Support builds for bail, release of Raleigh veteran accused of killing his baby
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Gonzales' lawyer filed for a $250,000 bond on June 22 with 26 character letters attached.
- Dozens of family, friends and Marines wrote that Gonzales was loving and nonviolent.
- In April a Wake County judge ordered Gonzales held without bond.
In April, a Wake County judge ordered a Raleigh man accused of killing his 1-year-old daughter to be held without bail.
Since then, over two dozen family members, friends and fellow service members have written letters in support of bail being set so the former Marine can get out of jail.
The charges, they say, do not describe the man they know.
Christopher David Gonzales, 25, was charged with the first-degree murder of his daughter on April 21. His wife, Selena, wrote on Facebook on April 22 that she would stand by her husband, calling their baby’s death a “tragic accident,” The News & Observer previously reported.
Christopher Gonzales’ lawyer, Nicole Galinsky, filed a request for bail to be set at $250,000 on June 22, court records show. (In North Carolina, people who can't pay the full cash bail can typically pay a bond agent 10% to 15% of the amount to post a bail bond on their behalf.)
Attached to the request were 26 character letters from Gonzales’ wife, parents, parents-in-law, childhood friends and Marines who served with him.
The defense counsel’s neuropathologist believes Gonzales’ baby had injuries consistent with an accidental bed fall, Galinsky wrote in the request, which Gonzales told hospital staff and police was the reason he brought her to the hospital.
Gonzales remained in Raleigh after his daughter died “while knowing that he could be charged with her murder at any point in the future,” Galinsky wrote. When he learned police had a warrant for his arrest, he turned himself in the same day.
‘A light in many people’s lives’
In her letter of support, Selena Gonzales wrote that her brother was friends with Christopher Gonzales in middle school. The couple started dating in high school and have been married four years. Christopher Gonzales joined the Marines soon after graduating high school in 2019, serving five years.
The birth of their daughter “softened our hearts and showed us the true meaning of love,” Selena Gonzales wrote.
“Seeing Christopher with [her] was pure joy and I didn’t think I could love him more,” she wrote. “The love that my husband and [daughter] shared was pure and gentle, you could see the love through their eyes when they looked at each other.”
Selena Gonzales wrote in the letter that their daughter’s death was a “tragic accident” that could have happened “to any good family.” She implored the court for leniency, calling her husband “a light in many people’s lives.”
Darleen Gonzales, echoed those points in her own letter, recounting how her son would video call with her three to five times a day to “show us proudly how amazing [his daughter] is.”
“Losing [his daughter] was a tragic accident that could have happened to anyone who panicked without the skills or knowledge of what to do in that kind of situation,” Darleen Gonzales wrote.
Former and current Marines who knew Christopher Gonzales or were in his platoon wrote that he was the most mature person there, offering free haircuts to those who couldn’t otherwise afford them and mentoring others, never getting frustrated if they made a mistake.
Sgt. David Caulk wrote in his letter that Gonzales helped him stay grounded through his mental health challenges.
“My hope is that one day I can be the kind of man he is to his wife and the devoted father he was to his daughter — to my wife and my son,” Caulk wrote.
Those who knew Gonzales when he grew up in the small southeast Colorado town of Rocky Ford — childhood friends, parents of his friends and his former basketball coach — recalled a thoughtful, mature kid who loved cats and sought to be respectful and friendly to everyone he met.
Triston Mendoza-Werner became Gonzales’ friend in second grade and wrote in his letter that Gonzales never let his talent as a basketball player inflate his ego.
Gonzales never so much as used a curse word, Mendoza-Werner wrote — let alone lost his temper or lashed out, even when the basketball team they played on in school got into fights with other teams or each other.
“Chris was always the pacifist; calming people’s anger, separating people from each other, and cracking jokes to ease flared tensions,” Mendoza-Werner wrote. “There is not a violent bone in Chris’s body.”
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