Courts and Crime
The Why Don’t We singer took the stand for the first time to testify about an alleged dark web murder-for-hire plot targeting him
Singer Jack Avery won a five-year restraining order and sole physical custody of his seven-year-old daughter on Wednesday after testifying that he was “very scared” of the girl’s mother, TikTok influencer Gabriela Gonzalez, who is charged with conspiring to hire a hit man on the dark web to kill him.
“I’m overwhelmed and happy at the same time,” Avery, 27, a former member of the boy band Why Don’t We, told Rolling Stone after testifying in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom and hearing the judge’s ruling.
Judge Brenda Comer Robinson ruled in Avery’s favor after a two-day hearing, finding that Gonzalez had engaged in “clearly manipulative behavior that caused him emotional harm.” The judge also found that the couple’s daughter was “a direct victim of the abuse perpetrated by Ms. Gonzalez.” Still, she said it was in the girl’s best interest to have professionally monitored visits with her mother once an existing criminal protective order permits contact.
Gonzalez, 25, did not testify at the family court hearing. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder.
Avery took the witness stand Wednesday morning, providing his first live testimony since Gonzalez was arrested in May along with her father, Florida lawyer Francisco Gonzalez, and her former boyfriend, Hawaii surf instructor Kai Cordrey.
Avery told the judge that the FBI first contacted him in 2021 to inform him that Gonzalez was being investigated over an alleged plot to kill him. He said the warning left him fearful for his safety, triggered severe anxiety, and complicated his already contentious custody dispute with Gonzalez. Avery said he missed more than 25 visits with his daughter, who was living with Gonzalez in another state.
“I’m very scared of Gabriela,” Avery testified. “She just recently got arrested in a murder-for-hire plot to kill me.”
Avery said he did not learn some of the more disturbing details of the alleged conspiracy until the three defendants were arrested in May. “I wasn’t aware that it was going to be a staged car crash to kill me. I wasn’t aware that they wanted my severed finger with a ring on it after I died,” he testified.
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He recalled canceling a visit with his daughter shortly after meeting with FBI agents because he was frightened to travel. “The FBI was informing me to not go to Hawaii to see Lavender because they said Gabriela was too dangerous to be around,” he testified.
On a subsequent trip, Avery brought a friend at the FBI’s suggestion. He said he became alarmed when Gonzalez asked him to meet at a park instead of his usual hotel for a custody exchange. “Knowing everything the FBI was telling me, I was scared of going to a different spot,” he testified.
“I was destroyed every time I didn’t see [my daughter],” Avery said of the missed visits. “I have insane anxiety now. I have panic disorder.”
Avery said he’s become fearful of traveling by car and feels harassed by Gonzalez’s mother, who allegedly posted about him on social media and stayed at the same hotel as him during one of his custody visits, despite Gonzalez living about 40 minutes away.
“It’s legit stalking,” he testified. “It’s just very stressful.”
Prosecutors allege that between October 2020 and May 2021, Gonzalez “repeatedly discussed wanting Jack Avery dead,” and that she enlisted Cordrey to help. They say Gonzalez and Cordrey discussed using bitcoins on the “dark web” and how they hoped to make the hit “appear to be an accident.”
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Francisco allegedly sent Cordrey $10,000 in April 2021 to finance the plot. Cordrey then transferred the money into a Gemini cryptocurrency account and began communicating with a purported hit man on the dark web, using the alias “LizardKing69,” prosecutors say.
On May 22, 2021, Cordrey allegedly identified Avery as the intended target, provided his Los Angeles address, and said he could be killed by whatever method was easiest, including a shooting or staged accident.
The purported hit man demanded another $4,000 in June, prompting Cordrey to seek additional money from Francisco, prosecutors claim. Soon after, Cordrey allegedly pushed for Avery to be killed within days.
In September 2021, an undercover FBI agent posing as a hit man spoke with Cordrey by phone, prosecutors say. According to the complaint, Cordrey identified Avery as the target and discussed payment and proof of death. During a subsequent call, he allegedly said Gonzalez wanted Avery killed and that her father could pay for it.
Francisco later contacted the undercover agent using the password “Bullrun” and discussed an earlier Bitcoin payment, prosecutors allege.
The complaint describes a recorded conversation in October 2022 in which Gonzalez and Cordrey allegedly discussed the purported hit man and the possibility that the plot could be exposed. Gonzalez allegedly said her father “had been handling most of it.”
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty. According to prosecutors, the trio faces 25 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged.
Cordrey’s lawyer has repeatedly declined to comment while the criminal case is pending. Francisco’s lawyer, Karen L. Goldstein, accused prosecutors of exaggerating the evidence and presenting a distorted account.
“This weaving of a biased, and often false, narrative appears to be an effort to discredit Mr. Gonzalez’s character and to deny him his right to a fair trial,” Goldstein said in a statement. “What the prosecution claims happened, and the truth of what actually happened, are two very different things. We will continue to pursue justice for Mr. Gonzalez and trust that a jury will see the truth.”
In court filings, Gonzalez’s criminal lawyer, Elliot Zarabi, argued that his client “played a comparatively limited role” in the alleged plot, with the “primary operational aspects” purportedly handled by Cordrey.
“Much of the evidence against Ms. Gonzalez derives from statements made by Cordrey himself, a charged co-defendant, with every incentive to shift blame and minimize his own conduct,” Zarabi wrote.
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He argued that prosecutors lacked “direct evidence showing that Ms. Gonzalez hired a hit man, negotiated a killing, transmitted cryptocurrency, communicated with undercover operatives, or directly engaged in operational planning.”
The next hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for Nov. 18.