LOS ANGELES, CA. -JULY 23: Gabriela Gonzalez attends a hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on July 23, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Gonzalez has been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder for allegedly hiring a hitman to murder her daughter's father, singer Jack Avery.
Getty Images)/(Photo by Jae C. Hong - Pool/
TikTok creator Gabriela Gonzalez, who goes by Gabbie Gonzalez to the nearly one million people who follow her across platforms, returned to a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Thursday for what many expected to be a turning point in her murder-for-hire case. Instead, court officials pushed her arraignment back to September 14, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles, stretching out a legal saga that has now run more than two months since charges were first announced.
Gonzalez, 24, her father Francisco Gonzalez, 59, and her former boyfriend Kai Faron Cordrey, 26, each face a trio of felony counts — attempted murder, plus separate charges covering an alleged agreement to commit a killing and allegedly asking someone else to carry one out — according to the charging announcement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors allege the three worked together toward the killing of singer Jack Avery, Gonzalez's former partner and the father of the 7-year-old daughter they share, amid a custody dispute that court filings describe in unusually harsh terms.
What Actually Happened on July 23
LOS ANGELES, CA. -JULY 23: Gabriela Gonzalez attends a hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on July 23, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Gonzalez has been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder for allegedly hiring a hitman to murder her daughter's father, singer Jack Avery.
Getty Images)/(Photo by Jae C. Hong - Pool/
According to court records reviewed by MyNewsLA, a judge imposed certain conditions — the $2 million bail, the GPS monitor, the order keeping Gonzalez away from her daughter and from Avery — along with a requirement that Gonzalez hand over her passport, at a hearing on May 21, and she left county jail the following evening after posting bond. Thursday's appearance didn't add new conditions or resolve the charges — it simply reset the clock on an arraignment that has now been continued more than once.
How Prosecutors Say the Plot Came Together
Investigators allege that sometime between 2020 and 2021, Gonzalez asked Cordrey, then her boyfriend, to help track down someone on the dark web willing to carry out a killing. Her father allegedly wired $10,000 to Cordrey that April to cover the search for a killer, then sent another $4,000 roughly six weeks later after whoever was running the operation demanded more money — bringing the total closer to $14,000 paid out in two installments rather than a single upfront sum, per the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Rolling Stone reported that Cordrey allegedly operated under the online alias "LizardKing69" and used it to pass along Avery's address and push for a fast timeline.
The arrangement fell apart in September 2021, when the contact Cordrey believed was a hired killer turned out to be an undercover law enforcement officer. Prosecutors say Cordrey discussed payment and how the killing would be confirmed, and in a separate exchange allegedly told the officer that Gonzalez wanted it done and that her father would cover the cost. District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the case involves defendants who were, in his words, "accused of going to great lengths to find someone to commit murder."
Avery Breaks His Silence
Avery — a singer-songwriter and former member of Why Don't We, the boy band that lost the rights to its own name in 2025 after a legal battle with its former management — said in a public statement that an FBI agent had told him a hitman had been hired to kill him. He said his daughter was briefly placed with a foster family before he picked her up, and that he now holds sole custody of the child, whom he described as safe and well cared for. He asked for privacy while he focuses on raising her.
Where the Case Actually Stands
Gonzalez is currently the only one of the three defendants free on bond. Her father has remained jailed for weeks while his attorneys fight a prosecution push to deny him bail altogether, arguing that jailhouse calls and relatives' social media posts don't show he's a danger if released. Cordrey has also stayed in custody, and asked a judge in late June to cut his bail from $2 million to $100,000, telling the court he worked as a plumber's apprentice and couldn't afford the original amount.
With arraignment now set for September, the case remains well short of any trial date, and all three defendants are legally presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise.
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Tags: Attempted murder, Los Angeles
