A California woman and her boyfriend were sentenced this week fortheir systematic torture of the woman’s 8-year-old son, which covered his body with abuse and eventually killed him five years ago, PEOPLE confirms.
In a rare exhortation during their court hearing on Thursday, Judge George G. Lomeli reportedly told Isauro Aguirre and Pearl Fernandez: “I hope you think about the pain you caused this child and that it tortures you.”
Lomeli called the violence Fernandez’s sonGabrielsuffered “horrendous, inhumane and nothing short of evil,”according to theLos Angeles Times.
“This case showed how evil can not only inflict lasting damage to those who loved Gabriel but our society as well,” L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement after the sentencing. “The horrific nature of Gabriel’s abuse and murder has been seared into our minds and the defendants will now spend the rest of their lives in prison for their reprehensible actions.”
Accordingto news reports, the evidence and testimony in Aguirre’s trial left both court observers and jurors stunned — sometimes gasping or sobbing at what they learned.
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Hisolder brother testifiedthat Gabriel was forced to eat cat feces and cat litter and prosecutors said he “slept bound and gagged inside a small cabinet.”
When authorities were called to Gabriel’s home on May 22, 2013, he was found naked, with a cracked skull, shattered ribs, severe burns and BB pellets buried in his body,according to theL.A. Times.
Gabriel was declared brain-dead and taken off life support two days later.
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“It was just like every inch of this child had been abused,” paramedic James Cermaklater said on the stand, theTimesreports. Gabriel’s brother testified that Fernandez and Aguirre struck him with various weapons such as a club and a small bat, as well as a belt buckle and metal hanger.
The day Gabriel was reported unresponsive, his mother became angry because he didn’t clean up his toys, his brother said, according to theTimes. She and Aguirre proceeded to beat him fiercely.
“And that’s when it all stopped,” his brother said. “It just went quiet.”
Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/Getty
In court on Thursday, Fernandez apologized to her family and said, “I wish Gabriel was alive,” according to theTimes.
A jail chaplain also said that Fernandez loved Gabriel and had changed while in custody, praying and reading the Bible,the Associated Pressand theTimesreport.
Aguirre’s attorney said an execution for the murder was “grossly disproportionate” with his responsibility for the crime, according to theTimes.
The paper reports that Aguirre’s defense has said he likely has a learning disability and Fernandez’s attorney said she has a low IQ, with a neuropsychologist testifying for her that she is intellectually disabled and “virtually unable to use thought to guide her behavior and temper her emotional reactions.”
Fernandez’s attorney did not immediately resopnd to a request for comment on Friday. Efforts to reach Aguirre’s attorney were unsuccessful.
At Thursday’s hearing, they faced Gabriel’s relatives and his first-grade teacher,who had reported signs she sawthat he was being assaulted. She remembered Gabriel as a kind student and she described Aguirre and Fernandez as “evil,” according to theTimes.
“Gabriel loved you,” his cousin Emily Carranza reportedly said in court, looking straight at his mother. “The world fell in love with Gabriel as their own. Why couldn’t you?”
source: people.com
