MANIPULATIVE, COLD-BLOODED: PAUL CANEIRO SENTENCED, JACK AVERY MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOT, EBONY PARKER ON TRIAL

0:03 Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. This is Daily Crime and Justice. It is Thursday, May twenty first, twenty twenty six. We have three rooms to walk you through this morning. The first room is in Freehold, New Jersey, where, on Tuesday, a judge looked at a fifty nine year old man who had been convicted of murdering his own brother, his sister in law, his eleven year old nephew, and his eight year old niece and called him, and I am quoting the bench here, a manipulative, cold blooded killer who destroyed every life around him in a ruthless effort to preserve his own. We have been covering this case with you since January, the trial, the verdict, the motion for a new trial, and now the sentence four consecutive life terms no parole plus eighteen years. The judge told him his address will forever be the Department of Corrections.

1:03 We're going to walk you through what was said in that courtroom on Tuesday, by the family, by the prosecutor, by the judge, and we're going to say the names of the people who are not here to read it. The second room is in Los Angeles where a twenty somethingter singer named Jack Avery you might know him from a boy band called Why Don't We, sat down for a podcast interview and casually mentioned that the FBI showed up at his door, that he stayed inside his house for a month, and that he was looking out his window every night because he was so scared. Why because, according to prosecutors in California, his ex girlfriend's father of Florida attorney was allegedly trying to hire someone to kill him over a custody fight over a baby, and the daughter of that attorney, a TikTok influencer with millions of followers, has been arrested too. We'll get into it and the third room is in Newport News, Virginia. Day one of the criminal trial of Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at rich Neck Elementary. You remember this One January sixth, twenty twenty three, a six year old first grader pulled a nine millimeter handgun out of his pocket and shot his twenty five year old teacher, Abby's Werner in the chest.

2:15 We covered the civil trial last fall. Z Werner won ten million dollars. Now the state of Virginia is back and this time they are not asking for money. They want Ebony Parker to go to prison for what she did and did not do that day. Three rooms, three different cities, three different kinds of consequence. Let's get into it. Let's start and freehold, New Jersey, Monmouth County Superior Court, Tuesday morning, May nineteenth, Judge Mark Lemieux on the bench and standing in front of him in a button up shirt, fifty nine years old, hands folded Paul Canero. For anyone catching up with us, we have been with this case since January. We covered the opening days of the trial.

3:02 We covered the middle we covered the verdict in February, guilty on every count, four counts of first degree murder aggravated arson. The defense filed a motion for a new trial. The judge denied it, and on Tuesday the sentence came down. Before I tell you what the sentence was, let me tell you who is not in that courtroom, because that's the only reason we are here. Keith Caniro, fifty years old, Paul's younger brother, business partner, tech entrepreneur, father of two. Jennifer Caniro forty five years old, Keith's wife, a mother who by every account that has come out at this trial, lived for her kids. Jesse Caniro eleven years old, a boy who would now be seventeen, finishing his junior year of high school if his uncle had not stabbed him to death. And Sophia Canero eight years old, a little girl who would now be fourteen. On November twentieth, twenty eighteen, two days before Thanksgiving, Paul Kniro drove from his home in Ocean Township to his brother's mansion on Willowbrook Road in Coltsneck, New Jersey. He had already that morning set his own house on fire to make it look like the whole family was being targeted. He cut the power at Keith's house. When Keith came outside to check the electrical box, Paul shot him five times, one of them a contact wound to the head. Then he went inside.

4:31 He killed Jennifer, He went upstairs, he killed the children, He set the house on fire, and he drove home. Investigators say the children were still alive when the fire started. They were stabbed first, the fire came second. Sofia and I am going to read you the judge's words from Tuesday morning, because the judge did not flinch, and neither will I. Sofia was stabbed more than forty times, the judge said, and I am quoting the it's a defendant stab Sophia through her nasal cavity with such violence that it fractured her sinus and penetrated her brain. Another stab wound pierced her chest cavity and collapsed her long That's what you did. The judge said that to Paul Canero on Tuesday morning in open court, while the defendant stood there without reaction. That little eight year old forty five pounds fought for her life against a two hundred pound grown man with a knife. That was the judge's phrase.

