Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Shocking Twists in TikTok Star's Alleged Murder-For-Hire Plot

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Gabbie Gonzalez, 24, appeared in court this week twice to answer to charges that she was part of a conspiracy to hire a hit man to murder the father of her child: former boy band singer Jack Avery. Gabbie, her father Francisco Gonzalez, and her ex-boyfriend, Kai Cordrey, all face charges in the alleged plot. But the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says the person hired to carry out the hit was an FBI agent. Now Jack Avery is speaking about the DA's claims. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy has the latest in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Seth ZuckermanCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, you guys, welcome to my course on how to tell if he's a good man. Most likely he is not. That was influencer Gabby Gonzalez, giving advice about men days before her arrest for a conspiracy to murder the father of her child, boy band singer Jack Avery. Her dad and her ex are also in trouble. But what about the alleged hitman? I have the new details and why this case is more complicated than it seems. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is crime fix.

Let's get to it. You know, there's that old saying, the plot thickens. And when it comes to TikToker Gabby Gonzalez, her dad, and the alleged plot to kill Gabby's ex, Jack Avery, the story has a new twist. To keep things simple here, I'm going to refer to everyone by their first names because another person is now behind bars for this alleged plot. Gabby Gonzalez is a social media influencer. She's big on TikTok. Okay, first I'm going to talk about Florida, because. because duh.

Being a born and raised Florida girlie and I moved away five years ago. But Gabby also has a big following on Instagram and she shares a lot including in this reel where she was doing chores while ovulating. Free bleeding has helped me

become more in tune with my body for one. Number two, period products are ridiculously expensive. Period products should be easily accessible. for everyone who needs them. They're not, obviously, and the prices keep increasing.

And then on top of it, there's chemicals being put inside of pretty much every single period product, even the organic ones. I have just come to the place my life where I choose not to participate in it. Yes, when Gabby is on her period, she goes on natural. No feminine products. So that's just a sample of what you will feel. find on her socials, but back to the case at hand. Gabby shares a child, a seven-year-old girl, with former why-don't-wee boy band singer Jack Avery. But that relationship, it didn't end well,

according to court documents. And the question of who should have custody of the little girl has been a major point of contention since 2020. And investigators claim Gabby's dad, Francisco, Javier Gonzalez, was very involved in this dispute. He does a lot of personal injury work. Now Gabby, her dad Francisco, and Gabby's ex-boyfriend Kai Cordray, are accused of conspiring together back in 2020, 2021 and 2022 to hire a hitman to murder Jack Avery so Gabby could have her daughter all to herself. Francisco has traded his tailored suits for a yellow jail jumpsuit. Prosecutors from Los Angeles County claim Francisco was the money man. Investigators say Francisco had a private investigator tailing Jack Avery to dig up dirt that could be used against

him in the custody dispute. And get this, the DA's office claims there is a Gonzales family group chat where Francisco discussed Jack Avery. A DA's detective wrote in an affidavit. In one March 22nd, 2021 exchange, Francisco wrote, call Barka, never too early, which investigators considered significant because later evidence showed that Gabriella Gonzalez and Kai Cordray attempted to recruit Dustin Barka to threaten Avery. Now, Dustin Barka is an MMA fighter. He is not facing charges in this case. I want to be very clear about that. But investigators say the plan later turned from digging up dirt on Jack and scaring him to something far more sinister. Murder. Investigators say in April 2021, Francisco sent $10,000 to Gabby's then-boyfriend, Kai Cordray, so he could go on the dark web and hire a hitman.

The money was disguised, according to the DA, as a payment for web development services. The DA claims Cordray was going to use that money to pay the hitman in Bitcoin. Then in June 2021, investigators say Francisco sent another $4,000 payment to Kai. On June 5, 2021, Cordray sent Francisco Gonzalez a $4,000. invoice through his site whisperer business and that Francisco later paid that amount. The charge appeared in Francisco's subpoenaed bank records. Cordray later stated he did not actually perform web development services and believed the invoice purpose was a cover. Court records claim that that additional $4,000 was going to be used to hire an expert hitman and that Kai was logging

