Here's what happened to Gabriel Fernandez's siblings after the end of six-part Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. The show tells the harrowing tale of an eight-year-old Californian boy who endured horrifying abuse at the hands of his mother and her live-in boyfriend in 2013. In the end, he died from this torture, and his older brother and sister witnessed it.
Released by Netflix in February, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez details Gabriel's sad story. It includes how he was given up by his mother almost immediately after being born, and then passed around to different family members, including an uncle and his maternal grandparents. His mother, Pearl, had spent almost no time raising him, up until the last months of his life. At the time that Gabriel came to live with her, she was living with Isauro Aguirre, her boyfriend.
Also living in the apartment were Pearl’s two other children, Virginia and Ezequiel, who were teenagers at the time of the murder, and who had never been on the receiving end of the abuse that Gabriel suffered.
The Siblings' Role in The Trial of Gabriel Fernandez
Virginia and Ezequiel appear in The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez with their faces understandably blurred for anonymity. They testified in court against Isauro Aguirre at his trial. Transcripts of their testimony included gruesome details that the young Gabriel faced on a daily basis, such as being savagely punched and hit, as well as being gagged with a sock, being told to eat cat litter as punishment, and being locked in a cubby hole to sleep.
On the night that the first-grader was killed by blunt force trauma at the hands of Pearl and Isauro, 16-year-old Ezequiel was told to lie to first responders who came to the home when 911 was called. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Virginia was told to clean up her younger brother’s blood. In The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, a nurse described the deceased first grader as having a “depressed skull fracture” while also pointing out that he had abrasions, ligature marks, cuts, burns and bruises all over his body.
What Happened To Ezequiel and Virginia After Gabriel Fernandez's Murder
The siblings of Gabriel Fernandez have sought to live their lives in private, and this is something that is both understandable and which must be respected. While they were not physically abused, having to live in fear and lie about their brother’s situation was mental abuse, and something from which Ezequiel and Virginia are in recovery. The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez noted that the pair had found “safe harbor” and were living with a supportive family member. Per Newsweek, the siblings, along with other family members, were part of a 2014 lawsuit that had been settled for $2.6 million against the County of Los Angeles.