{"id":37417,"date":"2013-05-28T23:13:40","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T06:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=37417"},"modified":"2013-05-28T23:13:57","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T06:13:57","slug":"couple-charged-with-capital-murder-in-death-of-palmdale-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2013\/05\/28\/couple-charged-with-capital-murder-in-death-of-palmdale-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple charged with capital murder in death of Palmdale boy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Isauro<\/a>
Isauro Aguirre and Pearl Fernandez appeared in court Tuesday (May 28) on capital murder charges in the death of Fernandez’s 8-year-old son, Gabriel. (Photo by TONY CHEVAL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PALMDALE \u2013A 29-year-old Palmdale mother and her 32-year-old boyfriend were charged Tuesday with one count each of murder with a special circumstance of torture in the deadly beating of the woman\u2019s 8-year-old son.<\/p>\n

Pearl Fernandez<\/strong> and Isauro Aguirre<\/strong> made their first appearance in an Antelope Valley courtroom Tuesday afternoon, but their arraignment was postponed.<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel\"<\/a>
Gabriel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the judge ordered the couple held without bail, the packed courtroom broke into applause. Many in the audience said they came in support of Gabriel,<\/strong> the 8-year-old boy allegedly tortured to death by the couple.<\/p>\n

Fernandez admitted to being present while her boyfriend abused her son in their Palmdale apartment in the 200 block of East Avenue Q-10, according to sheriff\u2019s officials.<\/p>\n

Gabriel died on Friday (May 24), two days after he was hospitalized with a fractured skull, cracked ribs, burns and bruises throughout his body.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sweet little innocent child took that abuse and that torture for so long.\u00a0 It angers me inside and it\u2019s nothing I can do about it,\u201d said Victoria Bishop. \u201cAll that I can do is just show up here for support cause I don\u2019t want a situation like this to be swept under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say it takes a village to raise a child, where\u2019s the village? Where were the protectors of this baby?\u201d said Shari Martin of the Antelope Valley Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children.<\/p>\n

Since Gabriel\u2019s death, family members, a teacher and neighbors have said that they reported the abuse to authorities before it culminated in death.<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel's<\/a>
Gabriel’s supporters held signs outside the courthouse Tuesday. (TONY CHEVAL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The case has angered the community, with many residents believing that authorities did not do enough to protect the child. On Monday, dozens of family members and supporters staged a \u201cJustice of Gabriel\u201d protest outside of the Palmdale Sheriff\u2019s Station.<\/p>\n

County Supervisor Michael Antonovich has said that he will launch an investigation into how the Department of Children and Family Services handled the case. There will also be an internal investigation into how the Palmdale Sheriff\u2019s Station handled at least three calls for service at the family\u2019s home, according to Palmdale Station Captain Don Ford.<\/p>\n

Fernandez and Aguirre are due back in court on June 11 for a scheduled arraignment on the capital murder charges. Prosecutors will decide at a later date whether to seek the death penalty, officials said.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Justice for Gabriel protest, teacher speaks out<\/a><\/p>\n

Palmdale boy dies after abuse, mother and boyfriend arrested<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALMDALE \u2013A 29-year-old Palmdale mother and her 32-year-old boyfriend were charged Tuesday with one count each of murder with a special circumstance of torture in the deadly beating of the woman\u2019s 8-year-old son. Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre made their first appearance in an Antelope Valley courtroom Tuesday afternoon, but their arraignment was postponed. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":37418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}