Pop Switch- The Trials Of Gabriel Fernandez Show Review

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez

Directed By- Brian Knappenberg

Available on -Netflix

Age -18+

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez is a chilling documentary on the murder of an eight-year-old boy in the United States. The show is a detailed feature on the extent of neglect and abuses the young boy had endured throughout his short life from his mother and step-father. It is one of the rarest cases wherein the sheriffs and child services had downplayed their role when Gabriel’s case was assigned to them prompting a change within the system.

Spoiler Alert 🚨

‘This kid has never known love. This kid has never known what it feels like to be hugged.’

The show starts with an account of an ER nurse who couldn’t believe the emotional and physical trauma the boy had endured. Pearl Fernandez, Gabriel’s mother called the 911 services to inform them that he had slipped in the bathtub however when the ER doctors had examined him they found injuries throughout his body. The scene shows some pieces from Gabriel’s report which had a detailed description of bruises and injuries he carried. The show captures personal accounts of journalists from the Los Angeles Times and how they were threatened by the county officials and searched for tracing their source of information. We are introduced to the case of the in the first episode. All the accounts agreeing on the same narrative of how the officials such as the child service department and sheriffs could have prevented the torture Garbriel faced which eventually lead to his death.

“Gabriel is an eight-year-old boy but his death exposed something rotten in the system”

The second episode covers the court case. The accounts of first responders highlighted the attitude of the parents (Isaura and Pearl) towards the well being of Gabriel when he was dying. The mother was worried about her cats and her other children. The stepfather, Isaura claimed that he only ‘spanked’ him. The first responders remark that the call was one the most haunting calls they witnessed. Individuals claimed it was a moment of rage and he (Isaura) was heavily influenced by pearl who had a criminal attitude. The graphic imagery is used throughout the episode showing the wounds and medical analysis of Gabriel’s body and it is an unimaginable amount of torture inflicted upon a child.

“At the foot of the bed there was this cupboard and they kept him in that cupboard almost every night and even sometimes during the day”

Gabriel slept days and night out in a small cupboard and was forced to eat cat litter. The third episode focuses on Pearl Fernandez. Family members claim that Gabriel was very worried about her and her relationship with men like Isaura. The accounts of clinical psychologist report that Pearl had a very troubled early teenage years. Gabriel was under the custody of his gay uncle Micheal and his partner David. However, David got deported to Mexico and there was an active investigation wherein they were accused of sexually abusing Gabriel. We get to hear the accounts of his teacher and his classmate. The teacher had involved the child services and reported the bruises Gabriel used to come up with.

This episode covers some of the mistakes the child services organisation made at the initial stages of the investigation that could have subsequently prevented further trauma and eventual death Gabriel faced.

Despite being brutally abused Gabriel had participated in school activities to that extent even made cards for his mom, Pearl.

“He said his mom punched him in his face”

‘These people have to live with it for the rest of their lives'

There were several loopholes even in reporting of child abuse suffered by the boy. The Sherrif’s department did not hand over the prosecutor a 100-page document that incorporated interviews of key people prompting the prosecutor to file a complaint in the court. Moreover, in government offices, Gabriel tried catching the attention of officials but no complaint was registered or reported because the company had to save their money and did not want to pay the employees working overtime.

The social workers who went to Gabriel’s home were easily manipulated by Pearl F. and did not follow basic protocols that were needed to be followed. She was not even corrected by her supervisors and consulted. Further, into episode 5 we get to hear the accounts of the elder brother and sister of Gaberial F. of the events of the unfortunate night when Gabriel died. And they describe the conditions how the boy was living every day and it was nothing but a slow murder of an innocent child. In the last episode, Isaura and Pearl are found guilty and sentenced to death and life imprisonment respectively. It was also interesting to see the conflicting notions within the jury wherein a juror wanted to hear Isarau out while the other quite adamantly wanted to tie him for first-degree murder.

This was my second time viewing the show. But the show didn’t affect me the way it did when I watched it for the first time in March of 2020. I couldn’t sleep for a few nights. And all I could think of was the Trauma that was inflicted upon Gabriel and I knew even if I wanted to find out why his parents did what they did and why the adults around his life didn’t choose to interfere when they saw him suffering there would be no common consensus it would just be possibilities.

The show highlights the homophobia within the family which is also why Gabriel was abused repeatedly. The Mexican ethnicity is not open to having members who are gay. Pearl did not want to have Gabriel but her uncles who were gay wanted to raise Gabriel as their child and persuaded Pearl to carry on with the pregnancy. Homosexuality is still a new concept to a lot of communities which is fine but in this case, homophobia was the intent of abuse towards an eight-year-old-child.

It was interesting to see how separate commissions were set up looking into the matter closely and several experts from a variety of fields essential to child abuse cases were interviewed throughout the series. The departments had innovated technologies that could detect the ‘at which level of risk’ the child is at. Despite these innovations in the systems, there were quite many loopholes. To that extent, it was heartbreaking to see that after Gabriel’s verdict two more cases of child abuse and neglect emerged from the same area (Palmdale, where Gabriel lived) resulting in the same consequences (death of the child).

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Credits

The image is taken from Pinterest and remaining designs have been taken from Canva.

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About the author

The author of the above article, Mehak Mathur, is pursuing the Bachelor Of Strategic Communication and Journalism degree at Mumbai University.

“My main motive is to provide people with factual and relevant information and hope to ignite their passions, help them connect with one another conducting insightful discussions and see the bigger picture.”