Pearl Fernandez: Murder of Gabriel, Plea, and Resentencing Denials

Pearl Fernandez is a California woman serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of her eight-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, who died on May 24, 2013, after months of torture in her Palmdale apartment. She pleaded guilty in February 2018 to avoid the death penalty and has since twice tried, and twice failed, to have her sentence reduced. The most recent denial came on March 30, 2026.¹

What She Did to Gabriel

Gabriel spent the first seven and a half years of his life with his maternal grandparents, Robert and Sandra Fernandez, who had taken custody shortly after his birth in 2005.² In October 2012, he was returned to Pearl, who was then living with her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre. Robert Fernandez later testified that he had warned officers about Pearl’s history of abusing her other children.³

Over the next eight months, Gabriel was beaten with bats, a wooden club, belt buckles, and metal hangers. Aguirre knocked out the boy’s teeth, shot him with a BB gun, and doused him with pepper spray. Gabriel was forced to eat his own vomit, cat feces, and rotten spinach, locked inside a small cabinet, often gagged with a sock, and denied use of a bathroom.⁴ Prosecutors said much of the abuse was driven by Aguirre’s belief that Gabriel was gay. The boy was called slurs, punished for playing with dolls, and forced to wear girls’ clothing to school.⁵

On May 22, 2013, Pearl called 911 claiming Gabriel had fallen and hit his head on a dresser. Paramedics found him naked and unresponsive, with a cracked skull, broken ribs, and BB pellets lodged in his lung and groin. One paramedic testified that “every inch of this child had been abused.”⁴ Gabriel died two days later at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The coroner determined his cause of death was blunt-force trauma and child neglect. Pearl and Aguirre were arrested the day before he died and charged with capital murder on May 28, 2013.⁶

The Plea and the Sentence

The case was prosecuted in Los Angeles County Superior Court (case number BA425180) by Deputy District Attorneys Jon Hatami and Scott Yang, who tried Pearl and Aguirre separately.⁷

Aguirre went first. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in November 2017 and found true the special circumstance of intentional murder by torture. On June 7, 2018, Judge George G. Lomeli sentenced him to death, calling the crime “horrendous, inhumane and nothing short of evil” and the worst case of abuse he had seen in nearly two decades on the bench.⁸ Aguirre remains on California’s condemned inmate list, though a statewide moratorium on executions has been in effect since Governor Gavin Newsom’s March 2019 executive order.⁹

Pearl Fernandez pleaded guilty in February 2018 to one count of first-degree murder and admitted the special circumstance of intentional murder by torture. She entered the plea to avoid the death penalty.¹⁰ Judge Lomeli sentenced her to life without the possibility of parole on June 7, 2018. As part of the plea agreement, she waived all of her appellate rights.

Her Own Background

At sentencing, defense attorneys presented details of Pearl’s history. A clinical and forensic neuropsychologist, Deborah S. Miora, determined she has an intellectual disability. A 2011 cognitive test placed her verbal comprehension at a second-grade level, in the third percentile.⁸

Born on August 29, 1983, Pearl grew up in a violent household. Her father cycled in and out of jail, and she reported that her mother frequently hit her. She began drinking and using methamphetamine at age nine and ran away from home at eleven. She reported being sexually assaulted as a teenager, experienced suicidal ideation, and was hospitalized. She had a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction from Texas. In the months before Gabriel’s death, she was taking large doses of opioid painkillers, including OxyContin and Norco, and she reported that several romantic partners, including Aguirre, had physically abused her.⁸

None of it changed the outcome. Judge Lomeli concluded that the evidence overwhelmingly established her direct participation in the prolonged torture of her son.

Resentencing Attempts

Pearl has twice sought a reduced sentence under California Senate Bill 1437, a 2019 law that allows people convicted of murder under the felony murder rule or the “natural and probable consequences” doctrine to challenge their sentences if they did not personally intend to kill.¹ Judge Lomeli denied her first petition in June 2021.

Her second petition, filed in February 2026, added claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. She argued that she had been coerced into her plea and that her cognitive limitations left her with the mistaken belief that her case would go to appeal.¹¹ On March 30, 2026, Judge Lomeli rejected every argument. Prosecutor Hatami argued that SB 1437 was irrelevant because Pearl was a direct participant in the torture, not someone convicted under an aiding-and-abetting theory. Lomeli agreed, finding that she could still be convicted of murder beyond a reasonable doubt and that her own admissions during the 2018 plea established intentional murder involving months of torture.¹² Under California law, she retains the right to file future petitions.¹

Where She Is Now

Pearl Fernandez is incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.¹² Her sentence carries no possibility of parole.

The System That Failed Gabriel

Before Gabriel’s death, more than 60 complaints had been lodged with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, and eight separate investigations had been conducted into the family. Teachers reported bruises and other injuries after Gabriel returned to his mother’s custody in October 2012, but the boy was never removed from the home. Deputies who visited the residence reportedly failed to check for physical signs of abuse or file detailed reports.⁴

In 2016, four DCFS social workers, Stefanie Rodriguez, Patricia Clement, Kevin Bom, and Gregory Merritt, were each charged with one felony count of child abuse and one felony count of falsifying public records. All four were fired.¹³ On January 6, 2020, the California Second District Court of Appeal threw out the charges, ruling that the workers did not have legal custody of Gabriel and could not be held criminally liable for the actions of his abusers. Judge Lomeli formally dismissed the case in July 2020 and found the social workers factually innocent.¹⁴

Robert and Sandra Fernandez filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2013 against the county, DCFS, the Palmdale school district, and other agencies.¹⁵ By June 2016, county claims boards recommended the Board of Supervisors pay $2.63 million to settle those claims along with a second suit filed by Gabriel’s biological father.¹⁶

1
Los Angeles Times. Mother Who Killed Gabriel Fernandez Denied Resentencing
2
ABC7. Grandfather of Slain Palmdale Boy Says Gabriel Was Like His Son
3
Newsweek. Gabriel Fernandez’s Grandparents Robert and Sandra Fernandez
4
Los Angeles Times. Gabriel Fernandez Case Details
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NBC News. Man Sentenced to Death for Torture Murder of Boy He Thought Was Gay
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NBC Los Angeles. Timeline: Child Abuse Tragedy
7
Los Angeles Times. Jon Hatami and the Gabriel Fernandez Case
8
Los Angeles Times. Isauro Aguirre Sentenced to Death
9
Los Angeles Times. California Death Row
10
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Mother, Boyfriend Sentenced for Torture-Murder of 8-Year-Old Gabriel Fernandez
11
FOX Los Angeles. Gabriel Fernandez’s Mother Denied Resentencing
12
ABC7. Gabriel Fernandez’s Mother Denied Resentencing in 8-Year-Old’s Torture Death
13
The Imprint. Appeals Court Refuses to Reconsider Dismissed Charges Against Social Workers
14
NBC News. Case Dismissed Against Social Workers Charged in Death of 8-Year-Old
15
NBC Los Angeles. Gabriel Fernandez Grandparents File Wrongful Death Lawsuit
16
The Imprint. LA County May Near $2.63 Million Settlement