onto the dark web using the alias Lizard King 69. But guess what? That hitman? He wasn't a hitman. He was a G-man. A Fed, a cop, a bona fide agent according to the L.A. That's right. The DA says the person Kai was talking to on the dark web and the person Francisco later spoke to in code by phone was an undercover FBI agent posing as a killer. Investigators say they have recorded conversations. They have recorded conversations with the undercover FBI agent Anne Francisco from 2021. And later, in October 2022, investigators say Kai and Gabby discussed the plan in recorded calls and the possibility that they could be exposed. We're co-parents. I take care of the doctor's appointments, the dentist appointments, and the therapy appointments. Now, the hit on Jack Avery, of course,

was never carried out. Gabby, after a two-year break, started posting on social media again, but the investigation didn't stop. Days before her arrest, Gabby posted on Instagram about men. Next, men come as they are. They do not change. You get what you get. So how a man comes is how he's most likely going to be for eternity. I know. That's really scary because women are always growing, adapting, changing, getting these new parts of themselves, bringing back old parts of themselves, really like just becoming something brand new, like legitimately every day, while also maintaining their, like, self. And then you have men. They don't change, girl. They don't. Earlier this week, Gabby Gonzalez was arrested and charged with attempted murder,

solicitation of murder and conspiracy. Her dad, Francisco, and her ex-Kaude, were also charged. Investigators say Gabby's ex-husband, Cody Claiborne actually told them that Francisco claimed it would be cheaper if Jack Avery were dead. Another witness told investigators that Gabby repeatedly said she wanted Jack dead, and the plan to use Bitcoin to pay for the hit was discussed. Investigators say the witness told them that Gabby wanted it to look like Jack had died. in a car accident. So what about Jack Avery? Well, he was aware of the plot. The feds told him. Jack posted on Instagram, a few days ago, three individuals were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kill me. One of those individuals is the mother of my daughter. For years, my family and I have endured intense public scrutiny, false accusations, and deeply painful attacks on our character

and reputation. Throughout that time, I chose to remain silent out of respect for the legal process, and most importantly, my daughter. Right now, my focus is on being the best father I can be. I'm thankful to have sole custody of my daughter, who is safe, healthy, and deeply loved. I look forward to continuing to build a peaceful and stable life for her. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to my family, friends, law enforcement, and the Los Angeles County District attorney's office for their support throughout this process. And finally, to everyone who has supported me and withheld judgment while the truth unfolded, thank you. Always seek the truth. But there's more to discuss and more revelations. So let's dissect this a little bit. I want to bring in Seth Zuckerman.

He's a criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor based in New York with the Zuckerman Legal Group. Seth, thanks so much for coming on to talk about this. This case is crazy. This case is wild. It's got a lot of different juicy allegations, the salacious nature of it, her being an influencer, him being a boy band singer. Yeah, this has got a lot of juicy allegations here. A lot of juicy allegations. It's a family affair. But really, one of my big questions here is that if you look at the documents, this all goes back to 2020, 2021, some stuff going into 2022. They're accused of getting online on the dark web, hiring a hitman. Francisco, dad is the money man, according to the feds and the LADA's office. You know, Gabby's involved in this. What in the world took so long to file charges? We're into 2026 now.

Why do you think if the feds are doing search warrants in 2022 on electronic devices? And it looks like they've got all of this decent evidence on the dark web. web and recordings, what's been going on since? Well, first off, thanks for having me. I think from what I understand, the feds just didn't think that there was enough here to make an arrest and to start a federal prosecution against Gabby and her father. I think from what I understand happened is the feds handed over their evidence to the LA counted sheriff's office at some point after the investigation in 2022.

And that's when they started to re-interview the witnesses and start to start their own case in LA County as opposed to making this a federal case. Now, obviously, it still seems like it took a long amount of time from when that happened from 2022 to 2026, but it's my understanding that the fed just didn't think there was enough to charge her and her dad federally and that they handed it off to the state LA County Sheriff's Office, who then brought it to the LA County DA's office. Back in 2022, Gabby had a husband, a new husband, Cody Claiborne, and, and, And, you know, they did warrants. The feds did some search warrants on electronic devices at the home he shared with Gabby.

