One of the most shocking celebrity crime stories of the year broke this week when TikTok influencer Gabbie Gonzalez, real name Gabriela Gonzalez, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and solicitation of murder. The 24-year-old, who has nearly a million combined followers on TikTok and Instagram where she documented her lifestyle and motherhood journey, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege that Gonzalez and her father, Florida attorney Francisco Gonzalez, 59, hatched a plan to have singer-songwriter Jack Avery killed. Avery, 26, is a former member of the boy band Why Don’t We and the father of Gonzalez’s seven-year-old daughter, Lavender. According to court documents, the alleged plot stems from a prolonged and deeply acrimonious custody dispute over the child.
The plan allegedly began around 2021 and involved hiring private investigators to track and photograph Avery’s movements in Hawaii, where he lives, in an effort to gather damaging material for the custody case. Gonzalez’s then-boyfriend is named as an alleged middleman who helped recruit someone to threaten Avery. When that person turned out to be a federal undercover agent posing as a hitman, authorities say Francisco got on a recorded phone call and discussed payments and the intended target. He allegedly paid $14,000.
Gabbie was arrested in Humboldt County, California, while boarding a flight, and was transferred to Los Angeles County, where she was held without bail. Francisco was arrested in Florida and is expected to be extradited. A third co-defendant, the ex-boyfriend, also faces the same felony charges. The alleged plot was never carried out.
