as a quote, a revenue-generating mechanism, which is just disgusting on all levels. So rather than trying to help these children and maximize their services to them, they're more focused on making money. So how does this all relate back to Gabriel Fernandez? Well, the company Maximus has had issues with overtime in the past. There were instances where employees of this company would work overtime and Maximus just wouldn't pay them. On the day Gabriel and his family came into their office, the supervisor specifically told the employees that they didn't want to get involved because they didn't want to pay overtime. They even threatened to write them up if they did.

But now that Gabriel's dead, Maximus claims that they never said that. They also said that Arturo, the security guard, was lying about everything, and in reality, they actually did call the sheriff's office to report Gabriel's injuries. But, strangely enough, when the sheriff's office looked through all of their calls, there's no evidence of them reporting anything. At the end of the day, Maximus denies everything because it doesn't look too good knowing that a child died, all because a multi-million dollar company didn't want to pay their employees overtime to report child abuse. So as you can see, it's not just the social worker's fault.

It's also the fault of DCFS. It's the welfare office and Maximus who didn't want to report abuse. Another group to blame here is the LAPD. After Gabriel's death, records show that in the months before he was killed, eight police officers went by the apartment five separate times to investigate the abuse. And every single time, nothing was done. Pearl would tell them that Gabriel's fine. He just fell off his bike, or Gabriel's just rowdy.

And they would just take her word for it and leave without investigating any further. At some points, the officers didn't even ask to see Gabriel at all. After Gabriel's death, prosecutors discovered that some of these officers didn't even write up police reports about it. And like we mentioned earlier, one officer put Gabriel in the back of his police car and said that if he kept lying about the abuse, he was going to take him to jail. And according to the trials of Gabriel Fernandez, after his death, the lead prosecutor, Jonathan Hamadi, tried to get the sheriff's office to send over information so he could evaluate their missteps. And they just refused to send it. He actually had to get a court order where a judge had to force them to send over the information. information. At the end of it all, like the social workers, these sheriff's deputies were not

held accountable, and the sheriff's department actually released a statement basically saying they didn't do anything wrong. The sheriff's department says it can't discuss details citing personnel issues, but we're told no one will be fired and describe the deputy's missteps as minor. Now something to note is that the common denominator in all of these departments is the board of supervisors. They fund all of these departments that mishandled Gabriel's case. The whole point of all of this is to show that Gabriel was failed on a systematic level. The very agencies set in place to protect children like him didn't do their jobs. And as a result, a child is dead.

In fact, he died a horrible, horrific death. And the world is angry. But what are we going to do? Someone has to be held accountable. So even though there were hundreds of people who were indirectly involved in all this, someone has to go down for it. And those people would be the four social workers working Gabriel's case. The torture death of an eight-year-old boy in Palmdale has angered a lot of people over how the

Department of Children and Family Services handled that case. Protesters say that department failed to protect this eight-year-old Palmdale boy, Gabriel Fernandez. This was something that was a no-brainer. Any rational person would have taken Gabriel away from those parents, period. Following his death, they were all fired, but that just wasn't enough for some people. The fact that they didn't do their jobs correctly, which led to the murder of an eight-year-old boy, many people thought that they too should be prosecuted, including LA's district attorney, Jackie Lacey. We believe these social workers were criminally negligent and performed their legal duties with willful disregard for Gabriel's well-being.

The charges against them were child endangerment resulting in death, in falsification of public records or documents. And in California, no social worker had ever been convicted for their negligence in a case. Stephanie Rodriguez, Patricia Clement, Kevin Baum, and Gregory Merritt were in court today for their arraignment on felony charges. A preliminary hearing is underway now for two former Los Angeles County social workers and their supervisors charged in the death of eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez. The social workers' attorneys worked hard to get the charges dropped. claiming there wasn't enough evidence to bring them to trial. We have a case here that is unprecedented. If you look at what the people have filed,

there's nothing that they've cited that remotely comes close to the facts that we have today. And there's a reason for that, Your Honor. This is a case that just never should have been filed. And it's a case that the court should dismiss. My client supervised over 180 children. And he spent his entire life trying to prevent what occurred. on that day. These social workers

