In the early morning hours of November 16, 2017, a domestic tragedy unfolded in the garage of a Las Vegas home, ending the life of 41-year-old Nicole Nguyen. The woman was discovered by responding officers on the floor of her garage with a fatal gunshot wound to her torso. The incident occurred at her residence on College Green Street, near Durango Drive and Blue Diamond Road. She was transported to St.
Rose Dominican Hospital, San Martin campus, where she was pronounced dead approximately an hour after the shooting.
Present at the scene was her estranged husband, John Fitzgerald Gonzalez, who was 51 at the time. The couple, who had been married since February 2010, were in the midst of a contentious divorce, which Nguyen had initiated seven weeks prior, citing safety concerns for herself and their 6-year-old son. In court filings, she had described Gonzalez as "aggressive and threatening" and had sought sole custody of their child. Their young son was inside the home at the time of the shooting but was unharmed.
Gonzalez’s account of the events that led to his wife's death shifted dramatically during the initial investigation. He first told police that he had come to the house to pick up their son for school when Nguyen produced a gun, leading to a struggle during which the weapon accidentally discharged, striking her. However, his story later changed. He then claimed that the two had engaged in a consensual sexual act in her car inside the garage. According to this version of events, Nguyen allegedly pointed a gun at him during the encounter, and in the ensuing struggle, the gun went off.
Detectives found Gonzalez's explanations to be inconsistent with the evidence at the crime scene and deemed his story "implausible." Investigators questioned why he would have brought two firearms to the meeting if he feared an ambush, and why a gun would be accessible during a sexual act. Following his interview with homicide detectives, John Fitzgerald Gonzalez was arrested and charged with the murder of his estranged wife. In December 2018, Gonzalez entered an Alford plea to a charge of first-degree murder, not admitting guilt but acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction. He was subsequently sentenced to 20 to 50 years in prison for the killing of Nicole Nguyen.
