18 December 2017 :

A Los Angeles County jury sentenced Isauro Aguirre, 37, Ispanic, to death. The man is convicted of fatally torturing his girlfriend's young son, 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez. When paramedics arrived at the boy's home on May 22, 2013, Gabriel was unconscious and had a cracked skull, broken ribs, burned and bruised skin, missing teeth and BB pellets lodged in his groin. He died 2 days later after being removed from life support. Gabriel's death led as well to criminal charges against L.A. County social workers, who left the boy in the home with his mom and her boyfriend despite 6 investigations into abuse allegations involving his mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, who is also charged with murder. At a court hearing for the social workers earlier in the year, a judge said that their actions amounted to criminal negligence, adding that in the months before the boy's death "red flags were everywhere." Sheriff's deputies also visited the home multiple times in the months before the killing and prosecutors noted in court papers that some of the deputies were later disciplined in connection with Gabriel's death. Aguirre is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8.