Lanie Heuser

Dr. Haslam

P. 5

In the city of Palmdale in California, an 8-year-old boy named Gabriel lived with his

mom, her boyfriend, and his two siblings. They lived in a low-income looking apartment

complex in a rundown neighborhood.

Gabriel would start his day going to school at Summerwind Elementary School. He loved

being at school. It was one of his favorite places. He loved learning and was always so happy to

be there. However, going home was not as good of an experience as being at school. He dreaded

being at home because of how abusive his mom and her boyfriend were to him. They often beat

him, cruelly punished him, and would even shoot him with a BB gun. He would show up at

school with fresh cuts and bruises all over his body very often.

Gabriel’s first grade teacher, Jennifer Garcia, quickly caught bad feelings that something

was going on at home and that he wasn't in a good place. Those bad feelings became stronger

when Gabriel went up to her one day and asked if it was normal for moms to hit their kids, and if

it was normal to bleed after getting hit with a belt buckle. Right after hearing these things, she

called the Los Angeles County child abuse hotline. Gabriel's case landed with Stephanie

Rodriguez, a social worker. Stephanie never adequately made the inquiries needed to determine

the conditions of Gabriel’s home life. And though Stephanie Rodriguez and many other

representatives from agencies that are designed to protect children visited Gabriel’s house

several times, the social workers never found signs of child abuse strong enough to get a warrant

to remove him or his siblings. “In a brief statement to The Atlantic, Rodriguez said that at the
time she was responsible for Gabriel, she was overseeing other children whose conditions she

felt were equally or more dangerous”(Gajanan 6).

As the year went on, the abuse got so much worse. To the point where Gabriel would

come to school with patches of his hair missing, he had scabs on his head. He had cuts on his lips

from being punched, and bruises from being shot by his mother with a BB gun. “Gabriel’s

siblings said he was forced to eat cat litter and was kept locked in a cabinet in his mother’s

room”(Gajanan 8). These are the types of things that Gabriel was trying to endure. All until May

22, when Gabriel’s mother called 911 to tell them that Gabriel was unconscious. She and her

boyfriend had beaten him until he passed out, but on the phone his mom made up a story, and

made her kids clean up all of Gabriel’s blood before the paramedics got there.

When the paramedics got there, it was one of the worst things that they had ever had

while working this job, and the first thing that came to their minds when they walked in was

"child abuse". There was nothing else that they could even think of as to why an 8-year-old boy

would be this injured.

“She described how they had needed to resuscitate him a number of times and listed the

damage that she had noted down. Gabriel had a skull fracture, skin missing from his throat,

bruising and cuts all over his face, black eyes, abrasions and ligature marks, cigarette marks and

bullets (from a BB gun) inside his lung and groin. It was noted that the injuries were at different

stages of healing, indicating how long Gabriel must have been in pain"(Turner 6). These injuries

were very serious, and they knew right away that this was caused by his mom and her boyfriend.

Everyone could tell that this wasn't caused by some made up accident, and that his mom had lied.

Sadly, Gabriel was pronounced brain dead, and died two days later on May 24th.
 Gabriel's siblings were taken into custody and eventually adopted by their uncle, Chris

Contreras. Gabriel's mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre were both

charged and convicted of First-degree murder with special circumstances of torture. Pearl

Fernandez was sentenced to life in prison, without possibility of parole. And Isauro Aguirre was

sentenced to death. To this day, both Pearl and Isauro are still living. Pearl is serving her

sentence at California's Chowchilla State Women's Prison. Isauro is being held at Richard J.

Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

At one point in time, there were four social workers that were charged with felony

because of this case. But it was later dismissed because ¨the workers did not have a legal

responsibility to care for a child the way a parent did¨(ABC news bay area 10).
 Word Count: 783

Citations

Person. (2020, May 23). Palmdale abuse case: Uncle breaks silence nearly 7 years after

Gabriel Fernandez's death. ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from

https://abc7news.com/gabriel-fernandez-family-documentary-anniversary/6206703/

Gajanan, M. (2020, March 3). The story behind Netflix's docuseries on Gabriel Fernandez.

Time. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://time.com/5790549/gabriel-fernandez-

netflix-documentary/

Turner, L. J. (2020, February 28). The trials of Gabriel Fernandez – updates in the

Anthony Avalos case and more. Digital Spy. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a31148923/gabriel-fernandez-anthony-avalos/