John Jefferson
Left: Harold Lavance Thompson (Dallas County Jail). Right: Gabriella Gonzalez (NBC News/YouTube).
A 23-year-old man in Texas will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing his 26-year-old girlfriend, choking and shooting her in front of multiple witnesses after learning that she had traveled to another state to have an abortion.
Dallas County Criminal District Judge Chika Anyiam on Monday ordered Harold Lavance Thompson to serve a sentence of life in a state correctional facility for the 2023 slaying of Gabriella Gonzalez, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
A jury unanimously found Thompson guilty on one count of murder following a trial presided over by Anyiam. He was credited with 636 days of time already served.
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Dallas Police Department on the evening of May 10, 2023, responded to a reported shooting at an address in the 800 block of Walton Walker Boulevard. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found an adult female — later identified as Gonzalez — who appeared to have been shot multiple times. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Gonzalez’s sister told investigators she saw her sister and Thompson walking together shortly before the shooting. She said she found it “odd” that her sister was walking because Gonzalez was driving a rental car at the time. The sister said that after she passed by the victim and Thompson, she heard the sound of gunfire and when she turned around to look back she saw her sister on the ground.
A second witness to the shooting — whose name was not disclosed in court documents — told police they saw Thompson put Gonzalez in a “choke hold” just before he fatally shot her. The witness “attempted to give help” to the victim but was unsuccessful.
Investigators then obtained surveillance footage from nearby buildings which they say showed Thompson and Gonzalez walking together just prior to the shooting.
“The suspect then attempts to put [Gonzalez] in a choke hold but [she] shrugs him off,” police wrote in the affidavit. “[Gonzalez] and the suspect continue to walk through the parking lot. Suspect Thompson then pulls out a firearm and shoots [Gonzalez] one time in the head. [Gonzalez] falls to the ground and the suspect then fired multiple more shots into the complainant.”
After the shooting, Thompson fled the scene on foot. Gonzalez was pronounced dead on the scene. The two had only been dating for about four months at the time of Gonzalez’s death.
As the investigation into the shooting unfolded, police learned that Gonzalez had recently traveled to Colorado to get an abortion, which investigators said was the motive for the shooting. She returned from Colorado the night before she was killed.
“It is believed that the suspect was the father of the child,” police wrote in the affidavit. “The suspect did not want her to get an abortion.”
At the time of the shooting, Thompson also had an active arrest warrant issued in March 2023, which states that he physically assaulted a pregnant Gonzalez multiple times by strangling and punching her.
“She is scared of the suspect because he had made threats to harm her family and her children,” police wrote of Gonzalez. “She has kids from a different relationship, and suspect is very jealous of the complainant’s ex-boyfriend.”
Thompson is currently being held in the Dallas County Jail without bond.
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