New court records published on Monday detail the graphic grand jury testimony about the gruesome death and abuse of an 8-year-old Los Angeles boy at the hands of his parents.
Prosecutors told the jury that 30-year-old Pearl Fernandez and 34-year-old Isauro Aguirre abused “every inch” of their 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, before ultimately beating him to death in May of last year.
Prosecutors said that “for eight straight months, Gabriel was abused, beaten, and tortured more severely than many prisoners of war.”
Prosecutors say the boy even wrote his own suicide note because he no longer wanted to endure the beatings.
Along with the sickening treatment of the boy, the case also highlights yet another in a long line of failures on the part of child services. Two social workers and two supervisors have been fired since Gabriel’s death after failing to act on repeated warning signs.
Last May, Fernandez called 911 after Gabriel stopped breathing. She told police that her son fell and hit his head on the dresser.
Gabriel was found to have a cracked skull and three broken ribs. X-rays showed that the boy had BB pellets lodged in his lungs and groin.
The boys two siblings gave statements, saying Gabriel was forced to eat cat feces and rotten food and was never allowed to use the bathroom. He was beaten with a belt buckle, hangers, and wooden clubs. At one point, Fernandez hit the boy so hard with the belt buckle she knocked out multiple teeth.
Despite concern from teachers at the school and multiple investigations by social workers, the child was never removed from the home.
Every incident report shows that social workers concluded there was no abuse.
Gabriel’s siblings said the final beating came on May 22 when Fernandez got upset that he didn’t clean up after himself.
She and Aguirre reportedly took him to a bedroom and beat him.
The Los Angeles coroner James Kemp Ribe told the grand jury that he has “never seen this many skin injuries on a child.”
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