Free Republic

IS it normal for your mum to hit you with a belt? Is it normal to bleed?" These are just two of the heartbreaking questions Gabriel Fernandez asked his teacher in the months before he was beaten to death by his own mother and her partner. The eight-year-old boy was brutally tortured over eight months by Pearl Fernandez and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre - but despite making several brave pleas for help, he was left to die in the evil pair's home. New Netflix series The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez has now shed light on the harrowing case, with the...

A jury in Downtown L.A. spent less than seven hours deliberating before finding a man from Palmdale guilty Wednesday of the child abuse murder of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez. Jurors convicted Isauro Aguirre, 37, of first degree murder and also found true the special allegation of torture, which makes Aguirre eligible for the death penalty. The judge scheduled the penalty phase of the trial to begin November 27. Aguirre was accused of physically abusing Fernandez for at least eight months before the boy’s beating death in May, 2013.

A Los Angeles County judge ruled Monday that four social workers accused of criminal negligence in the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy they were charged with protecting should stand trial, allowing prosecutors to push ahead with a case that has sent a chill through the ranks of child protection workers nationwide.