A Dallas man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being found guilty of killing his girlfriend as revenge for getting an abortion.
Harold Thompson was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for the May 2023 murder of 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was Shot a Night After She Returned from Colorado Where She Got the Abortion
According to prosecutors, Thompson, who was 22 at the time, fatally shot Gonzalez and that he did it because she had an abortion and he believed he was the father of the child. Texas banned abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy in September 2021, forcing Gonzalez to travel to Colorado to get the abortion.
Police said in 2023 that Thompson and Gonzalez were seen arguing on surveillance footage taken at a Dallas gas station and that Thompson put Gonzalez in a choke hold moments before shooting her in the head. Gonzalez, a mother of three other young children, died at the scene. She had returned from Colorado the night before.
Thompson was Already Facing Charges for Assaulting Gonzalez Two Months Before Shooting
The victim's family said the couple had recently ended a tumultuous four-month relationship. Thompson had a history of being abusive towards Gonzalez. At the time of the shooting, Thompson had been charged with assaulting Gonzalez, who accused him of choking her two months before the shooting, in March.
The arrest affidavit says Thompson "beat her up multiple times throughout the entirety of their relationship" and Gonzalez "reiterated that she is scared of the suspect because he had made threats to harm her family and her children."
