{"id":64540,"date":"2015-07-01T17:05:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T00:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=64540"},"modified":"2015-07-01T17:08:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T00:08:39","slug":"da-to-seek-death-penalty-against-palmdale-couple-in-gabriels-beating-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2015\/07\/01\/da-to-seek-death-penalty-against-palmdale-couple-in-gabriels-beating-death\/","title":{"rendered":"DA to seek death penalty against Palmdale couple in Gabriel\u2019s beating death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pearl<\/a>
Pearl Fernandez (center) and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre (right) are accused of inflicting multiple injuries upon her son, 8-year-old Gabriel (left), including fracturing his skull, breaking several ribs and burning him all over his body. Gabriel was pronounced dead on May 24, 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES – The prosecution announced Wednesday that it will seek the death penalty against a Palmdale couple charged with capital murder in the beating death of the woman’s 8-year-old son.<\/p>\n

Pearl Sinthia Fernandez<\/strong>, 31, and Isauro Aguirre<\/strong>, 35, were indicted last summer in the May 2013 killing of Gabriel Fernandez<\/strong>, whose death triggered investigations into the county’s child welfare system.<\/p>\n

The murder count includes the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture.<\/p>\n

Aguirre was in present, but Fernandez was not in court Wednesday as Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami made the announcement that the District Attorney’s Office is \u201cgoing to seek the death penalty as to both defendants in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandez and Aguirre are due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom July 14 for a pretrial hearing.<\/p>\n

The two — who are being held without bail — were initially charged in May 2013 with the boy’s killing.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors took the case to the grand jury last year to avoid continued delays in the case, Hatami said last year.<\/p>\n

Fernandez and Aguirre are accused of inflicting multiple injuries on the 8-year-old boy, who suffered a fractured skull, several broken ribs and was burned.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel were sent on May 22, 2013, to a home in the 200 block of East Avenue Q-10 in response to a call that the boy was not breathing. Gabriel was declared brain-dead that day, but not taken off life support until two days later.<\/p>\n

In July 2014, the boy’s father, three siblings and paternal grandparents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county departments of Children and Family Services and Public Social Services, the Sheriff’s Department and the Palmdale School District. Fernandez and Aguirre were also named as defendants.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleged that the siblings, like Gabriel, were \u201ccompelled\u201d by county officials to live with Fernandez and Aguirre and were also \u201cphysically and emotionally abused\u201d by the couple.<\/p>\n

Family members, neighbors, teachers and others made more than 60 abuse reports to the proper county authorities, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

County authorities previously said two social workers and two supervisors were ordered fired in the wake of the boy’s death.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

L.A. County trying to block return of social worker in Palmdale child abuse death<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Accused child killers plead not guilty<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Four social workers fired in death of Gabriel<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Couple charged with capital murder in death of Palmdale boy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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

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

LOS ANGELES – The prosecution announced Wednesday that it will seek the death penalty against a Palmdale couple charged with capital murder in the beating death of the woman’s 8-year-old son. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 31, and Isauro Aguirre, 35, were indicted last summer in the May 2013 killing of Gabriel Fernandez, whose death triggered investigations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":38158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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\/64540"}],"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\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}