Mother Who Tortured 8-Year-Old Son Cites ‘Shocking’ Reason for Resentencing, Judge Rejects Bid

A California mother convicted of first-degree murder for torturing and killing her 8-year-old son was denied re-sentencing for the second time on March 30. She was earlier convicted of murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

A 42-year-old California woman, identified as Pearl Fernandez, attempted to get a resentencing, but the court denied her request on March 30.

Fernandez was convicted of first-degree murder of her 8-year-old son with the help of her boyfriend. She is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment, and this was her second attempt at getting a resentencing, which was denied.

On March 30, the Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, George G. Lomeli denied Fernandez’s request after an emotionally charged hearing. “We are here again, reliving and reopening wounds,” said Emily Caranza, one of several family members who spoke during the court proceeding, according to local NBC affiliate KNBC.

In her latest petition, which Fernandez filed in February, she claimed that her state-appointed defense attorney who represented her in the murder case, “provided ineffective assistance of counsel” and “coerced me into signing a plea of guilt for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole,” according to reports filed by local ABC affiliate KABC and the Southern-California based City News Service.

Fernandez was sentenced by the court in 2018 after entering a guilty plea in which she confessed to the brutal torture and mistreatment of her 8-year-old son, identified as Gabriel, who died from blunt force trauma and child abuse over a long period of time. Fernandez’s boyfriend, identified as Isauro Aguirre, was found guilty of participating in the abuse and was sentenced to death.

Police and prosecutor said the 8-year-old victim was beaten by Fernandez and her boyfriend with a wooden club and a broomstick and was also tortured with numerous household items. The items included an Icy Hot, a metal hanger, a belt, and lighters. His parents also used pepper spray, BB guns and other objects to hurt him. The boy was forced to eat cat litter, cat feces, urine, vomit and rotten spinach as well.

Gabriel was brought to the hospital before his death, and the doctors said that they found BBs embedded in his face, chest and groin, cuts and scars on his private parts, a skull fracture, broken ribs and open wounds all over his legs and feet.

The court denied Fernandez’s resentencing request in 2021. She made a similar claim about her guilty plea being wrong, insisting that she was not involved in her son’s death, which happened in 2013.