LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KTLA/CNN) – A Los Angeles mother will spend the rest of her life in prison for the torture killing of her 8-year-old son. At the same time, her boyfriend was sentenced to death.
Pearl Fernandez was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in connection with her son Gabriel’s death in 2013.
Prosecutors say her boyfriend—Isauro Aguirre—systematically abused Gabriel because he thought the boy was gay.
The child was taken to the hospital when he stopped breathing. He was declared brain dead and died two days later.
According to prosecutors, Aguirre and Fernandez worked together to keep their abuse of the boy hidden.
Presiding Judge George G. Lomeli said, “The conduct was horrendous, inhumane and nothing short of evil. The repeated beatings, burning, starving, binding, shooting Gabriel with BBs that were embedded in different parts of his body, knocked his teeth out with a bat, locking him in a dark cabinet while he’s bound, and starving this poor child It is unimaginable the pain that this child probably endured.”
Four Los Angeles County social workers also face criminal negligence charges in connection with the boy’s death. They were all assigned to Gabriel’s case.
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