The TikTok influencer accused of trying to hire a hit man on the dark web to kill singer Jack Avery sat just 10 feet from her alleged target in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday as another former boyfriend testified against her, describing her alleged hatred of the pop star tied to their bitter child custody dispute. Cody Clayburn testified that he met the influencer, Gabriela Gonzalez, in June 2021, around the time prosecutors allege she was conspiring with her father and another former boyfriend, Kai Cordrey, to pay an “expert hitman” in cryptocurrency to murder Avery. Clayburn said he knew nothing of the alleged plot until November 2022, when FBI agents raided the Hawaii home he shared with Gonzalez and seized electronic devices.
After the agents left, he confronted Gonzalez, he testified. And then she was freaking out, wanted to leave the country, and she said if they opened up her phone, that she would be in prison,” Clayburn testified by video at the hearing in downtown Los Angeles. Under questioning by Avery’s lawyer, Clayburn claimed Gonzalez talked about possibly fleeing to South America, though he could not recall whether she named a specific country.
Wearing a lavender blazer over a matching light purple T-shirt, she remained silent as her lawyer informed the judge she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and not testify. Gonzalez, her father Francisco Gonzalez, and Cordrey were all arrested in May and charged with the same three counts of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and solicitation to commit murder. Each has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted as charged, they face 25 years to life in state prison, prosecutors said. Tuesday’s civil court hearing marked the first time Avery and Gonzalez appeared in court together since her arrest. The hearing, set to continue Wednesday, will determine whether Avery, a member of the 2010s boy band Why Don’t We, can extend his domestic violence restraining order against Gonzalez and whether she can have contact with their seven-year-old daughter, either through video calls or supervised visits, while her criminal case proceeds.
In court filings, Gonzalez’s lawyer said she has had no contact with the child since she was taken into custody and released on bond. In other testimony, Clayburn described the turmoil that followed the FBI raid. He told the judge that Gonzalez soon began making arrangements to foster another young girl around her daughter’s age without telling him.
He said child welfare officials in Hawaii eventually placed a girl named Isabel in their home with his consent, but he claimed Gonzalez left the state just two weeks later. According to Clayburn, Gonzalez’s mother traveled to Hawaii to help care for the two girls while Gonzalez was working as a coach at a summer surf camp. He claimed that Gonzalez and her mother then abruptly left for Florida with Avery’s daughter without telling him when they would return.
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