Influencer Gabbie Gonzalez and Father Accused of Murder-for-Hire Plot

TikTok influencer and content creator Gabbie Gonzalez, as well as her father Francisco, have been arrested for allegedly engaging in a murder-for-hire plot against singer Jack Avery.

According to TMZ, Gonzalez, who’s known for her nature and outdoors content on TikTok and Instagram, was arrested on Monday (May 18) in Humboldt County before being transferred to a Los Angeles County jail. Francisco was arrested in Florida.

Both are accused of being involved in a conspiracy to kill rock vocalist Jack Avery, the father of Gonzalez’s 7-year-old daughter, Lavender. Avery is the former frontman of group Why Don’t We.

According to police, Francisco and Gabbie’s alleged plot dates back to 2021. Originally, the two are believed to have conspired to get incriminating footage of Avery to be used in a custody dispute. But at some point, authorities allege that Gabbie and her friend, Kai Cordrey, attempted to recruit a third party, Dustin Barca, to threaten Avery.

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A witness alleged that Francisco and Gabbie electronically paid Cordrey $10,000 in April 2021 for “web-development payments,” which Cordrey would later say he never did. A federal agent would ultimately use information acquired from Cordrey to pose as a hitman while on the phone with Francisco, who allegedly discussed the payments and intended target.

In a since-deleted Instagram post, per Nicki Swift, Avery announced in May 2019 that he has become a first-time father.

“This has been the most humbling experience of my entire life. It has forever changed my life in the best way possible,” Avery captioned the post. “Gabriela [Gonzalez], (my angel) is the most selfless person I have ever met in my life.”

Last September, Avery appeared on The Zach Sang Show, where he revealed to being informed that his life was being threatened.

“I stayed in my house for like a month straight. I didn’t leave. And I was so scared. I was looking out my window every night,” Avery told Sang.

Elsewhere in the episode, Avery said that his co-parenting relationship with Gonzalez had improved, but acknowledged that she was possibly “traumatized” by having a child at 17 years old. On Instagram, Gonzalez boasts 473,000 followers and a slightly smaller TikTok following of 417,000, despite abandoning the latter platform in 2024.