Mother of 8-year-old boy tortured and beaten to death pleads guilty to murder
LOS ANGELES - The mother of an 8-year-old boy who died after suffering brutal beatings and starvation, prompting far-reaching reforms in Los Angeles County's child welfare system, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder.
In a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez admitted that the 2013 killing of her son Gabriel was intentional and involved the infliction of torture.
Her guilty plea avoided a trial, where prosecutors were expected to seek the death penalty. Fernandez's defense lawyers had opposed capital punishment, arguing that her low IQ
