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The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez: What happened to Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre?

The Netflix show has shocked and horrified viewers as it looks at how the murder of a young boy could have been avoided


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Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
March 9, 2020
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Viewers of the new Netflix true crime documentary The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez have been shocked by the show that looks at the murder of a young boy. Gabriel was killed by his mother and her partner, and the six-part series examines how the social services failed to act despite the warning signs that he was in a dangerous situation. While the end of the documentary sees Gabriel's mother Pearl Fernandez and her partner Isauro Aguirre brought to justice, where are they now? Find out here…

gabriel fernandez© Photo: Netflix

Gabriel was killed by his mother and her partner

Pearl Fernandez is currently serving a life sentence at the Chowchilla State Women's Prison in California, where she has been incarcerated since 2018. She has no possibility of parole. Pearl was originally charged with the death sentence, but pleaded guilty in order to have her sentence reduced.

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The documentary looks at the circumstances surrounding his murder

Meanwhile, Isauro was sentenced to death for the murder of Gabriel, and is awaiting his sentence in San Quentin prison. It is thought to be unlikely that he will face capital punishment since the last death sentence in the state of California was carried out back in 2006, and only 13 death row inmates have been executed since the law was reinstated, while 737 are currently on death row.

READ: 6 true crime shows that have reopened cases

WATCH: The trailer for The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez  

Following their sentence, Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli: "[Your] conduct was horrendous, inhumane and nothing short of evil. You want to say that the conduct was animalistic, but that would be wrong because even animals know how to take care of their young, some to the extent that they would sacrifice their own lives in caring for their young… I can only wish ... that in the middle of the night you wake up, and you think of the injuries that you subjected on this poor young man, this poor seven-year-old, and that it tortures you."

READ: The best 8 new films and TV shows to watch on Netflix this week

The series director, Brian Knappenberger, admitted that he had hoped to speak to Pearl and Isauro for the documentary, telling The Wrap: "We tried very hard to talk to them. They were demonized in the press and what they did is incomprehensible, but we still wanted to understand them in a deeper way. We set up a mechanism where they could call us from prison and they had my personal number. For six months, I carried around the questions I wanted to ask them in my back pocket because I never knew when and if they were going to call. We also wrote them many letters." However, neither of them ever got in touch with him.

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