really aren't villains. They're really unsunged heroes in this case. Now, social workers in general are definitely heroes. They take on a job that is incredibly difficult, but these four are not heroes. Their actions, or inactions,

resulted in the murder of an eight-year-old boy. So that doesn't really sound like a hero to me. And after this, the judge was not convinced. He still thought the four should go to trial and face a jury. This court concludes that the purposes of the reckless and burden for proof required that there does exist a strong suspicion that the defendant's overall conduct does support the charges pending against them. When the overall evidence presented, there is a strong suspicion that said conduct was

reckless and or criminally negligent. The defendant actions and or inactions seemingly demonstrated an improper regard for human life or indifference to the consequences. As such, the defendant's notions that dismiss are here by denying. That is the first ruling. In a rare move, four social workers were charged today in an extreme case of child abuse where an eight-year-old boy died. Four social workers in Los Angeles may face prison time. This is really a landmark decision to send these social workers in their super-year-old.

to court. Extraordinary situation of public employees facing criminal charges. Prosecutors say the fact that they didn't do their job, they did not protect him, was as bad as them abusing the little boy themselves. Following this, they decided to go to the appeals court to see if they could drop their charges there. It took years for a decision to finally be made, but in January of 2020, the Court of Appeals ultimately decided that the social workers were not at fault, and their charges were dropped, which was very upsetting to a lot of people following the case. Here was their attorney after the decision was made.

Our clients and Mr. Baum in particular are very grateful for the court's ruling, that the case was dismissed and that they were declared factually innocent. Thank you so much. We have no further statements. Afterwards, DCFS would release a statement saying that they respected the court's decision to drop the charges. Now again, all of this happened in 2020, but we just wanted to wrap up the social worker story before we talk about the trial of Pearl Fernandez and Asaro Aguirre.

Pearl and Asaro were initially going to be tried together, but any time they were in the courtroom together, Pearl would just start screaming things at Osoro calling him names like a liar. Josh. Why you got a little question? Mr. Adams. So you didn't go on to my baby. After this, they decided to try them separately,

and Sarro's trial would come first. It was held on the ninth floor of the courthouse where they handle all of L.A.'s biggest cases, including O.J. Simpson, the Grim Sleeper, otherwise known as Lonnie Franklin, even Michael Jackson's doctor. The prosecutors in the case were Jonathan Otami and Scott Yang, and they were going full throttle seeking the death penalty.

Isarro's defense attorney was a man named Michael Sclar, who had over 30 years of experience in the field. This was going to be a huge trial, and people all over America were following along. Then, on October 16, 2017, over four years after Gabriel's murder, the trial finally began. Okay, the audience, this case is going to be very emotional, so at any point you find yourself getting a little overwhelmed or losing your composure. please step out of the courtroom compose yourself and then come back inside we're gonna be bringing out the parties in just a few moments make sure your cell phones are turned off as far as the rain capacity I understand the furious and present yeah yes your honor all right good morning ladies and gentlemen

well we are prepared to go forward on this manner we're on the record of Matta through versus idea we have on council present we're independent on From here, prosecutor Jonathan Hatami gives his opening statement. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. On behalf of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, I could thank you for being a juror in this case. The evidence will show this case is about one thing. And that's a systematic torture of a helpless and innocent child.

This is Gabriel Fernandez. He was a happy and healthy 7-year-old boy when he went to live with the defendant in 2012. After eight months of being with the defendant, this is how Gabriel looked. Less than a minute into the trial, there were already tears in the courtroom. Tommy showed a picture of Gabriel in October of 2012, and then he showed a picture of him while in the coma. Then he turns their focus towards Gabriel's killer, Asaro Aguirre. This is the defendant.

