After Pearl Fernandez pleaded guilty to killing her 8-year-old son Gabriel Fernandez, she is now claiming she was “coerced” into entering a guilty plea and is requesting that she be resentenced.
Fernandez, 42, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in March 2018 in connection to Gabriel’s death in 2013.
She has since filed two resentencing petitions, with the most recent filing claiming that the state-appointed defense attorney who represented her “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 KABC.
During her trial, Fernandez confessed to the brutal torture and mistreatment of Gabriel who died from blunt force trauma and prolonged child abuse. Fernandez’s boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, was also found guilty for his involvement in the abuse and he was given the death sentence.
The horrific case served as the subject of the 2020 Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.
Nearly five years after Fernandez filed her first resentencing petition, KABC and CNS reported that she filed papers this month claiming she still deserved to be resentenced and reported she received assistance with her new petition.
Fernandez claimed that “the petitioner has comprehension issues and documented verbal comprehension of a second grade student,” adding that she was “mistakenly under the impression that her case would then be going to appeal” when she signed the plea agreement during her 2018 conviction.
Despite Fernandez’s new petition, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami told CNS that he plans to “fight to make sure” she doesn’t get a new sentence. A March 30 hearing is scheduled to discuss the matter.
“These repeated requests to be re-sentenced are unfair and unjust to Gabriel, Gabriel’s family, his siblings and our L.A. community,” Hatami told the outlet. “Having to continuously relive these events and trauma for the family is not humane. At some point in the criminal justice process, we must stand up for the victims and for justice. So, as long as I’m around this planet, I will continue to do my part and make sure Gabriel receives justice and is never forgotten.”
Fernandez’s first resentencing request was denied in 2021 after she claimed her guilty plea was wrong and insisted that she had no part in her son’s death.
However, Hatami said during the first hearing regarding the resentencing that Fernandez was “clearly” involved in the child abuse, according to the Los Angeles Times.
When she filed the first resentencing petition in 2021, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli reviewed the case and said he denied the request because he believed she was “not entitled to resentencing relief.”
“It has been established by her own admission during her guilty plea that the murder was intentional and involved the infliction of torture over a period of several months…,” the judge said, according to CNS.
He also noted that the record supports the belief that Fernandez was a “major participant in the murder” of Gabriel.
In 2018, a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office stated that Fernandez was accused of abusing her son because she “believed the boy was gay.”
“Gabriel suffered numerous injuries, including a fractured skull, 12 broken ribs and burns,” the press release added.
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