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Teacher reported alleged abuse of 8-year-old boy months before his death

by City News Service • October 25, 2017

Gabriel Fernandez

LOS ANGELES – A teacher testified Wednesday that she called authorities to report an 8-year-old Palmdale boy’s account that he was being abused months before he was allegedly tortured and killed by his mother and her boyfriend.

Jennifer Garcia, a first-grade teacher at Summerwind Elementary School in Palmdale, told a downtown Los Angeles Superior Court jury that she made her first call about Gabriel Fernandez to Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services hotline on Oct. 30, 2012, after talking with the boy.

Her testimony came during the second week of the trial of 37-year-old Isauro Aguirre, who is charged with murder with a special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture in connection with the boy’s May 2013 death.

The boy’s mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, will be tried separately.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the two.

Jurors heard a tape-recording of the teacher’s call to the DCFS hotline, in which Garcia reported that the boy “mentions that his mom hits him” and that he questioned her if it was normal for a mother to hit their children.

The teacher told the hotline worker that the boy told her that sometimes his mom hit him on the buttocks with the metal part of a belt, making him bleed.

“He literally did not want to go home,” Garcia told the hotline worker.

She also said that she saw a bruise under the boy’s left eye and on his hand and that he just looked “beat up.”

The teacher said she called social workers about the boy on other occasions throughout the school year.

“More than any other child you had that year?” Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami asked.

“In my career,” the teacher responded.

In one instance, she said she also saw Gabriel show up to school in November 2012 with chunks of his hair missing. She said the boy — who had a fat lip around the same time period — told her then that his mom punched him in the mouth.

In late January 2013, the youngster — who had “really swollen and puffy eyes” — eventually acknowledged that his mother had shot him in the face with a BB gun, the teacher said. The boy told her that he didn’t tell the truth right away about it because, “When I tell you, that lady (apparently referring to a social worker) comes and I get hurt worse.”

On another occasion, the boy’s mother brought him to school in a short, tight girls’ pink shirt with polka dots and girls’ pants, the witness said.

“It just seemed like it was they were almost maybe seeing how far they could go,” Garcia said.

The teacher said she stopped sending home notes about behavioral concerns because she was concerned that it was causing him to get injured. She said she noticed that he had “various bruises in different stages of healing” after he was absent from school.

Garcia said that she documented injuries to his forehead and his eye in April 2013 and that he “looked horrible” when he was photographed holding signs with the letters “M” and “O” for a Mother’s Day project that was still sitting on his desk when she was notified of his death.

The teacher said she subsequently found a note in his desk in which he had written “I love you Mom and Gabriel is a good boy.”

Other school employees also testified that they were concerned about the boy and his injuries, telling jurors they were skeptical about his mother’s claim that she had sent him to Texas to live with his grandmother.

Roberto Lopez, who was the school’s principal at the time, said he remembered seeing the boy with injuries on two occasions, including one in which he claimed he had gotten a black eye from falling off his bicycle.

The school’s health assistant, Donna Evans, testified that the child was adamant that he didn’t want to go home when he had a “cherry red” eye, but that Aguirre explained that the boy had fallen and popped a blood vessel in his eye when he came to the school to pick up the boy.

School secretary Pamela Howell grew emotional when she was asked to identify a photo of the boy and said she was “scared for him” when his mother was called about the injury to his eye. She said she was so concerned about the youngster’s welfare that she asked the principal to have a welfare check done after the boy’s mother claimed he had been sent to Texas.

She told jurors that she had questioned Aguirre during the school year about the boy’s repeated absences and that he responded that “he was the father and he would do whatever he wanted with his kids.”

Jurors also heard emotional testimony from a registered nurse who saw the boy on May 22, 2013, after he was brought by paramedics to Antelope Valley Hospital’s emergency room.

Christene Estes described the child’s body as “lifeless” and “little” with “bruising from head to toe,” saying it was “literally worse than any horror movie I’ve seen.”

The jury had heard Tuesday from a security guard who worked at a Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services office in Palmdale, who testified that he called 911 and a Los Angeles County sheriff’s station to report injuries to the boy in an effort to save him about two weeks before he heard about the child’s death.

Arturo Martinez told jurors that the boy was “sad” and “full of bruises,” along with cigarette burns, lacerations and a black eye.