When he was arrested, he was six feet, two inches, he weighed 270 pounds. And is Gabriel. When he died, he was eight years old. He was four foot one. He weighed 59 pounds. What are the charges? The charges you'll have to decide, ladies and gentlemen, and the charges, At the end of this ballot passed, you find the defendant of the first degree murder,

and that the murder was intentional and involved the infliction of torture. Next, defense attorney John Allen gives his opening statement. We will not tell you, nor will we call any witness who will tell you that Isaro Aguirre did not commit these heinous hands. Yet while the evidence was shown that Isaral and his girlfriend, Gabriel's mother, Pearl Fernandez, committed unspeakable acts of abuse against Gabriel over time. And that together on the night of May 22nd, 2013, they beat Gabriel so severely that he never recovered when Isarov exploded into a rage of anger. The evidence will also show that despite the horrific abuse, DeSarro never intended for Gabriel died.

Fassarro's attorneys were trying to tell the jury that he never meant to kill Gabriel. On the night of his death, he flew into a blinding rage, and during that rage, he unintentionally ended his life. But that was for the jury to decide. Throughout the trial, the prosecution brought forth. forward many witnesses, including the first responders that you've heard throughout this episode. They also brought forward Gabriel's father, Arnold Contreras. Having him as a witness was shocking for a lot of people, because they had actually prosecuted Arnold in the past. He didn't have a

great relationship with the L.A. County prosecutors, but none of that mattered today. He was there to get justice for his son. Mr. Pritch Farrison and tracing photographs on first, an exhibit notebook, page 18. Is that a photograph with you? Yes. And who's dead? Gabriel and Alan.

And Gabriel Lenthal? Yes. Arnold went on to tell the court about the day he found out about Gabriel's death. Did you get notified that? Gabriel was murdered. I was in Riverside County, jail, and the chapman pulled me into the visiting, and said that he was on life support. They were going to pull, they were going to take them off the next day.

Arnold recognized the fact that he wasn't very present in his son's son's life. Being in and out of jail makes it difficult to have a relationship with your children. But he loved Gabriel, and he feels guilty every day that he wasn't able to save him. It isn't. You got it. Get a chance to tell him something. One thing. So I will be. You can see me. The prosecution's main goal throughout this trial was to show the jury that this was no accidental death. The sorrow of Gary chose to kill Gabriel over the eight months of repeated torture and abuse. The evidence will show the defendant intentionally murdered and tortured Gabriel, and he did it. He didn't like him. There is evil in this room right now.

It's right over there. To show this, they brought in the cupboard that Gabriel was forced to sleep in every night. The evidence would show, ladies and gentlemen, that in... The defendant was in the tub. And in the same bedroom that the defendant slept in every night, Gabriel was in here. By the up and fell. Gabriel was in here. That's what the evidence was coming.

I want you to think about that. Just back. Gabriel's last vision was that man over there, standing over Gabriel, beating him to death. At the end of this trial, I'm going to act. into this trial, I'm going to ask you to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for first-degree murder. And I will ask you to find him guilty of intention on the murder of Gabriel by torturing him to death. But again, the defense was ready to prove that Isarro was innocent of murder in the first degree,

meaning that he didn't intend on killing Gabriel. And they said that they know this because on the night of the murder, Isarro was performing CPR on Gabriel, according to the 911 call. And you wouldn't do that if you wanted someone dead. But the prosecution had a hard time believing that Asarro even perform CPR at all. During the 911 call, he claims he's doing compressions on Gabriel, but it didn't seem like he was. You know, there's usually a sort of jumpiness to your breath from compressions that they just didn't hear. And an important part of CPR is that you have to

keep doing it to keep the person alive until the paramedics get there. But when they walked into the apartment, Gabriel was on the ground and no one was performing CPR. Can you tell the court in jury whether or not you were able to see any blood on the defense? body? Not that I remember. Did you see any blood on the defendant's face? Not that I remember. Another interesting point that the prosecution brought up was that most parents in a situation

where their child is dying, they want to be right by their side the entire time. Most parents will even fight their way into the ambulance just to be with their kid. But that wasn't the case here. If there's any preventing that male and that female from getting into that ambulance when Gabriel was taken to the hospital? No. and your 21 years of experience, have you seen parents of children or injured get in that ambulance and go to the hospital? I've seen them fight their way.

