A female federal prison guard has been arrested for tampering with federal property. The property in question is notorious cop killer Ronell Wilson, 30.
The feds took Nancy Gonzalez, 29, into custody Tuesday and charged her with illegally engaging in sexual activity with Wilson while he was confined at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, awaiting a hearing on his death penalty case.
Photo: Paul Martinka
According to court documents obtained by the Associated Press, Gonzalez became pregnant in June, a few months after she began “dating” Wilson.
Gonzalez appeared in court Tuesday visibly upset and sobbing. She was surrounded by family members who declined to comment to the swarm of reporters outside the courtroom.
“These are very serious charges,” said her attorney Anthony Rico, as Gonzalez buried her head in Rico’s shoulder.
“She’s had a very tragic life,” said Rico. “She has long-term issues that affected her life and judgment.”
Gonzalez worked the night shift, and she was reportedly seen by other inmates going in and out of Wilson’s cell, starting in March. According to court documents, Gonzalez had sex with Wilson in a vacant activity room next to his cell when she was supposed to be on duty.
Wilson was transferred to solitary confinement in August while prison officials investigated the illicit relationship.
Wilson was sentenced to death row for the point-blank shootings of undercover officers James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in a 2006 illegal gun sting that went horribly wrong.
He was a young gang member when he shot Nemorin and Andrews execution style after allegedly recognizing one of them.
After the shooting, Wilson reportedly searched through Detective Nemorin’s clothes looking for the $1,200 in cash he was carrying to purchase a Tec-9 pistol from Wilson and other gang members. The NY Times reports that the stack of $100 bills still remained in Nemorin’s pocket after he was killed.
In all, seven gang members were convicted in the deaths of Detectives Nemorin and Andrews.
Wilson’s death sentence was overturned on appeal in 2010 based on prosecutorial error, the AP reports.
Wilson could still face the death penalty when a new jury is convened. But that trial is delayed while a federal judge considers his lawyer’s argument that he’s ineligible for the death penalty because he’s mentally disabled.
In court documents, Gonzalez attempted to explain the state of mind that led her to seek an illegal relationship with Wilson. “I took a chance because I was so vulnerable and wanted to be loved and now I am carrying his child,” Gonzalez said.
She said she “kind of got sucked into his world,” and that she “felt like, well, why not give him a child as far as giving him some kind of hope.”
Gonzalez confessed her relationship with Wilson to another “boyfriend,” an inmate who had been under her supervision at the same federal prison but who was transferred to another facility.
She told him it was over with Wilson, and that she was worried she would get into trouble.
After she became pregnant, she made contact with Wilson’s mother through phone calls. Wilson’s mother asked to see a sonogram of the fetus. Gonzalez said she was worried that the phone calls might get her into trouble with the feds.
“I know what’s to come. I know what is going to be said about me,” she said, according to court papers. “How am I going to explain this to this little boy? Mommy was in the military … Mommy was a [corrections officer], Mommy got wrapped up … And then the opposite end is with a person who took lives. So how do you explain that?”
Gonzalez was released on $150,000 bond. She faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
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(AP Photo/Ed Betz, File)