And, you know, he's, like, concerned, he's worried. And I'm kind of thinking to myself, there are some statements attributed to him in the complaint. I'm thinking to myself, were they working to flip some witnesses, get them to cooperate, to bolster what they already had in the form of these text messages, communications on the dark web, payments back and, you know, payments to the alleged posing hitman, things of that nature. Do you think that was a big piece of this? Anything is possible. Obviously, Cody Claiborne is cooperating. According to the affidavit, he provided some very damaging statements. He's a very important witness. He tells the law enforcement that her and her father were obsessed with obtaining custody of their daughter, sorry, of her daughter, and that they were,

that he was deeply involved, the father was deeply involved, and that Clayburn described the family is being obsessed with obtaining custody and excluding Jack Avery from the daughter's life, and that the father had said the words to the effect that it would be cheaper if Avery was dead. Those are important comments. Now, of course, as a criminal defense attorney, the first thing that comes to mind is, well, those are words and not actions, right? And that's a defense, right? You know, he did custody disputes all the time.

People say, you know, I wish my spouse was dead, or I'd be better off. if my spouse was dead or hurt or injured or something or if I took the kids away from them. But that is not enough. There needs to be some overt acts in furtherance of those of those threats in order for it to become a criminal action. So, you know, I would, as a defense attorney, I'm highlighting, okay, these are words, but what actions can they tie to Gabby? What actions can they tie to the father? What actions can they tie to Kai Cordy, right? because you need the overt acts, not just the words that I wish he was dead or we'd be better off if he was dead.

Would the overt act, though, be the allegation here that Francisco Gonzalez is sending 10 grand to this Kai Cordray, the ex-boyfriend of Gabby, so that through some type of fake invoice to secure this hitman on the dark web, and then sending the extra four grand. for, I guess, an expert, a really good hitman, you know, all the while they're saying in the documents, it's an FBI agent. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the complaint alleges 34 overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. All you need is one, right?

So it's certainly payment to an undercover law enforcement agent in furtherance for certainly the payments from her dad to Kai Cordry and Kai Cordry's payments into crypto to this alleged hitman. are certainly acts in furtherance of the conspiracy that take us past just the statements and the threats into overt acts and furtherance of a conspiracy to commit murder. Jack Avery on a podcast back in 2025 just last year made some comments. He said basically that, yeah, the feds came knocking on my door and told me that somebody wants to kill me. I just can't even imagine. And so what happens do you think, you know, you're a former prosecutor. If law enforcement comes to you as a former prosecutor when you were a prosecutor and says, hey, there are people we think trying to kill this guy,

Jack Avery. I mean, do you guys provide protection or you just let the person know so they can do some things to provide protection for themselves? How is that handled? So there's many different ways it can be handled. And it depends on the severity of the threats. and what actions are taken to support the threats, right? So Jack Avery said this in a 2025 podcast. Apparently, law enforcement approached him in the 2021 or 2022 timeframe when all of this was going on. So he had known about it for a number of years. And he said he stayed low. He didn't leave his house for a number of months, stayed with his daughter because he was scared. Law enforcement can provide security if it's necessary. He's obviously an individual with means, so he could have hired his own private security at that time.

It's unclear to me as to whether or not law enforcement did anything to provide security to him or they just continued to monitor because they were investigating and they knew about the alleged threats and they were monitoring the Gonzalez's to see if there were any further actions they were going to take. Clearly, the hitman that was being hired was an undercover law enforcement agent. So there was never going to be, if this was the only person they were hiring, there was never going to be this threat was never going to be carried out by this undercover law enforcement agent. No doubt, no doubt. at some point though

Gabby and dad Francisco and Kai I mean they've got to come to the realization especially when the feds come they show up and they're like give me your electronics we have a warrant they've got to realize

you know the jig is up like we're caught potentially if they are indeed you know guilty of this factually so what I mean they've just been she's just been hanging out it looks like I mean, she took two years off at TikTok, it appears, according to one of her videos.

Then she's back on. And she's, she's all over Instagram doing videos and doing this and doing that and talking about how she's such a good mom. And, you know, she, they co-parent, but she does everything. I mean, she's not been shy about being out there. Yeah. I mean, look, federal investigations take years. Most clients who find out, you know, search warrant's been executed for electronic devices, you know, they low, lay low while the investigation is pending. But you never know if the investigation is just going to go away.