5:31 I submit. He said that the terror that he inflicted cannot be understated. The motive was money. Keith and Paul co owned a tech firm called Square One and a pest control company called Eco Star. The day before the murders, Keith confronted Paul about missing money from the business accounts. Keith had figured out that Paul had been pocketing premium payments on a three million dollar life insurance policy. Sixteen separate transfers from a family trust into Paul's personal act out doctored bank's statements. Keith gave Paul a deadline eight pm that night to explain where the money went. Eight hours after that deadline expired, Paul started killing. So that's the backstory, that's what the jury heard, that's what they convicted on. Now Tuesday morning, the sentencing first to speak.

6:21 Bonnie Caridis, Jennifer Caniro's sister, the aunt of those two children. She told the court, quote, an entire branch of our family was erased seven and a half years ago, two days before Thanksgiving. The calculation and selfishness required to look his own niece and nephew in the eyes and murder them an entire family is a level of evil that is not comprehensible. End quote. Then, Jennifer's mother, the grandmother of those children, she said. The defendant slaughtered her family, she said, quote, he stole the source of joy and happiness in our lives and replaced it with bottomless sadness, sorrow, and grief. In an act of pure evil. He took the life of four innocent people, his own flesh and blood, out of greed and selfishness. He disgusts us. He represents the very worst of humanity. End quote. Then Prosecutor Nicole Wallace stood up and made a point. I want you to sit with for a second, because remember, there is a third Canaro brother, Corey Caniro. Paul's defense strategy through this whole trial has been to suggest that Corey might have been the real killer. The defense floated this theory in opening, kept hinting at it through testimony, and held onto it through the appeal. The prosecutor Nicole Wallace on Tuesday, quote Corey lost his brother that day, his sister in law, his niece, and his nephew. And to add insult to injury, the defendant accused Corey of being responsible for these atrocities.

7:54 End quote. Look, I'm going to be honest with you. That's not just bad lawyering. That's a choice. That's a fifty nine year old man who already murdered four members of his own family deciding that his last play, his Hail Mary, would be to drag his only surviving brother's name through the mud, to put on Corey what he himself had done. There's a playbook for this. The playbook is when you have no defense, point the finger at anyone within reach. And Paul Caniro's reach was his last brother. Paul's defense attorney, Monica Mastealone, did what she could. She acknowledged the sentence was mandatory life without parole on each murder count, but asked the judge to run the sentences concurrently, side by side, instead of one after another. The judge said no, and then Mastellone said something the defendant wanted on the record. She said, quote, he maintains his innocence and has nothing further to add at this time. End quote.

8:52 Paul Caniro, himself, given the chance to speak in open court on the day he was being sentenced to die in prison, said nothing. And then Judge Mark Lemieux did what judges do at moments like this. He said the part out loud. He looked at Paul Kneiro, and he called him a manipulative, cold blooded killer who destroyed every life around him in a ruthless effort to preserve his own. He said, quote. There was an avalanche of evidence pointing to the defendant being a callous, heartless, brutal killer of his brother, his sister in law, and two innocent kids. It's not a tragedy. It's a flat out killing of innocent people. Tragedy is a much different word. I want you to hear that, because this is something that gets lost in true crime in our show, in everybody's show, we use the word tragedy too easily. Tragedy is a tree falling on a house. Tragedy is a car accident.

9:51 Tragedy is a heart attack at fifty. What happened on Willowbrook Road in November of twenty eighteen was not a tragedy. It was a series of choices made by a grown man with a gun and a knife and a can of accelerate. The judge said that out loud, and I am grateful that he did. Sentence handed down four consecutive life sentences, followed by eighteen years for the arsons, no parole ever. Paul Canero is fifty nine years old. He will die in a New Jersey Department of Corrections facility, Judge Lemieux's last words from the bench, and I'm quoting one more time. His address will forever be the Department of Corrections. His only reality is confinement, consequence and accountability. Accountability.