Not only were Pearl and Asaro more interested in their cat's well-being that night, they also never asked to go to the hospital with Gabriel. The defense would later say that they couldn't go to the hospital because the police wanted to question them. But according to the officers, that just wasn't the case. Pearl and Asaro obviously could have gone to the hospital. but they just never asked to. So are you suggesting to us that while you were questioning Mr. Aguirre that night and when the ambulance left to take Gabriel to the hospital that if Mr.

Adirian said to you, you know, I want to go down to the hospital either drive or right in the ambulance, I'll talk to you later about this, that would have been okay with you? Thank you, Mr. Lee. So that would have been perfectly fine with the hospital. at that point, if Mr. Deere just said, we'll talk about this later. He was free to leave in the bedtime. Okay. Now, throughout this trial, Asaro's attorneys really wanted to show the jury that this was a spur of the moment, rage-induced homicide.

And to prove this, they brought up Asarro's confession tape. He talks about how angry he got when Gabriel asked his mom, why do you let him treat you like that? In his mind, Gabriel was trying to break them up. which caused him to go into a blinding rage. Here is part of that confession tape. So your personal level dude is way up here. That's where might we be?

On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you say your frustration, anger level is that? Exactly at 20. That right there, to the defense, proved that Osoro didn't intentionally kill Gabriel. He became so off control with anger and rage that he saw red. A decision to kill may rashly, impulsively, or without careful consideration, is not premeditated. Now, following this, Gabriel's siblings would be brought to court to testify, making it one of the most emotional days of the trial.

No cameras were allowed in the courtroom since they were minors. But both Ezekiel and Virginia were able to paint a picture of exactly what life was like for Gabriel. inside of their home. Today, possibly an even more intense day as the two children took the stand who witnessed the abuse, Gabriel's older brother and older sister. They were just 11 and 12 at the time of the abuse.

The first person on the stand was Gabriel's brother, Ezekiel. After nearly a month, Osoro Aguirre's trial was coming to an end. And soon enough, the defense was ready to give their final statements. While the evidence presented shows that Isaro Aguirre and Pearl Fernandez committed unspeakable acts of abuse against Gabriel over a period of time. It was the trauma caused as a result of the beating on May 22nd, 2013 that killed Gabriel.

Isarro confessed to Detective Uribe. Pearl informed Isaro that Gabriel had asked her to leave him. Angry over the fact that Gabriel would interfere with his relationship with Pearl, Isaro confronted Gabriel, who denied saying it. When Gabriel twice called Pearl a liar in Isaro's presence, Isaro exploded into a rage of anger, and together with Pearl, struck Gabriel with, with his hands and fists to the head and body.

He sorrow described his level of anger at 20 on a scale of 1 to 10. He told detectives Urevean long he became so out of control with anger and rage that he saw red. He was hyperventilating and he almost passed out. He stated in his confession that he was completely out of control and he just couldn't stop himself from him. hitting Gabriel. But note that he also told the detective that acting out of control was no excuse for what he did. No one is asking you not to hold Isarro accountable and responsible for his actions. What we're asking that you do is come back with a verdict that serves the ends of justice, a finding that Isaro is guilty of murder in the second degree.

And here is the prosecution's final statement. The defense wants you to believe that the defendant was in a rage and he was a 20 on a scale 1 to 10, completely lost control. Because that is their theory and that is their story. But it's just not consistent with the evidence. When the defendant grabbed him by the neck and brought him towards that wall, and pushed him right in the face. That's one time.

And Gabriel's down. And the defendant is standing over him. And Gabriel's dying. And he's helpless. His child, you can't do anything. You can't do anything when you're helpless. And he picks Gabriel back up and he calls him gay and he gives him again. And Gabriel's down.

And that's only two times. And then parole gets in there. And then when he down, they kick them. And they're hitting him. And he hits them 20 times in the body. And he hits them 10 times in the head. 10 times. And Gabriel, you'll never know why.

We'll never know why that he was deeped at. They'll never know. The last breath when he looked up and saw the bed he met him and saw his mom there. He'll never know. You know, never get a chance. Justice for Gabriel. Justice for Gabriel.

