SEMINOLE LAWYER ACCUSED IN L.A. MURDER PLOT HAS LAW LICENSE SUSPENDED

A Seminole County lawyer looking to help his TikTok influencer daughter with a bitter custody dispute started out by hiring a private eye — but soon ended up ensnared in a murder-for-hire scheme in Los Angeles, prosecutors say.

Francisco Javier Gonzalez, a 59-year-old lawyer with a practice in Heathrow, now faces criminal charges in California and, this month, the suspension of his ability to practice law in Florida.

Around 2021, his daughter, Gabriela Gonzalez was engaged in a custody battle with her ex-boyfriend, singer and former boy band member Jack Avery, over their child, born in April 2019.

The attorney at first tried to help his daughter by contacting a private investigator to surveil Avery to document anything, such as smoking and drinking, that could be used against him in the custody dispute, according to prosecutors.

But in early 2021, Gabriela Gonzalez and her then-boyfriend, Kai Cordrey, discussed using the dark web and Bitcoin to hire someone to kill Avery in Los Angeles and make it appear to be an accident. Francisco Gonzalez stepped in to provide the funding, court records say.

Prosecutors allege that in December 2021, the lawyer used an agreed-upon codeword, “bullrun,” to arrange a phone call with a hitman or their intermediary, and then spoke to them on the call about verifying the correct target and payment or completion issues.

However, there was one wrinkle in the plan — the person he was allegedly coordinating the hit with was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Gonzalez was arrested May 18 in Seminole County and was extradited to Los Angeles. He, along with his daughter and Cordrey, were charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder. All three have pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.

A preliminary hearing in the case, which is being tried in Los Angeles, is scheduled for Nov. 18.

“Most fathers raise their children to respect the law, but here we have a dad who allegedly helped his daughter and her boyfriend break the law in the most sinister way imaginable,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement when the trio were charged.

Adding to Gonzalez’s legal woes, the Florida Supreme Court on Sept. 28 ordered that his ability to practice law be suspended, effective in 30 days and lasting for as long as he faces the charges. He can seek reinstatement if the charges are dropped or reduced to a misdemeanor, or if he is found not guilty.

Gonzalez declined to comment Thursday and referred reporters to his attorney, Karen Goldstein, who said prosecutors had sensationalized the case by making arguments that were exaggerated or untrue.

“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. “What the prosecution claims happened, and the truth of what actually happened, are two very different things.”

Avery addressed the alleged plot against him in a social media post just days after the trio’s arrest and said his focus is on taking care of his daughter, over whom he said he has sole custody.

Avery is a former member of the band “Why Don’t We.” Gabriela Gonzalez, known online as Gabbie Gonzalez, has more than 400,000 followers on both TikTok and Instagram. Her Instagram biography describes as a “lover of life” and “mermaid at heart.”

Court records further detail Gonzalez’s alleged role in the scheme.

Gonzalez caused around $10,000 to be sent to Cordrey around April 2021 so the latter could use it to hire a hitman. Cordrey would later transfer around the same amount of money into a cryptocurrency account, according to a criminal complaint.

In June 2021, when Cordrey — using the alias “LizardKing69” — went onto a dark web murder-for-hire site, the site or its administrator demanded $4,000 from him to dispatch an “expert hitman” to kill Avery. Cordrey, through his own business, sent Gonzalez a $4,000 invoice for web development services, which the lawyer paid.

Cordrey then confirmed to the site or its administrator that he had “4k more” for the killing to be completed, the complaint said. Cordrey himself would later say he did not actually perform the requested web development services and believed the invoice was a cover, according to another court document.

In October 2022, Gabriela Gonzalez spoke with Cordrey in a recorded phone call where they discussed how to respond to the threat of exposure in their scheme. During the call, Gonzalez said or suggested that she should speak to her father “because he had been handling most of it,” according to the complaint.

One witness stated to investigators that Gabriela Gonzalez told him Cordrey had been paid to kill Avery, and that her father paid around $ 10,000 for the hit. The witness also stated Francisco Gonzalez said, in substance, that “it would all be cheaper if Avery were dead,” an arrest affidavit shows.

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