California woman who tortured, murdered son wants conviction tossed foxnews.com

Gabriel Fernandez and his mother Pearl Fernandez. (Facebook/Getty Images), Fox News

A California woman, Pearl Fernandez, who pleaded guilty in 2018 of torturing and murdering her 8-year-old son Gabriel Fernandez, has reportedly filed a petition to dismiss her conviction.

Fernandez, now 37, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, are both convicted in the brutal 2013 killing of her eight-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, Fox News reported.

Fernandez argued in her petition that she could not be convicted of first-degree or second-degree murder because of recent changes to California’s Penal Code 1170.95. Read here.

A hearing for Fernandez’s petition is scheduled for June 1 before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli, who sentenced her in June 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami has assailed the changes, saying that they embolden “murderers of children to apply to be re-sentenced.”

“Gabriel’s family now has to relive all the horror that was perpetrated upon a small and helpless child,” Hatami Tweeted on Thursday. “It is plain wrong and completely unjust.”

Prosecutors said the boy was targeted for abuse because the pair believed he was gay.
He was repeatedly beaten, starved, tied up and made to sometimes sleep in a cabinet, authorities said. An autopsy revealed the boy had a fractured skull, multiple broken ribs and burns on his body.

Fernandez’s case was the subject of a six-part Netflix documentary released last year titled “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.” Read more>>