This is first degree murder. And this is intentional murder by torture. And it's beyond all doubt. All doubt. The social workers had a chance. The deputy had a change. The school officials had a chain. The counselors had a chance.

Alex Tee. The people. The people, I have one question to ask you about this case. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? And with that, the jury left for deliberation. Seven women and five men all gathered into a room to discuss the case. And almost immediately, everyone voted that the murder was premeditated. But one man in the jury wasn't convinced.

So that first day came and went without. a verdict. The jury finished its first day of deliberations without a verdict. The seven women and five men deliberated for just three and a half hours. The jury will continue deliberations tomorrow morning. It's always nerve-wracking when the jury is in deliberation. If everyone can't agree on a verdict, there will be a mistrial, and the entire case will have to be tried again. But luckily, that wouldn't happen here. Okay, good afternoon. We all know why we hear, so we expect the utmost courtesy and respect for the court.

So whatever decisions that may be rendered, no running out of the courtroom, no texting, or probably any kind of disturbance once this process begins. All right, we are on the record in the manner of people versus Osir, all counsel are present, the defendant as well. I understand the jury has reached a verdict. We're going to invite the jury to join us at this time. if you would, Ms. Clerk. All right, left, the rapid

for flat, here is now joining us. Good afternoon, please. I understand that there is a verdict that's been reached, the director? Yes. Who is the fourth? All right, is it correct, a verdict that will reach? If you hand the verdict on my bailiff, please.

All right, Mr. Clerk, if you will read the verdict on to the... In the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, Department 107, people of the state of the state, of California versus Isaro Agiri. We the jury in the above entitled action finding defendant Isarro Agiri,

guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. We further find the allegation that said murder was committed intentionally and involved the infliction of torture within the meeting of Penal Code section 190.2 subsection A18 to be true. Dated November 15th, 2017, juror number five, four person. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

is this your verdict? So say you one, so say you all? Yes. Thank you. The defendant is guilty of first-view murder if the people have proved that he acted woefully, deliberately, and with premeditation. The defendant acted woefully if he intended to kill. The defendant acted deliberately, if he carefully weighed the considerations for and against his choice, and knowing the counts of one of this decides to kill.

Guilty of murder in the first degree. There were many tears in the courtroom that day knowing that Gabriel's murderer, got the justice he deserved. And now it was time for Asaro Aguirre to be sentenced. What happens next? They take a break, same jury, seven women, five men. They now begin what is called the penalty phase. That begins on November 27th.

What's determined in that is the defendant Aguirre, will it be life or death? The jury must decide on that. Asaro's defense team was very defeated knowing they didn't get the second-degree murder charge. so they did everything they could to prevent him from getting the death penalty. They even brought forward Asaro's previous employer to talk about his, quote, good character. In the years before he beat an eight-year-old child to death, Asarro worked with a disabled and elderly, which is a scary thought. I wouldn't want him anywhere near my grandparents.

But here is his old boss. Good morning, Miss White Bart. Good morning. This wife, Parks, directing your attention to the man who's back outside you. Do you recognize him? I do. How do you recognize that? Isar worked for me.

Where did he work for you at? In Woodland Hills at Woodland Park Retirement Hotel. It has another name now. What was Isarles' job at Woodland Park? Isarer was a caregiver and a driver. We called him Shaggy. That was the nickname for him? Yes, it was.

Was the nickname a term of endearment? Yes, it was. Susan claimed that a sorrow or Shaggy was always very helpful, quiet, and down to earth. And when she found out what happened, she was shocked. Did you see him carrying out his duties? I saw him every day that we worked together. And that was over a span of three. I was over a span of three years.

Yes. As a caregiver, if a lot of them were briefs, that's a diaper. And if someone was wet or dirty, he would clean them. According to Susan, the residents at the retirement home absolutely loved him. Some days, he would even drive them to the Santa Monica Pier. And on the way home, he would take the scenic route so the elderly people could see the beautiful scenery. Compassion is the most important part.

