Texas Man Sentenced to Life for Killing Girlfriend After Learning She'd Traveled Out of State for Abortion

A Texas man convicted of killing his girlfriend because she had an abortion has been sentenced to life in prison.

Monday’s sentencing in Dallas County Criminal Court came shortly after a jury found Harold L. Thompson, 23, guilty of murdering 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez, court records show.

Gonzalez, a mother of three, was fatally gunned down in a gas station parking lot in May 2023, police said at the time. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Fox 4 News reports.

Surveillance footage from the gas station showed Gonzalez and Thompson arguing, police said, NBC 5 reports.

During the argument, Thompson was seen putting Gonzalez in a choke hold, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Associated Press.

She managed to free herself from his grasp, police said in the affidavit, but as they started walking he pulled out a gun and shot her in the head, the affidavit said. He fired several more shots before fleeing the scene.

Police later learned that the two were in a relationship, NPR reported, citing the affidavit.

The previous day, Gonzalez had traveled to Colorado for an abortion, the affidavit said, NPR reports. Abortion is almost entirely outlawed in Texas since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Thompson, the suspected father of the child, “did not want [Gonzalez] to get an abortion,” the affidavit reads, per AP.

At the time of Thompson’s arrest for Gonzalez’s murder, there was an active warrant out for his arrest for assault, an affidavit showed, NPR, Fox 4 News and NBC 5 report.

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Gonzalez had filed the report against Thompson in March 2023, just two months before he murdered her.

According to the affidavit, Thompson had beaten an unnamed woman who was pregnant with his baby several times, NPR reports. He allegedly tried to strangle the woman, believed to be Gonzalez, and gave her a black eye, it said.

The victim said she was “very fearful” of Thompson, a warrant obtained by NPR said, due to threats he made against her family and children.

Gonzalez’s sister, Mileny Rubio, told NBC 5 that her sister felt helpless.

“I knew she wasn’t OK but we couldn’t help, we didn’t know how,” Rubio told NBC 5. “He was so angry that she wanted to get away from him. She would always tell me that she wanted to leave, but that she couldn’t.“

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.