Isauro Aguirre will spend the rest of his life in prison, being tortured daily by guilt for murdering an 8-year-old boy, until the State of California puts an end to his life. At least, that’s what the judge who sentenced him to death hopes.
As Newseek reports, Los Angeles County state court judge George Lomeli, in handing down his sentence, told Aguierre that he (Lomeli) hopes Aguierre has sleepless nights in prison, haunted by the memories of torturing to death 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez. Aguierre tortured and killed the young boy because he thought he was gay.
“I can only wish… that it tortures you.”
Fernandez died in May, 2013. Two days before his death, his mother, Pearl Fernandez, called 911 to say that he had stopped breathing. She told authorities that he had fallen and hit his head on a dresser. However, when police began their investigation, they found that the situation was much worse.
Warning: The next paragraph contains content that will be disturbing to some readers.
As it turned out, the boy had been subjected to repeated torture and neglect for much of his own life, at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend, all because he thought the boy was gay. Authorities say the young boy had been beaten, starved, forced to eat cat feces, and forced to sleep, bound, in a cabinet. According to NBC News, his ribs had been broken, he had a fractured skull, and at one point, he’d had his teeth knocked out from being hit in the mouth with a bat.
The boy’s mother, Pearl Fernandez, was also culpable in his death. In February, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and on Thursday, she was spared the death penalty, unlike her boyfriend, and was sentenced instead to life in prison.
Lomeli was so disgusted with the way the pair, Aguierre especially, treated the boy that he said they were even worse than animals.
“It goes without saying that the conduct was horrendous and inhumane and nothing short of evil. It’s beyond animalistic because animals know how to take care of their young.”
Aguierre, for his part, issued an apology to the courtroom.
“I want to say I’m sorry to my family for what I did. I wish Gabriel was alive… Every day I wish that I made better choices.”
Though sentenced to death, Aguierre may very well die in prison of old age before the death penalty is actually carried out. Executions in California are currently on hold while the issue makes its way through the courts. Meanwhile, over 700 inmates in California prisons are on Death Row.