If you don't have it, then, well, they couldn't work for me. Knowing what you know about the crime that he was found guilty of in this case, do you believe that there remains some goodness, any sorrow that's worth saving? I saw him as a good person. He worked for me. Otherwise, he couldn't have worked for me if he wasn't. So would it change your opinion to know that he admitted to punching an eight-year-old boy ten times in the face?

That changed his good. No. No. So you're okay with grown man punching an eight-year-old child ten times in the face. In your opinion, that person should have to do him in that, correct? I'm not okay with what he did now. You testify that now there's been good in there.

I, I, yes, I did because I know the type of person he was. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place in the sense. So he knew that the defendant punched an eager, a boy 20 times in the body. Would that change your opinion about your belief that he's a good person here today? I know what he did. I've read it. I've heard it.

I've seen it. But I think deep down there was good. It's hard to wrap myself around all this. Interesting take. If I thought someone was a good person and then I found out the beat an eight-year-old child to death, I would never defend their character, but to each their own. After this witness testimony, the prosecution reminded the jury just how evil is sorrow of gear it really was.

What did Gable think during those last few seconds? Does anybody love me? Does my mom love? Why is this man who calls himself my stepfather doing this to me? Is anybody there to protect me? Where are my grandparents? Where is my teacher? Isn't anybody there to love me?

I'm sorry. It's evil in this room right now, and it's right over there. No human with a heart and soul could do that to an innocent little boy, and no human with any goodness in them a helpless little child. Following this, the jury left to decide Osor's fate. And again, when they took a vote, it was 11 to 1 in favor of the death penalty. The same juror who didn't think it was first-degree murder didn't think Asarro deserved the death penalty. But as they deliberated, the jurors discussed the fact that throughout the entire trial,

Isaro didn't show any remorse whatsoever. They watched him for weeks, but he never shed a tear, he never even looked sad. They also brought up the fact that Asarro wasn't even Gabriel's father. He was just the boyfriend. And at any point, he could have easily walked away, but he didn't. And for the entire eight months, he chose to stay in that home and abuse Gabriel at any chance that he got. And with this, they finally had their verdict. We are on the record in the span of people versus Aguay, all 12 jurors present, all counsel, and the defendant. General 5, we're back to three to the court. Yes.

All right, Mr. In the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Department 107, people of the state of California versus Isaro Aguirre, case number of BA 425, 180. With the jury and above entitled action, having found the defendant, Isaro Aguirre, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree and having found the special circumstance to be true, fix the penalty at death. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, is this your verdict? So say you won, so say you all?

Yes. A sorrow Aguirre will be executed for the first degree murder of Gabriel Fernandez. And following this, he was sent to California's death row, the largest death row in the country. And now it was time to prosecute Pearl. Bril's mother. She initially wanted to have a trial by jury, but after hearing Asaro was sentenced to death, she started to get nervous. That could possibly be her fate as well, so to avoid the death penalty, Pearl would eventually plead guilty. Ms. Fernandez, the prosecution is going to explain to you your constitutional statutory rights

and then the specifics about your plea. I ask that you listen very carefully to the extent that you do not understand something. Make sure you do consult with your attorneys. All right, we'll try to go slow on this. Defendant Pearl Cynthia Fernandez in case B.A. 425-180 to count one, a violation of California penal code section 187 subdivision A, the murder of Gabriel Fernandez, a serious and violent felony. How do you plead? Excuse me? Felony. Fernandez, you were being sent to state prison in natural life. Do you understand and agree to this?

No. Do you admit or deny that count one, the murder of Gabriel Fernandez, was committed by you, willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation in the first degree? Do you admit? Yes. Do you also admit or deny the special circumstance that the aforementioned murder of Gabriel Fernandez was intentional and involved the infliction of torture? All right, the court of finding that the defendant knowingly intelligently waived the constitutional and statutory rights

and that a plea was freely involuntarily made with an understanding of the nature of consequences are of. We stand and resized, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Four months later, the two defendants would enter the courtroom together.