The security guard testified that he decided to call 911 after noticing the boy’s injuries when his mother brought the child into the public welfare office with his siblings on April 26, 2013.

He said he was both surprised and disappointed when he was directed during the 911 call to notify the local sheriff’s station instead.

“…. Were you trying to save that little boy?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes,” Martinez responded, saying that the child “looked very bad.”

Last week, two of the boy’s older siblings provided a harrowing account of abuse, with his older brother testifying that the little boy was forced to eat cat litter and cat feces and was repeatedly beaten in the months leading up to his death.

The boy’s older sister broke down in tears as she was asked to identify a photo of him. She testified that she saw Aguirre shoot her brother with a BB gun and repeatedly punch him, and that her mother knocked two of his teeth out.

The prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement last week that the boy was beaten and systematically tortured because Aguirre believed the child was gay.

One of Aguirre’s attorneys, John Alan, acknowledged during his opening statement that his client committed “unspeakable acts of abuse” against the boy before “exploding into a rage of anger” that the defense contends resulted in the boy’s unintentional death.

Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel were sent to the family’s home in the 200 block of East Avenue Q-10 on May 22, 2013, in response to a call that the boy was not breathing. He was declared brain dead that day, then taken off life support two days later.

The boy’s death triggered investigations into the county’s child welfare system and resulted in the filing of criminal charges of child abuse and falsifying public records against two former county social workers and two of their supervisors, who are awaiting trial.

Previous related stories:

Eight BBs recovered from 8-year-old boy’s body after his death

Victim’s brother, sister testify about alleged abuse

Palmdale man’s defense attorney admits client murdered 8-year-old boy

Prospective jurors asked to fill out questionnaires in trial of Palmdale man charged in 8-year-old boy’s beating death

Trial date set for Palmdale couple charged in boy’s beating death

DA to seek death penalty against Palmdale couple in Gabriel’s beating death

L.A. County trying to block return of social worker in Palmdale child abuse death

Accused child killers plead not guilty

Four social workers fired in death of Gabriel

Couple charged with capital murder in death of Palmdale boy

Justice for Gabriel protest, teacher speaks out

Palmdale boy dies after abuse, mother and boyfriend arrested

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

18 comments for "Teacher reported alleged abuse of 8-year-old boy months before his death"

  1. Jessica says

    November 5, 2017 at 1:29 am

    But wait….if he did it because he was “gay” doesnt that make it a hate crime? Doesnt homicide during a hate crime qualify as a death penalty cases?

    • Tim Scott says

      November 5, 2017 at 8:09 am

      Torture is a special circumstance and would be the most likely avenue for the death penalty, but, yeah, it seems like the hate crime laws would apply also.

  2. Salina Douglas says

    October 27, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    Political discussion, really? Gabriel suffered on a regular basis. His mother was supposed to love and protect him, and she failed him miserably. Gabriel’s life story is heartbreaking. The outcome should not have been death. Too many people/entites failed Gabriel. How do we stop this from happening? We teach our children to tell someone, but how does that some send the child home for continued abuse? How do you sleep, work and continue going about your day knowing a child is being BRUTALLY abused, harmed, neglected, starved, humiliated? I don’t know all the legal ramifications, you can’t walk off with a child, BUT WHY couldn’t the child be detained at/by the school/ security officer and call the police? The injuries described by paramedics and hospital personnel said Gabriel’s 59 lb tiny body was covered with unimaginable visable scars, bruises, cuts, burns. Have people lost compassion and empathy for human beings? I pray your soul is resting in peace now, your innocent life should not have ended this way.

  3. justsayn says

    October 27, 2017 at 1:51 pm

    none of this has anything to do with politics. these ass hats didn’t have political views, all they cared about was themselves. did his mom and boyfriend want Gabriel dead? of course not. they wanted to continue to beat him to feel that adrenaline rush they got from it. they are two sick and demented individuals that do not deserve to take another breath. I will never understand why all of the children were left in the care of these animals. clearly, DCFS did not do their job and Gabriel is dead. hopefully now our judicial system will work and Isauro and Pearl will be put to death. hanging in the town square for all to witness…………

    • anonn says

      October 28, 2017 at 7:55 am

      hanging them locally is a GREAT idea. and I would like front row seats so that I may spit on them and curse them out until their last breath and beyond. and where-ever they are buried, i plan to do the same. rot in hell you animals.

