“…metal BBs were found embedded in Gabriel’s body – nine of them in his neck, face, lung, legs, buttocks, foot, chest and groin area.”
The prosecution on Wednesday rested in the murder trial of Isauro Aguirre, the boyfriend of Pearl Fernandez, both of whom are charged with murdering Fernandez’s 8-year old boy in 2013. Gabriel Fernandez was allegedly tortured for 8 months while living with the couple, until a severe beating ended his life. Both Aguirre and Fernandez, according to reports, believed Gabriel was gay. Gabriel was allegedly tortured and beaten to death because of that belief.
During those eight months, Gabriel was forced to go to school in pink leggings and a pink shirt, repeatedly beaten, made to eat cat feces and his own vomit.
Dr. Alyssa Rake, the attending physician who examined Gabriel when he was brought in to the hospital in May of 2013 told jurors last week, “I found no brain function. He was confirmed to be brain dead,” ABC 7 reports.
Rake “said she found a depressed skull fracture, bruising on his eyes and some missing upper teeth. She saw different stages and ages of bruising and scars, small circular cuts and that he had a deep lash on the base of his penis and a burn mark.”
From radiological images, Rake found Gabriel had a broken skull, a hematoma on his head, swelling on the brain, a deviation of his nose, removed teeth, neck swelling, a cut to his liver and a hematoma on it, and that he had lung disease.
Rake said Gabriel also had multiple old and new rib fractures, a BB in his lung and a swollen knee.
ABC 7 on Thursday reported a sheriff’s deputy who testified Wednesday “listed all the evidence found at the Palmdale apartment where Gabriel was found unresponsive.”
The list includes items the prosecution said Aguirre used to torture Gabriel, such as a bat and club. Other items detectives found were two pairs of handcuffs, metal BBs in a plastic container and 10 BB-type guns, but only one that shot the metal pellets.
Those metal BBs were found embedded in Gabriel’s body – nine of them in his neck, face, lung, legs, buttocks, foot, chest and groin area.
Pearl Fernandez is being tried separately. Both could receive the death penalty if convicted.
Gabriel’s first grade teacher, Jennifer Garcia, according to PEOPLE magazine, said after his death “she found a note he had written in the desk at school. It read, according to reports: ‘I love you, Mom. Gabriel is a good boy.'”
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