10:39 That's the word. Seven and a half years from the night four people were murdered to the morning the man who did. It was told he is never going home. Long road, but the road ended. Keith, Jennifer, Jesse, Sophia. Someone has to say your names. We just did. Okay, let's switch coasts, Los Angeles. Have you heard of a band called Why Don't We? If you have a teenage daughter or you had one anytime in the last decade, you've probably have. They were a five member boy band that signed with Atlantic Records in twenty sixteen. They were on tour with the likes of the Backstreet Boys. They had a Billboard Top ten album. They were the kind of pop group where every member had his own lane, the cute one, the heart throb, the one who could actually sing all of it. One of those members was Jack Avery. He's now in his mid twenties. The band has been on hiatus. Jack has been doing some solo work, some collaborations. He has a young daughter from a relationship with a woman named Gabriella Gonzalez. Gabriella Gonzalez is what we now call an influencer. She has, depending on which platform you check, between two and three million followers on TikTok and another couple hundred thousand on Instagram. Her content is what you would expect day in the life travel pictures with her little girl. Jack and Gabriella had a relationship,

12:12 they had a kid together, and like a lot of celebrity adjacent relationships, it didn't last and they have by all accounts, been in some version of a custody battle ever since. That is where this story should end. Custody dispute, two parents trying to figure it out, lawyers in the middle of it, family court, the whole boring grind. It is not where the story ends. Here is what prosecutors in California are now alleging, and these are allegations. Both defendants have been charged, neither has been convicted of anything. Both are presumed innocent. With that on the table, here is what the indictment paperwork says. Gabriella has a father.

12:54 His name is Francisco Gonzalez. He is fifty nine years old. He lives in Central Florida and by profession, Francisco Gonzalez is a personal injury attorney, wrongful death, auto accidents, medical malpractice. He runs his own firm. Prosecutors say Francisco Gonzalez was quote deeply involved in his daughter's custody battle with Jack Avery, and by deeply involved, they don't mean writing checks for her legal fees. They mean, according to the affidavit reviewed by Court TV, that Francisco hired a private investigator to follow Jack Avery around. They mean that Francisco was looking for behaviors he could use against Avery in the custody case.

13:35 They mean that Francisco allegedly threatened to have Avery arrested. They mean that he tried to use a contact he had in law enforcement to make that happen. The affidavit and I am quoting says these records are significant because they show Francisco's sustained personal involvement in a campaign to gather information against Avery and use outside actors against him. That is allegation number one. Surveillance and intimidation bad enough on its own, especially when you're a lawyer and you, of all people, should know better. But that is not what got him charged. What got him charged is this. Prosecutors say Francisco Gonzalez paid more than ten thousand dollars to a guy under the cover story that the guy was doing web development for him. According to the affidavit, the guy never actually did any web development. He told investigators that the money was payment for him to find a hit man, a real one, to kill Jack Avery.

14:36 And then and then, Francisco Gonzalez allegedly had a phone call with somebody he believed was a contract killer. That call was recorded because the person on the other end of the line was an undercover federal agent. Quote from the affidavit. Francisco used coded references and discussed verifying the target and arranging payment slash accountability after completion end quote. He was allegedly going through the actual logistics, confirm the kill, pay the killer, make sure the killer doesn't flip on him. I want you to sit with the picture for a second. A fifty nine year old attorney, a grown man, a guy whose entire professional life is built on understanding how the justice system works. Coordinating allegedly with someone he thinks is a contract killer to murder the father of his granddaughter over a custody case. That's not a mistake, that's a choice. Francisco was arrested in Seminole County, Florida, on a warrant out of California. The charge is conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held pending extradition to California.