  4. Alexis says

    October 27, 2017 at 9:09 am

    Asauro Aguirre needed to channel his hatred toward Gabriel, so his unstable mind-set decided to think he was gay. Whether or not it was true is NOT the issue. This is not a conservative/liberal issue. Anyone that uses this article to promote their own self-centered political agenda is incapable of understanding the real issue when it comes to child abuse.

    • Tim Scott says

      October 27, 2017 at 10:49 am

      So you are saying that the social conservatives push for allowing parents to “intervene” is not related to this situation? Maybe you should check into what goes on in these “intervention camps.” While most of them can say that they haven’t killed anyone, at least not yet, the exact same dark forces are at play, under cover of the exact same claimed motivation.

      This should be one of many areas where we could agree, if you could just set aside your blind hatred for a minute…but clearly you can’t.

  5. Alexis says

    October 27, 2017 at 7:42 am

    This case has nothing to do with politics. This isn’t a conservative/liberal issue. It is all about the mind-set of the mother and boyfriend that tortured and ultimately murdered this child. It is about DCFS that failed an innocent, named Gabriel Fernandez. Both the mother and the boyfriend were nothing but vessels of overflowing hate that was channeled to this child. Gabriel is free now.

    • Tim Scott says

      October 27, 2017 at 8:45 am

      The mindset of the father was a mindset that conservatives have generally approved of; intervention with his “gay” son was a “responsibility.” Conservatives now are joining in with disapproval of his METHODS, and trying to avoid the fact that they approved of his INTENT.

  6. Tim Scott says

    October 26, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    “If a father can’t beat the gay out of his son then who is gonna do it? The nanny state needs to butt out.” -average social conservative.

    “I want these monsters executed right now.” -same social conservative, later.

    • ACTON ranger says

      October 27, 2017 at 8:11 am

      As Alexis said – there is no politics in this case, only pure evil. But somehow I am sure that Isauro Aguirre was bama/hillary electorate. Try to convince me otherwise.

      • Tim Scott says

        October 27, 2017 at 8:50 am

        From the prosecutor’s statement: “because Aguirre believed the child was gay.” It isn’t about who he might have voted for, it’s about the fact that this exact same set of words is used by social conservatives to justify an assortment of heinous parental behaviors.

        This guy exceeded their limits, but the next time the social conservatives are openly supporting “you can’t pass a law against “good christians” hustling their kids off to an “intervention camp” you should recognize that all they are doing is using hired thugs to do their dirty work and they are really no better than Aguirre.

        • Alexis says

          October 27, 2017 at 12:29 pm

          The other story is that Asauro Aguirre exploded in rage because Gabriel wanted his mom to leave her boyfriend. Stop with the “gay panic” scenario. Both of them are sadists that enjoyed their ritual torturing of this child that led to this child’s death. These two weren’t social conservatives. They were very liberal with their cruelty, and justified their behavior. At least six million child abuse cases each year in America, and it is people that are professing Christians, Muslims, rich, poor, and different colors. And those are just the ones that are reported.

  7. Anonymous says

    October 26, 2017 at 4:03 pm

    No one tried hard enough. A phone call here, a report there. No one really stepped up. No one was really brave enough to put and end to it. The teachers, the police, the social workers, neighbors, the other family members. Gabriel paid the ultimate sacrifice for society not really wanting to get involved.

    • Denise Dunne says

      October 30, 2017 at 12:08 am

      60 people tried to report notthing was done that is an xtremely high numder

  8. Gabriel is now free! says

    October 25, 2017 at 7:04 pm

    I’m so sad for Gabriel… so many people tried to help him, and the ONE agency that could make a difference in his life and save him from abuse and torture, allowed his death to happen. Thank you to the teacher, to the security guard and many others that saw the obvious and made a call for help on his behalf.

    • ANON says

      October 26, 2017 at 11:03 am

      Well said.

    • Denise Dunne says

      October 30, 2017 at 12:03 am

      THE MOST SHOCKING part ot this childs life and death is how many people reported on the obvious and HOW LITTLE was done what does it take/

      If only this little boy had been taken from school 4 a full exame just once in the beginning omg

      /

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