FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Court TV) — A Florida man is being held without bond after investigators say he pushed his girlfriend to take her own life.
Miguel Hernandez is facing a charge of manslaughter. (Broward County Jail)
Miguel Hernandez, 41, is charged with manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend, Mary McGonigle, 37, who died from a single gunshot wound to the head. While a medical examiner ruled McGonigle’s death a suicide, Hernandez has been charged under the manslaughter statute under the theory that he encouraged her to do it.
Deputies with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office were called to the home Hernandez shared with McGonigle on Jan. 24, 2026, for a reported shooting. When they arrived, they saw McGonigle lying on the ground with a “large pool of thick, clumpy blood” surrounding her head. Officers who responded to the scene described seeing Hernandez holding her body with blood on his hands, “clearly distraught, crying, sweating and physically shaking.”
In an interview at the scene, Hernandez told police that McGonigle had a history of threatening suicide during arguments and allegedly admitted that the couple had a tiff in the moments before the shooting. He also reportedly told detectives that his girlfriend had a history of substance abuse that likely required rehab and recounted a previous incident the week before when McGonigle allegedly grabbed his weapon. Hernandez allegedly claimed that on the night in question, McGonigle grabbed his gun off of the bed and shot herself before he could intervene.
But investigators say surveillance video from inside the couple’s home told a very different story. The video allegedly shows a brief argument followed by Hernandez racking the slide on the gun and handing it to his girlfriend before yelling at her, “Go ahead and do it.” Police said he repeatedly urged her to kill herself in the moments before she pulled the trigger.
When officers confronted Hernandez with the surveillance video, he said he admitted making the statements but said “he was calling her bluff and did not believe she would actually fire the weapon,” police said. “He denied wanting her to kill herself and denied intentionally assisting in her death.”
McGonigle was pronounced dead on Feb. 9, 2026.
In 2014, Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Massachusetts in the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, after urging him to kill himself in a series of text messages. Carter was sentenced to 15 months in jail but was released several months early in Jan. 2020.
Prosecutors urged a judge to keep Hernandez behind bars without bail, citing previous convictions on drug charges and criminal mischief. At the time of the shooting, Hernandez was out of jail on pretrial release for a drug case.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and is due to return to court in this case on May 28.