15:42 Gabriela Gonzalez, the daughter the influencer, was arrested in Los Angeles, also charged. The exact charges against her have not been fully detailed in the public filings yet, but she is in custody. They are pleading, not guilty. They get their day. We will cover it when it comes Now. The part that I cannot stop thinking about, the part that is so weird. I had to read the article twice. Jack Avery, the alleged target, went on a podcast called The Zach Sang Show, and he talked about this casually. Talked about how the FBI showed up at his front door and told him there was a credible threat to his life. He said the visit traumatized him. Quote, I stayed in my house for like a month straight. I didn't leave.

16:28 I was so scared. I was looking out of my window every night end quote. And then the interviewer asked him, why would somebody want to kill you? And Jack Avery's answer was, and I am quoting to get the stress out of their life. To get the stress out of their life, folks, that is a hell of a thing to say. A federal agent knocks on your door and tells you that the grandfather of your daughter has allegedly hired a hitman to kill you, and your interpretation of that is well, he was stress, it gets weirder. He then went on in the same interview to defend Gabriella Gonzalez. He said, and I am quoting again, I won't lie.

17:10 She's an incredible mom. She's a great mom. Look, I'm not going to psychoanalyze Jack Avery on this podcast. I don't know what he's been through. I don't know what his lawyers told him to say. I don't know what his custody arrangement looks like and how it gets affected by what he says publicly about the mother of his child. I get all of that, but I will tell you what I think. When a target of an alleged murder for higher plot goes on a podcast and uses the phrase incredible mom to describe one of the people who has been charged in connection with that plot, I think the playbook here is keep the peace. I think this is a man with a young daughter trying to figure out what version of public statement keeps that little girl's life as stable as possible. I think he is choosing his words for an audience that includes a family court judge who will eventually decide where his daughter sleeps at night.

18:03 I think this is survival behavior because here is what we know. A federal agent posed as a contract killer. A recorded phone call captured what prosecutors are calling logistical planning for a murder. A witness was paid ten thousand dollars allegedly to find a hit man. An attorney with thirty plus years of practice is now sitting in a Florida jail facing extradition. A TikTok influencer is in an LA jail, and Jack Avery, twenty six years old. Former boy band member Dad is on a podcast saying his ex is a great mom. Custody battles are hard. They are I have empathy for that. I have empathy for both parents in any custody case by default. But if these allegations are true, and they have to be proven in court, and we will be watching when they are, there is a line somewhere between this is a custody battle and let me find you a hit man. That line is not That line is not gray. And if a Florida attorney crossed it because he thought he was clever enough to outsmart California prosecutors and the FBI. This is going to be a long, long fall. First court appearance for Francisco was Tuesday afternoon. We will track this one as it develops. If you were with us last fall, you sat through this with me. We covered Abby's Werner's civil trial in November. Abby was twenty five years old,

19:36 a first grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School. On January sixth, twenty twenty three, she was sitting at a reading table in her classroom when a six year old boy referred to in court records as JT pulled out a nine millimeter Torus handgun, raised it, and fired one round. The bullet went through Abby's Werner's left hand and into her chest. It is still in her chest. It will be for the rest of her life because removing it is too risky. Z Werner survived. She had six surgeries. She has limited use of her left hand. She has PTSD. She has nightmares where the boy finds her and shoots her again. She testified to all of that last fall in a courtroom in front of the woman she says is the reason she got shot. That woman is Ebony Parker. Parker was the assistant principal at rich Neck Elementary on the day of the shooting. The civil jury found her liable last November and awarded Abby's werner ten million dollars. Parker is appealing that the appeal is on hold, pending some post judgment hearings. That's the civil track. But last fall when we covered the verdict, we told you the criminal case was still pending, and on Tuesday, May nineteenth, that criminal case started Day one of jury trial the Commonwealth of Virginia versus Ebony. Parker eight counts of felony child abuse pleaded not guilty, one to five years on each count.

