A jury being asked to recommend whether a Palmdale man convicted of the torture-murder of his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole will hear closing arguments Monday in his trial’s penalty phase.
The seven-woman, five-man panel found Isauro Aguirre, a 37-year-old former security guard, guilty of first-degree murder for the May 2013 killing of Gabriel Fernandez. Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture, making him eligible for capital punishment.
The boy’s mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, is awaiting trial separately in her son’s killing. She could also face the death penalty if convicted.
The prosecution’s witnesses during the trial’s penalty phase included the boy’s biological father, Arnold Contreras, who said he felt guilty and hopeless when he learned that his son had been beaten and was on life support.
The boy’s father said he “should have been there” but was in a Riverside County jail at the time. He told jurors that he never wanted his son to move in with the boy’s mother or her boyfriend, saying she had never shown any affection toward him.
Prosecutors said earlier that Contreras believed the boy’s maternal grandparents would be caring for his son but that Fernandez and Aguirre “took him away.”
The boy’s uncle, Christopher Contreras, said he still remembers the way his nephew looked in the hospital whenever he thinks about him.
In emotional testimony, the military veteran said he had “seen some bad stuff in war” but what his nephew went through “makes it nothing.”
Jurors were shown photos of the boy’s battered body lying on an autopsy table with injuries from head to toe and heard testimony from a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective that he had never seen a child with that many injuries in his 26-year career in law enforcement.
During the defense’s portion of the penalty phase, one of Aguirre’s sisters testified that she does not believe he was responsible for the crime.
“We don’t believe it,” Elizabeth Aguirre said when asked if it was true that her entire family felt the same way.
When asked about the case against Aguirre, another one of his other relatives said he was “astonished when I heard it and am still astonished.”
The defense ended its portion of the penalty phase Thursday with testimony from a consultant who spent more than 26 years working for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“I think he is more likely to be prey than predator,” William Adams said in opining on how the defendant might be treated by other inmates in state prison, saying that he believed Aguirre would be “in danger of being assaulted” and that “his life would be in danger” behind bars as a result of his conviction for murdering a child.
“I don’t personally know Mr. Aguirre. I know he’s been convicted of terrible things,” Adams said, telling jurors that it was his personal opinion that Aguirre committed “an evil act.”
In his opening statement during the trial’s penalty phase last month, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami called Aguirre an “evil” man who “liked torturing” the boy and did so systematically in the months leading up to the child’s death because he thought he was gay.
One of Aguirre’s attorneys, Michael Sklar, acknowledged during the guilt phase of the trial that Aguirre killed the boy, but said the defendant “acted in a rage of anger followed by an explosion of violence.”
Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel went to the family’s home in the 200 block of East Avenue Q-10 in Palmdale on May 22, 2013, in response to a call that Gabriel was not breathing. He was declared brain-dead that day and taken off life support two days later.
Aguirre and Fernandez have been jailed without bail since being charged in May 2013 with the boy’s death. The two were subsequently indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury.
Two former Los Angeles County social workers — Stefanie Rodriguez and Patricia Clement — and supervisors Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt are awaiting trial on one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records involving the boy.
—City News Service