Pearl Fernandez has petitioned to be resentenced after pleading guilty to torturing and murdering her 8-year-old son Gabriel Fernandez.
According to PEOPLE, the California mother was sentenced to life without the chance of parole in 2018. She has cited California penal code changes because she can no longer be convicted of first or second-degree murder, ABC7 News reported.
The judge will hear her case on June 1, the Associated Press reported.
“I think that she feels that somehow maybe, you know, the special circumstance will be dismissed or maybe she’ll have a chance that the D.A. will agree with the petition,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami told CBS2.
The 8-year-old endured eight long months of torture at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre after he moved in with them in 2012.
He was found naked, with a cracked skull, shattered ribs, severe burns, and BB pellets buried in his body on May 22, 2013. Two days later, he was pronounced brain dead and taken off life support.
On the day his body was discovered, his mother and boyfriend beat him fiercely because he hadn’t cleaned up his toys, the Los Angeles Times reported.
His older brother testified that his younger brother was forced to eat cat feces and cat litter. He was also made to sleep “bound and gagged inside a small cabinet.”
“My mom and her boyfriend made Gabriel eat spoiled stuff or expired stuff,” the brother added.
Prosecutors from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office stated in a press release that he was “frequently beaten by Aguirre because he believed the boy was gay.”
Aguirre was found guilty and sentenced to death for the 2018 murder. He remains on San Quentin’s Death Row.
RIP Gabriel!
