Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday in the trial of a man who sobbed in a videotaped interrogation, an act his attorney has argued shows he has expressed remorse.
Isauro Aguirre, 37, is charged with murder with a special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture in connection with the May 2013 death of Gabriel Fernandez.
The boy’s mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, will be tried separately on the same charges.
On May 22, 2013, paramedics were sent to the family’s home in the 200 block of East Avenue Q-10 in response to a call that the boy wasn’t breathing. Gabriel was declared brain dead that day, then taken off life support two days later.
In the trial, sheriff’s Det. Elliott Uribe testified that he has seen defendants sometimes cry about their own predicament, out of fear for the consequences. He also testified that sometimes suspects cry out of remorse.
Uribe also testified that the injuries inflicted on the child “were the worst injuries I’ve ever seen on a child. Uribe has worked for the sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau for 10 years.
During testimony earlier in the trial, a senior deputy medical examiner testified that BBs had been recovered from the child’s body during an autopsy, including one in a lung. The examiner said that in addition to blunt force trauma to his head, several patches of the boy’s hair had been torn out, his face was swollen, four of his teeth had been knocked out and his feet had been burned.
He had numerous rib fractures, some new and others in the process of healing, and was suffering severe malnutrition at the time of his death.
Hatami told jurors in his opening statement that the youngster was beaten and systematically tortured because Aguirre believed the child was gay.
Another of Aguirre’s attorneys, John Alan, acknowledged during his opening statement that his client committed “unspeakable acts of abuse” against the boy before “exploding into a rage of anger.” But the defense contends that Aguirre never meant to kill the 8-year-old.
The boy’s death triggered investigations into the county’s child welfare system and resulted in the filing of criminal charges of child abuse and falsifying public records against two former county social workers and two of their supervisors, who are awaiting trial.
–City News Service