21:02 If convicted. Do the math. That's a potential maximum of forty years in a Virginia state prison for a former assistant principal who, according to the state, sat at her desk and ignored every warning sign in front of her face while a six year old walked around her school with a loaded handgun in his pocket. Opening statements Tuesday, Prosecutor Joshua Jenkins delivered the Commonwealth's opening and he made a move that I want you to pay attention to because it is going to shape the entire trial. Jenkins told the jury and This is paraphrase from Court TV's summary. Abby's Werner being shot is a tragedy, but she is not the focus of this case. The focus of this case is the other children in that classroom, the first graders who were sitting at that reading table when JT drew a loaded weapon and pointed it at an adult. Those, Jenkins argued, are the victims. The eight counts of child abuse are about the eight chilld six year olds that Parker allegedly endangered. That is a smart prosecutorial framing because it does two things at once. First, it sidesteps any defense argument that Werner herself shares some blame. Second, it puts a row of six year olds at the center of the case. There is nothing harder for a defense attorney to undercut than a row of six year olds.

22:24 Jenkins then laid out the timeline, and folks the timeline. The timeline is the case JT's. The six year old had a long history of disciplinary issues at the school. Parker, as assistant principal, knew about every one of them. She was the administrator who handled discipline. On the morning of January sixth, before any gun had been seen, Swerner herself approached Parker and told her that JT was quote in a violent mood. According to the prosecution, Parker's reaction to that warning from one of her own teachers was to stare at her blankly and then go back to whatever she was working on. Stare blankly. That's testimony number one.

23:05 Then a reading specialist named Amy Kovak was approached by students who told her JT had brought a gun to school. Kovach alerted Parker. Parker authorized a search of JT's backpack. By that point, the gun was no longer in the backpack. JT had moved it to the inside pocket of his jacket. They searched the bag, nothing in the bag. End of search. Another student identified only as r R in court documents reported seeing the gun. Then a third teacher, Jennifer West, observed JT acting suspiciously on the playground, going behind a rock wall, going behind a tree, the kind of behavior and adult notices when a kid is hiding something. Another child told Jennifer West that JT had threatened to quote blow them up and said he had a gun. West went to the office and reported it. At some point and and the prosecution will down the exact time during this trial, a teacher asked Ebony Parker for permission to search JT's person, not his backpack, his pockets, his coat, the kid himself. Parker denied permission. The prosecution's claim, which they made in the civil trial and they're making again now, is that Parker told the teachers his mother would be arriving soon to pick him up. Don't search him. Wait, the mother didn't arrive. The weight was ninety minutes, and in those ninety minutes, JT shot Abby z Werner. One round was fired. There were seven more rounds in the magazine.

24:38 One was jammed in the action of the gun. That is the only thing, a mechanical malfunction that stopped this from being a multi victim shooting in a first grade classroom, and the principle, the principle of the entire school. Brionna Foster testified Tuesday that she had no idea any of this was happening. Quote from court TV summary of her testimony. She was unaware there was a gun on campus on January sixth, twenty twenty three. She conceded she is ultimately in charge of students' safety. She said she expected her staff to come to her if there was a crisis that didn't happen on January sixth. The only administrator who knew what was going on was Ebony Parker, and Ebeny Parker, according to the prosecution's theory of the case, sat on it.

25:24 Defense opening came from attorney Curtis Rogers, and the defense's play is the same one they ran in the civil trial. It didn't work, then they're running it again. The defense said, based on the knowledge Parker had at the time, there was no crisis. There was no confirmed weapon. They said any teacher could have separated JT from the other students. They said other people had direct interactions with these children and should also be charged. They said the search of the backpack came up empty. They said Parker followed protocol. Look, I'm going to be honest with you. That is what's the defense you run when you have nothing else, When the only thing you can argue is well, somebody else should also be in trouble. What you're really saying is, yes, my client should be in trouble. You're just trying to bring company to the trouble. That is not a defense.

