Kids Safety Network

Teacher of Slain California Boy Says He Confided in Her About Abuse

Hayley Malan

A teacher has testified in the murder trial in the case of a Palmdale, California, boy who died in May 2013. Isauro Aguirre, 37, is charged in the death of the 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, and also faced the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture, reported NBC San Diego.

Teacher of Slain California Boy Says He Confided in Her About Abuse

The boy’s mother, 34-year-old Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, will be tried separately.

Gabriel Fernandez. (Facebook)

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both Aguirre and Fernandez. Aguirre was her live-in boyfriend.
Gabriel Fernandez’s first-grade teacher said she found a note hidden in his desk days after she learned of his deceased.
The note said “I love you mom and Gabriel is a good boy,” reported ABC7. She said that in 2013, Gabriel had confided in her that he was being beaten at home and she notified the Department of Children and Family Services.

He said “‘Sometimes my mom makes me bleed,’ and I asked him, ‘Where do you bleed?’ and he replied, ‘Well, on my bottom cause she hits me with a belt.’ And he said, ‘You know that part with the metal on it? That part,’” Garcia can be heard saying in a recording of a phone call produced in court.
Garcia said bruises, wounds, and other injuries could be observed upon inspecting the boy.

“Are you sure that that’s what really happened? And then he did eventually tell me and he was really angry and he said, ‘Well, it’s cause my mom shot me in the face with a BB gun,’” reported Garcia.
Garcia added that she was afraid to speak to the Department of Children and Family Services as it could result to the boy suffered more abuse.

In 2013, she was told that the boy went to live in Texas. Garcia hoped it was true, but the child was found dead a week later.
This week, medical examiner Dr. James Ribe testified that numerous injuries to the boys’s feet and head had been found, which eight BBs were recovered from the boy’s body. One was removed from his lung and seven other BBs were recovered during an autopsy, as NBC reported.

Ribe said “All of these injuries were inflicted by a caregiver,”, adding that the boy’s injuries could not have been self-inflicted or accidental.
Ribe said that the boy “probably hadn’t been eating,” adding that his intestines had “very little content.” His thymus gland was “barely even there” and there was an “almost a complete absence of body fat,” he testified.
“So, Gabriel wasn’t being fed?” Deputy District Attorney Scott Yang asked him.
“Correct,” Ribe confirmed.

When a little “bundle of joy” arrives, in the beginning, things will inevitably be a little hectic for the parents. And with six kids, it’ll be six times of both joy and worries!

The McGhee sextuplets are back together in another iconic family photo, 6 years later

What does it feel like to raise six energetic children? Mia McGhee said “It was scary. It was overwhelming,” in an interview with Good Morning America.

Despite the initial surprise, Rozonno, her husband, said they are grateful, for their kids are healthy and beautiful.

Rozonno and Mia McGhee have been the proud parents of sextuplets, the first time ever in Columbus, Ohio, since Mia gave birth to six babies on June 9, 2010.

The family, which suddenly became large, had their own reality TV show called the “6 Little McGhees.” It was first aired in December 2012. The “Six Little McGhees” featured the McGhees’ lives —balancing between the upholstery, their carpet business and the six children and their marriage. It lasted 3 seasons and stopped airing in October 2014. The show returned to UPtv on June 8, 2016, and was renamed “Growing Up McGhee.”

The sweet family portrait shows six newborn babies—Rozonno Jr., Josiah, Madison, Olivia, Isaac, and Elijah, sleeping atop their father’s back, while their mother watches on affectionately. Ever since it was shared on social media, the much-publicized family portrait had been the talk of the town.

Photographer Brian Killian told TODAY “We knew that one was special,” he continued.

“I think people still remember seeing it six years ago. To have six little babies asleep on their dad—that’s a unique portrait.”

On the sextuplets’ sixth birthday in 2016, with the help of Brian and his wife Janine, the McGhee family posed for yet another heartwarming family portrait. However, the six-year-old sextuplets, dressed in brown tank tops and blue jeans, could no longer sprawl across their father like in the previous family photo this time around.

It was fun having the sextuplets back in the photo studio, photographer Brian told ABC News.

“Those children are so lovable,” Brian continued. “They just want to hug you. They’re full of love and full of joy. They were great.”

© Getty Images | Maarten de Boer

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