Is the investigation going to result in charges? Here we're talking about charges four to five years later. So clearly she took some time off. She knew she was under investigation and then nothing happened. You know, she obviously still needed to earn an income. She needs to obviously pay for her criminal defense attorneys in this case. So she started to go back about her life, obviously not talking about the case and the investigation and trying to earn an income so that she could continue living, not knowing whether the investigation was still going on.

I'm sure at some point her attorneys were in contact with the law enforcement investigators just to try to figure out where the investigation was and what stage of the investigation they were at. But clearly, you know, she determined she needed to keep living and keep going about her influencing on TikTok and other social media platforms. dad francisco is a lawyer does like a lot of personal injury stuff uh in the greater orlando area i guess seminal county um you know he this is like insane because he is literally a lawyer now he's in jail looking at these charges i mean i i know custody gets heated custody gets heated we've seen in other cases, one that comes to mind, the Adelson case out of Florida, the Pike County murders out of Ohio, I guess, you know, the claim is going to be that these emotions just boiled over and overrode any reason. Yeah, during custody battles, it gets so emotional and so

intensely heated that people do things that they would not normally do. Clearly, he loves his daughter and was willing to do anything for his daughter and trying to help her with her custody dispute with Jack Avery. According to the allegations, he may have funded Kai Cordy in seeking out this hitman. This is what people do for their loved ones when they're in a custody dispute. So clearly the fact that he's a lawyer doesn't prevent him from doing things that anyone else would do when a custody battle gets so intense and so emotional. People do irrational things. Jack Avery has now finally spoken out about this. He's not said really much of anything. Now there's a post on Instagram in which he talks about how his family, he and his family have been subject to, you know, public scrutiny, false accusations, deeply painful attacks on our character and reputation throughout that time I chose to remain silent out of respect for the legal process.

And most importantly for my daughter, he now has sole custody. He went and got sole custody of his daughter after the arrest and everything. So this is a guy who's been living with this for years, he says. it sounds like he's saying he's gotten a lot of shade thrown at him by Gabby and her family, and it wasn't true. Well, I'm sure during the custody dispute, things were said that, you know, aren't always true, right? Things get heated. People make allegations.

They try to trap people. You know, the affidavit talks about things that her father tried to do, even before hiring a hitman in trying to gain custody, make allegations against Jack Avery. So yeah, I mean, it sounds like he's had to endure a lot of false allegations and a tough time. And then, of course, once he learned that the FBI was investigating this years ago, you know, there was not much he could do other than live his life and try to protect him and his daughter. So it makes sense that after the arrest, he went in sought full custody and of course he got that. And now he's just trying to protect himself and his daughter because this case is going to go on. There's going to be a lot of news attention to it.

he's going to have to testify if this case goes to trial. And this is going to affect him and his daughter as they move forward. Yeah. And it's going to go on for years, I would assume. This is not going to wrap up quickly because the electronic data will take forever to go through. You know, one of the things that came out in court, prosecutors say that Gabby, she wanted proof that Jack was dead. She wanted his pinky finger. It's like mafioso kind of stuff.

It's like something you'd see in like a movie or something. Doesn't it seem kind of nuts, Seth? It does. I mean, when I read the pinky allegation, I thought she was going to actually have a good defense here in the sense that like her dad was involved, Kai was involved. How much knowledge did she have? Because she could say words, you know, that she wanted him out of the picture and that she wanted full custody, but then the actions.

And when she says, oh, you know, she wants proof of his death and including his pinky finger, that does sound like right out of a mob movie. And it also shows that she knows that she knows. what's going on here, right? She can't, it's harder for her to say, well, I didn't know what my dad and Kai were up to when, you know, she's texting them saying she wants his pinky finger as proof of death. You know, she's got knowledge and that's another overt act that's charred, that will be charged in furtherance of the conspiracy. They are innocent until proven guilty, of course. We will keep an eye on it. Thank you so much, Seth Zuckerman. I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. Gabby Gonzalez posted her $2 million bail, with the help of a bondsman. She has to be on GPS monitoring and can travel to Hawaii where she lives and also Florida. She cannot have any contact with Jack Avery or their daughter and must stay 300 feet away from them. Kai Cordray was booked into the LA County Jail. On Thursday, his bail was set at $20 million. And we'll stay on top of this case for you. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next day. Thank you.