Left inset: Pearl Fernandez (KABC/YouTube). Right inset: Gabriel Fernandez (CASA). Background: The California residence where Pearl Fernandez tortured and abused her 8-year-old son Gabriel Fernandez to death (KCBS/YouTube).
A California mother who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for "beating, binding, burning and starving" her 8-year-old son with help from her boyfriend has been denied resentencing for a second time after insisting she was "coerced" into pleading guilty.
The resentencing attempt by Pearl Fernandez, 42, of Palmdale, was shot down Monday by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli following an emotionally charged petition hearing.
"We are here again, reliving and reopening wounds," said Emily Carranza, one of several family members who spoke during the court proceeding, according to local NBC affiliate KNBC.
In her latest petition, which was filed in February, Fernandez claimed that the state-appointed defense attorney who represented her in the murder case "provided ineffective assistance of counsel" and "coerced me into signing a plea of guilt for a sentence of life without possibility of parole," according to local ABC affiliate KABC and the Southern California-based City News Service.
Fernandez was sentenced in 2018 after entering a guilty plea in which she confessed to the brutal torture and mistreatment of her son, Gabriel, who died from blunt force trauma and child abuse over a long period of time. Fernandez's boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, was also found guilty of participating in the abuse and sentenced to death.
Prosecutors and police said Gabriel was beaten with a wooden club and a broomstick, and tortured with numerous household items — including Icy Hot, a metal hanger, a belt, and lighters. His parents also used pepper spray, BB guns, and other objects to hurt him. The boy was forced to eat cat litter, cat feces, urine, vomit, and rotten spinach, as well.
When Gabriel was brought to the hospital in 2013 before his death, doctors said he had BBs embedded in his face, chest and groin; cuts and scars on his private parts; a skull fracture; broken ribs; and open wounds all over his legs and feet.
In 2021, Fernandez was denied a resentencing request after making similar claims about her guilty plea being wrong, insisting that she was not involved in her son's 2013 death. Prosecutors said the boy was forced to eat cat feces and slept handcuffed to a small wooden drawer inside a closet-like box, along with other heinous treatment.
"Clearly Pearl was involved in that child abuse, starving Gabriel, keeping him in the box for eight months, not taking him for medical aid, pepper-spraying him in the face, hitting him with a baseball bat — so many things were brought out in the trial," Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said at a hearing during Fernandez's first attempt for resentencing, according to the Los Angeles Times.
For her latest petition, Fernandez filed papers claiming she still deserved to be resentenced. She alleged that "the petitioner has comprehension issues and documented verbal comprehension of a second grade student" and that she was "mistakenly under the impression that her case would then be going to appeal" when she signed the plea agreement before her 2018 conviction.
Fernandez's defense attorney, Joseph Markus, pointed to California Senate Bill 1437, which allows people to seek resentencing if they were convicted of felony murder or under the natural and probable consequences doctrine, as reasoning for her to be resentenced. The LA Times reports that SB 1437 has allowed gang convictions and other crimes to be overturned after a victim was killed during a crime committed by a group, with child abuse cases involving parents also being considered.
Hatami said Monday that the California law does not apply to Fernandez and Gabriel's case as she was convicted of being a direct participant in the slaying.
"The torture and murder of Gabriel was never a case of felony murder or natural and probable consequences," Hatami wrote in an opposition filing. "It was not pled that way, it was not presented that way, and it was not tried that way."
Fernandez was accused of abusing her son because she "believed the boy was gay," according to a 2018 press release announcing her guilty plea.
"Gabriel suffered numerous injuries, including a fractured skull, 12 broken ribs and burns," the press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.
Fernandez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and admitted to the special circumstance allegation of intentional murder by torture. Aguirre was found guilty of first-degree murder and the special circumstance allegation of intentional murder by torture.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, social workers who handled Gabriel's abuse case were accused of felony child abuse and falsifying public records, but had their cases dismissed in 2020. Their defense attorneys argued that the abuse Gabriel suffered got worse after the state closed out the boy's file. They also said the social workers did not have enough evidence to take the boy away from his mother.
Hatami told the Times on Monday that he was "mad and upset" that Gabriel's family had to "relive this again" following Fernandez's latest resentencing attempt.
"My frustration is because of the family," Hatami said. "This opens up wounds, they've got to come to court, they're afraid that the judge may let this person out. This anxiety and stress can break you down."
Under California law, Fernandez can file another resentencing petition despite being shot down twice.
Gabriel's cousins, Olivia Rubio and Emily Carranza, told reporters they just want "this to be over," per the Times.
"We do need closure," Rubio said. "It's been a hard time, but she's not going to stop, and that's why our voices need to get louder."