A social media influencer, her father, and a Hawaiian surf instructor have all been charged with reportedly attempting to hire a hitman to murder a Los Angeles singer.
According to the statement issued by the LA County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday, May 19, the murder plot was targeting a member of a 2010s boy band, Why Don’t We.
The investigators believe Avery was the suspected target of a murder-for-hire planned by the mother of his daughter and her father.
Francisco Gonzalez, his daughter, Gabriela, and Kai Cordrey (her partner) were all accused on Tuesday of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and solicitation to commit murder, as per the filed complaint.
Gabriela Gonzalez, 26, and Jack Avery share a 7-year-old daughter together and are fighting a custody case, per the court documents
Back in 2021, Gabriela Gonzalez slammed her partner as an “unfit” and “dangerous” parent during court hearings, as mentioned in the criminal complaint.
In March 2021, she freely discussed “wanting Jack Avery dead and discussed hiring a hitman to kill him,” per the court filings as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The investigators believe that between 2020 and 2021, Gabriela Lauren Gonzalez, 26, sought help of her then boyfriend, Kai Faron Cordrey, in order to look out for a hitman on the dark web to murder Jack Avery.
It was the same period when Avery and Gonzalez were fighting a custody case in court.
Around the same in 2021, the complaint reveals, her father, who is an influential Miami attorney, started messaging Cordrey, a Hawaii-based surf instructor and also her daughter’s new partner.
Francisco Gonzalez, 59, allegedly spoke with Cordrey to find a hitman to threaten or harass Avery, as stated in the complaint.
They ended up on Dustin Barca, a retired MMA fighter based in Maui, the same filing states.
However, the criminal complaint didn’t accuse Barca of any involvement in the conspiracy.
The criminal complaint revealed chilling plans of how Gabriela and her partner, Cordrey, turned to the dark web.
They set up an account under the alias “Lizardking69,” where Cordrey got in touch with someone who he believed was an assassin.
Then, Gabriela’s father paid Cordrey a sum of $14,000 to hire the hitman, and Cordrey then paid out the amount through the dark web account, the criminal complaint stated.
But for their bad luck, both came to know within months that the “hitman” they were texting on the dark web turned out to be an undercover FBI agent posing as a hitman.
The complaint alleged that, at one point, Cordrey told the undercover agent that “Jack Avery’s ex-girlfriend” wanted the job done and that her father would pay for the expenses.
Gabriela Gonzalez was apprehended last week and is set to appear in court on Thursday, May 21, 2026.
While her father, Francisco is in police custody in Florida, Cordey’s status remains unknown at this time.
Gabriela, the main character in the murder plot, is a prolific TikTok creator known for her lifestyle posts.
On the other hand, Avery had been associated with former boy band Why Don’t We, which dropped three albums in 2010; he released a single XOXOX in February this year.
If the trio are convicted as charged, they will face a life imprisonment of 25 years in state prison.
2026-05-20 12:28:00