26:16 That is a sympathy bid. And here's the part where I will say what I have said before about this case. Accountability does not have a legal department. Ebony Parker had ninety minutes. She had a teacher telling her a student was in a violent mood and being stared at blankly. She had a reading specialist telling her a child might have a gun. She had a student saying he'd been threatened with a gun. She had another teacher pointing at a kid hiding behind rocks on the playground. She had a fourth report asking her, please, can we search this child's pockets? And she said no, wait, his mom is coming.

26:56 A six year old shot his teacher in the chest. The bullet is still there. Abby's werner doesn't teach anymore. She went to cosmetology school because she can't go back into a classroom. The mother never came, the gun never left. Tuesday was day one, Wednesday was day two. We will be tracking this one all the way through verdict. If the State of Virginia gets a conviction on all eight counts, Ebony Parker is potentially looking at decades. If they don't, then a six year old shooting his teacher will become And this is the part that bothers me. The most just another thing that happened, just paperwork, just a civil settlement that's being appealed. Nobody criminally responsible, nobody held to account.

27:41 That's the stakes. Three completely different shapes of justice, nor the absence of it, moving at three completely different speeds. In Freehold, the slowest of the three finally arrived seven and a half years from ordered a sentence. Four people gone, One man in a button up shirt told he will die in a New Jersey prison cell. The judge said the word out loud, accountability. That is what closure looks like in this country. Long late, imperfect, but the word gets said and the door gets locked. In Los Angeles, the fastest of the three is just beginning. An FBI investigation became a sting, became a recorded phone call became an arrest. A Florida attorney and his influencer daughter are now in two different jails in two different states, both facing charges. The alleged target is on a podcast saying he's scared. We have no idea where this case ends, we just know it has started. And in Newport News, the middle case is grinding through. A teacher walks with a bullet in her chest. Eight first graders sat in a classroom that day and saw their classmate fire a real gun and a real adult, and the woman who could have stopped it has spent three years arguing she did nothing wrong. The civil jury didn't agree. The Commonwealth is now asking twelve more people to also disagree. Keith Caniro, Jennifer Caniro, Jesse Caniro, Sophia Caniro, four, Abby's Werner, one

29:14 who lived, eight first graders whose names we don't know yet because they were six years old. Jack Avery who locked himself inside his house and watched the window. Different cases, different cities, different facts, same underneath. Somebody made a choice, somebody else paid for it, and somebody has to say their names. That's the show for Thursday. I'm Garrett Fisher. Look out for each other, Do Better. Daily Crime and Justice is a production of Calaroga Shark Media. This program uses AI assisted research, scripting and voice synthesis. Our production is fast, but it is not infallible. We aim for accuracy, but we may make errors. This program is for information and entertainment. It is not legal and it is not the official record. Court documents, Transcripts and verified reporting from outlets we cite are the actual record. Today's episode included reporting from Court TV, TMZ, and The Zach Sang Show.

30:15 The Paul Knio sentencing is now final under New Jersey statute. The defense has indicated intent to appeal. Francisco Gonzalez and Gabriella Gonzalez have been arrested and charged with offenses related to an alleged murder for higher plot targeting Jack Avery. Both have been charged but not convicted, and both are presumed innocent unless and until a court of law finds otherwise. The allegations summarized in this episode are drawn from Court TV's reporting on the prosecution's charging documents in affidavit, which we have not independently reviewed. Ebony Parker has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of felony child abuse in Newport News, Virginia.

30:56 She is presumed innocent. Our summary of day one testimony is drawn from Court TV's trial hub page. Day two testimony occurred on May twentieth, twenty twenty six, but detailed witness summaries were not yet available at the time of recording. Minor witnesses identified by initials reflect how those children are referenced in court documents. If you spot something we got wrong tell us. If you want to argue with us, tell us that too. We are back tomorrow with Friday's show until that