Our Wounds Will Heal
After an Emotional 8-Year Saga, Justice for a Murdered Child.
Justice finally arrived for Gabriel Fernandez, a murdered 8-old-year old boy, when Judge George Lomeli of the Los Angeles County Superior Court denied the murderer’s petition in a swift, fifteen-minute hearing on June 1. This denial brought closure to an 8-year saga racked with jarring uncertainty and immeasurable pain. In May 2013, Gabriel was tortured and murdered by his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her live-in boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. Aguirre was found guilty and sentenced to death in December 2017 and is currently on death row in San Quentin.
Pearl Fernandez pled guilty and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in February 2018. In April 2021, she applied to be re-sentenced under California Penal Code Section 1170.95, an addition to the Penal Code created in September 2018 with the passage of SB1437, which created stricter parameters around the application of felony murder. Fernandez claimed in her petition that, if she were tried for Gabriel’s torture and murder utilizing the current Penal Code, she would not be found guilty of her crimes. The legal basis for her petition, her public defenders argued, can be found in the Penal Code’s new definition of felony murder, as well as in the amended natural and probable consequences doctrine of aiding and abetting.
On June 1, Gabriel’s relatives and a family friend sat in the long, austere corridor outside the hearing room, waiting for the proceedings to begin. The three faced a high-stakes situation. Would Fernandez be re-sentenced?
The child welfare system in Los Angeles County failed Gabriel, leading to his murder. A previous article noted the price of inaction and the lack of desire for change in the Los Angeles child welfare system. In LA County and more broadly across California, careless apathy, multi-decade, historic underinvestment, and a deficit of solutions have consigned the most vulnerable and abused children to misery, despair, and death. In fact, in the entirety of Governor Gavin Newsom’s almost 3-hour long 2021–22 budget presentation, there was no mention of any investments in Child Protective Services (CPS) or of the crisis surrounding child welfare in the state.
The top-down lack of support for child welfare in California has profound effects. Currently, the County of Los Angeles does not provide an adequate social safety net to protect children from abuse and neglect. With the lack of a safety net in the County, every child, regardless of race, gender, class or socio-economic status, is at risk. It does not matter if a child lives in Malibu, South Central, Palmdale, or anywhere else across the County, they can be affected. After the child welfare system has failed in its duty to protect vulnerable youth, it falls to the criminal justice system to pick up the pieces and to punish the perpetrators of violence, neglect, and abuse.
At 8:45 AM, Judge Lomeli took his seat at the bench and asked the attorneys whether they had anything to add to the petition before him. Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami stated that, while he did not have anything to add, “the People oppose the re-sentencing of Pearl Fernandez.” Fernandez’s two public defenders confirmed that they also did not have anything additional.
Gabriel’s relatives and family friend were offered the opportunity to make statements about Fernandez’s petition. Gabriel’s cousin, Amalia “Emily” Carranza stated, “I don’t believe she deserves a second chance.” Olivia Rubio, another cousin, clearly emotional, implored the judge, “Please dismiss her case.” Friend Cherie Kiyomura concluded in her strong and resolute statement, “If she had any type of remorse, this wouldn’t be happening.”
The judge delivered his ruling that Fernandez’s petition would be denied. He explained that the basis for denial hinged on the fact that “it has been established by her own admission during her guilty plea that the murder was intentional and involved the infliction of torture over a period of several months.” The judge then listed the atrocities that Gabriel endured. Rubio began to cry. The judge detailed that Fernandez was “a major participant in the murder of a child victim.” Furthermore, the judge noted, Fernandez agreed to waive her appellate rights when she pled guilty in 2018. Due to all these factors and after a careful review of the petition, the judge concluded that Fernandez was “not entitled to re-sentencing relief.”
A crowd of supporters had gathered outside the court, holding signs and chanting, “Justice for Gabriel.” When Hatami announced that the petition had been denied, the crowd erupted in cheers. At a press conference, he thanked the three women for attending the hearing and explained the legal basis for the judge’s decision. Hatami, an outspoken critic of District Attorney George Gascón, remarked that the policies promulgated by the DA, which encouraged Fernandez’s bid for re-sentencing, cause further harm to victims of child abuse and their grieving families.
An hour later, Hatami issued a statement via text message:
I want to thank the Honorable George Lomeli for his well thought out ruling. Justice was served. I am truly happy for Gabriel’s family that Pearl Fernandez will now spend the rest of her life in prison. The family can now have some closure and move forward. Gabriel’s family, myself and the entire community will never stop fighting for justice for Gabriel.
At the press conference after the hearing, Rubio stated, “…our wounds will heal and it will make us stronger.” What caused those wounds in the first place? Why was this moment of justice so important to Gabriel’s relatives? In order to understand, it will be necessary to travel back to February 20, 2005, where the heartbreaking story of Gabriel Fernandez began.