Here is the victim impact statement from Gabriel's teacher, Jennifer Garcia. I'm here to talk about how Gabriel's murder has affected my life. I feel strange you've been talking about me because I'm living and he is dead. Time has helped, but I can honestly say there isn't a day that goes by

that I don't think about Gabriel. I carry around a lot of guilt. I think about him most when I am alone with my thoughts on my way to work or trying to fall asleep. I replay over and over again what happened and what I could have done differently, what I should have said, what I should have done. My own school district thinks

since my testimony is over, that this is over and done. But for me, it will never go away. This will always be a part of me and something I will think about until the day I die. For the last five years, Gabriel has been number 28 in my classroom. I don't assign number 28 to another student because I feel it's only his number now.

And it's a way for me to honor him in my classroom. It almost makes it like he's still here. I find comfort in believing he is now at peace. He cannot be harmed anymore. And I know that unlike him, his abusers will never have peace. they will have a lifetime of suffering to endure. And I know I'm not alone in hoping that they experience the same abuse in their lifetime and worse. They are evil people for what they did.

And despite how I feel, I know that if Gabriel had survived, he wouldn't have wanted his mom and a sorrow to be punished for anything they did to him. Next, Pearl spoke to the court and read a very underwhelming statement. statement. You just do you always stop trying by injury for me? I'm sorry to my family because I did. I'm sorry for this what happened. I wish I was alive.

Every day I wish that I made better choices. I'm starting to my children and I want them to know that I love me. And I hope one day they will be given me and I hope one day they will come to their fence out. And I wish people I wish you had a same thing And I'm not going to be in my God death or by And finally

The judge had something to say Let me move on To the issue of sentencing As I stated next week June 17th It'll be 20 years that I've been on the bench Generally I have imposed a lot of sentences In the course of those 20 years

And generally it is my practice not to comment on a lot of cases but you know I was privy to this case I sat through it I heard the others I was privy to the photographs corners photographs the extent of the injuries and whatever and this almost demands the comment we made I it is unimaginable the pain that this child probably endured and what I heard Gaville was a kind loving individual who just wanted to be loved And so, you know, 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.

You know, I can only wish, I really do, that you both, in the middle of the night, you wake up and you think of the injuries, that you subject with this poor young man, this poor seven-year-old, and that it tortures you. I rarely say that. I rarely say that. It'll be a different type of torture because you won't be imping. physical pain, but I'm not sure that you're capable of doing that. Um, but that's my wish. I'm going to move to the issue of sentencing with respect to parole Cynthia Fernandez. It is the judgment and sentence of this court that the defendant shall be sentenced to a term of life in prison without the possibility of the role for the underlying murder charge coupled with the torture special circumstance allegation.

With respect to, uh, Mr. DeSario Aguere, Defender Esadio Aguere, shall be put to death to the walls of the California State Prison at San Quentin in a manner and means prescribed by law upon a date to be fixed by this

court in a warrant of execution. The defendant shall be transported into the California State Prison at San Quentin for the death sentence shall be executed. And before we wrap up this story, we thought we'd talk about Pearl Fernandez and her time in prison. As we all

though, even the most prolific hardened criminals in prison looked down on child killers. And according to people who were in the same prison as Pearl, they said that in the beginning, Pearl walked the halls of the facility with her head held high and showed no remorse for her actions. Nobody at the time knew what she had done, and allegedly she told others in prison that she was in there for a DUI. But that all changed one day when a corrections officer showed up at Pearl's prison cell door and verbally stated, you sleep good for having killed your baby. At that point, Pearl's life in prison drastically changed because, as we all know, child killers and pedophiles get the worst treatment in prison. And when the inmates heard about what Pearl did, she was attacked and sliced up in the prison yard with the sharp lid of a tuna can.

She had hot coffee poured on her face, and she was repeatedly beaten. She was also allegedly jumped by a group of other inmates while in the food hall one day. And it took days to clean her blood off the walls and floors after this attack. Another user online who stated that her mother was in prison at the same time as Pearl shared stories of Pearl being physically assaulted every single day by other inmates. We can assume that Pearl is getting the worst treatment possible in prison. She seems to be living a sad, violent existence, full of endless torture, kind of like the life she gave her own son, Gabriel, while he was still alive. Because I was on my own when you were by my side, so there's no difference now, except there's nothing to hide.

