THE TRIALS OF GABRIEL FERNANDEZ

GABRIEL WAS TORTURED AND KILLED BY THOSE WHO SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED HIM

- April Glover

Gabriel Fernandez was only 8 years old when his young life was barbarically cut short.

The sweet schoolboy from Palmdale, California, was routinely tortured, beaten and verbally abused by his biological mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, up until his tragic death in 2013.

His fleeting life was marred with unspeakable horror, the details of which are laid bare in the new Netflix documentary, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.

The torture Gabriel endured in the last months of his life are too heinous to comprehend.

His mother Pearl abandoned Gabriel when he was just 3 days old, leaving him at the hospital where he was born. He spent his early years being ferried around different family members, including with his loving uncle and his partner, before inexplicably being placed back in the custody of his mother and her new boyfriend, Aguirre, in late 2012.

Pearl never wanted her son Gabriel – she made that very clear in her abhorrent treatment of him. It has also been widely suggested she only accepted him back into her care for the welfare benefits.

Gabriel’s teachers grew increasingly concerned about his home life. The third-grader would turn up to class covered in bruises, fresh cuts and scabs and even asked his teacherswhether it was ‘normal’ for parents to beat their children with a belt. Finally, one teacher contacted a child abuse hotline and Gabriel’s case was assigned to a social worker.