But to wrap this story up, I really wish I could say that after Gabriel's case, there was a huge change in the system and that everyone started working together to make sure this wouldn't happen again. But that wasn't the case. In fact, just two weeks after Pearl and Asario went off to prison, another little boy in the exact same town as Gabriel was murdered by his parents. He was 10-year-old Anthony Avalos, and he and Gabriel's stories were eerily similar. His parents withheld food. They beat him relentlessly, burned his skin, called him gay. And like Gabriel, DCFS was well aware of the abuse. Now, don't get me wrong, the Department of Children and Family Services has done a lot of good.

They've saved thousands of children from abusive children. situations, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. And a big part of that is holding these governmental agencies that fund these departments accountable. There's no reason why DCFS workers should be overworked and lacking resources when it comes down to the safety of our country's children. Following this case, many people around the U.S. demanded that the board of supervisors take action. Unfortunately, they listened. In April of 2014, L.A. County created the Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection.

And in their final report, they state, quote, We cannot idly stand by and wait for another child to meet the fate of Gabriel Fernandez. Sparked by his and other tragic child fatalities, community outrage, and a series of unsuccessful attempts at reforming the county's child protection system, The Board of Supervisors agreed that action is necessary, stating that, quote, the current system does not serve the best interest of the child, the family, or the community at large. The Board of Supervisors established the Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection

and charged it with reviewing child protection failures, highlighting organizational barriers to child safety, and providing recommendations for a feasible plan of action. action to implement needed reforms." End quote. And a huge part of this commission is to make sure these departments are working together and communicating with one another. If DCFS and the sheriff's department have worked together in Gabriel's case,

they would have likely seen the warning signs and taken the appropriate measures to make sure he was safe. And as happy as I am that they are making improvements, 8-year-old little boys shouldn't have to die in order for change to be made. In just a couple of days, Gabriel would have turned 18 years old. He would have had his entire life ahead of him. But because of his horrible mother and her boyfriend, coupled with the systematic failure in the system,

his life was taken and he never even had a chance. Unfortunately, there will be many. many other children who will meet the same fate as Gabriel did. According to the trials of Gabriel Fernandez that came out in 2020, following Gabriel's death, 150 other children have died from abuse and neglect, all of whom had cases with DCFS. As a country, our main priority should be protecting our children, whether that be from their parents, sexual predators, or even school shooters. Every child deserves to feel loved, valued, and appreciated.

But more than anything, they deserve to feel safe. And if we as a country are not prioritizing the safety of our future generations, then what are we doing? Hey, everybody, it's Colin here. And Courtney. Thank you for listening to this week's extremely hard to get through episode of Murder in America. Courtney, you have some thoughts on the case? Yes, I was writing this and I cried so many times throughout it.

It's definitely one of those cases that it just gets to me every single time. It's so sad. Yeah, you even heard during my part when they were talking about Gabriel's cards that he made his mom for Mother's Day that I started just sobbing when I was recording. I had to actually pause for a second. So yeah, I know this episode was really hard to get through, but it's a very important story to talk about.

And it's a very important issue that I think we hear in America, like Courtney said, need to, you know, talk about more. But I want to thank all of our new patrons this week, Parsa Kianpore, Katrina Bowman, Abdel Padilla, Emily Perez, Aaron Peacock, Jasmine, Sam, Kyle Turner, Stephanie Montoya, Jennifer Gomez, Alberto Manzavo Jr, Sam Bruce, Shelby Lee Rooney, Priscilla Alvarado. Growing up, my mom was always the best at handling sticky, stressful situations. I mean, we have have so many crazy family memories, so many things that stick out to me, so many trips that we took and just funny moments. I mean, I remember specifically one just crazy time when we had jet skis and we took them out. We had rented them for the day and we took them out on this lake and somehow something got on the engine of the jet ski. Mine stalled. My dad stalled and my mom and sister had to

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some really different stories. So Courtney and I, thanks for listening. I love you. And we'll see you next week.