Watch Now. Listen on Apple. Listen on Spotify.
There are always two sides to every story & one person’s word against another. However, in this case, the aggressors were thankfully foolish enough to record their own attack against another thus proving that their side of the story was nothing but a blatant lie.
Today, we’re diving into a tragic case about love twisted into betrayal and violence. We’re stepping back to August 2022 in Buford, Georgia & 30-year-old Ashley Bocanegra, a hardworking mom from New York, was chasing a fresh start for herself and her seven-year-old son. As a manager at Floor & Decor, she entered into a budding romance with coworker Daniel Gonzalez, unaware that she was heading into a deadly trap. Fueled by jealousy and deception, a confrontation spiraled into a brutal attack that left nothing to investigator’s imaginations as it was captured on video by the attackers themselves. Ashley’s story is a stark reminder that sometimes, the cost of love can be fatal.
As Ashley Bocanegra & Daniel Gonzalez started their secret romance, each of their partners were unaware, at least, at first. Sadly, when Daniel’s fiance, Antonetta Stevens, & his teenage sister Janine uncovered the affair, their jealousy ignited a deadly plot that resulted in a vicious attack.
In 2022, Ashley Bocanegra was establishing herself in Buford, Georgia after she relocated to the area from the Bronx with her 7-year-old son in hopes of providing a better life for her child. At the time, she & her son shared an apartment with her fiance, Julian Reyes, who was also the father of her child. Ashley was described by her family & friends as a loyal, supportive person who was tremendously loved.
According to family members, at the time of Ashley’s death, she & Julian were no longer living together as romantic partners, but rather, co-parents to their son in an arrangement that worked for them for the time being.
Ashley was dedicated to her job as a manager at Floor & Decor, but little did she know that the flirtatious interaction that began between herself & her co-worker, Daniel Gonzalez, would be the beginning of the end of her life. While working together on the night shift, Daniel & Ashley initially connected over their relationship struggles with their partners whom they each had children with & eventually, their friendship morphed into a romance.
At the time they started chatting, Daniel was engaged to 27-year-old Antonetta Stevens & the couple shared an apartment with their two young sons, ages 3 & 9 as well as his teenage sister, Janine Gonzalez.
Julian was unaware of the fact that Ashley was in a romantic relationship with another man although he later admitted that he suspected something might be going on.
In the meantime, Daniel managed to keep his double life a secret from his fiance until August 2022. Unlike in Julian’s case, Antonetta strongly suspected that something was going on with Daniel & wondered if he was straying in their relationship. These suspicions were eventually confirmed by Daniel’s 17-year-old sister, Janine, after her brother confided in her about his feelings for Ashley.
One day before Janine & Antonetta went on to confront & attack Ashley, Janine told Antonetta about her brother’s indiscretions & the two headed out in the direction of Floor & Decor where Ashley & Daniel worked together. As they approached the QuickTrip convenience store that was situated near Floor & Decor, they saw the pair walking together during Daniel’s lunch break. This was despite the fact that Daniel had told Antonetta he wasn’t able to get a break that day. She confronted them & an argument began.
The following day, Thursday, August 11, 2022, while Daniel was asleep, Antonetta took her opportunity to go through his phone, confirming his physical & emotional relationship with Ashley. Antonetta & Janine sat together as partners in crime, scheming as Antonetta utilized Daniel’s phone to text Ashley posing as Daniel, as she explained that he was getting kicked out of the home they shared because of their affair. As she sent these texts, it was Antonetta’s goal to lure the unsuspecting other woman over to their apartment.
It wasn’t long before Ashley arrived at the Preston Hills at Mill Creek Apartments in Buford where Daniel & Antonetta lived. As she walked down the street behind their apartment complex, Ashley expected to see Daniel while Janine filmed the moment that Antonetta confronted her.
Before Ashley even had a chance to respond, Antonetta was in attack mode & the video depicted a brutal ambush that resulted in Ashley falling to the ground as she was pulled down by her hair. She was screaming as Antonetta continued beating her as Ashley was desperately trying to shield herself. During the attack, Antonetta could be heard repeatedly saying, I will murder you!
It was clear that Antoinetta was in a rage as she accused Ashley of ruining her family, shouting vulgar threats & even taunting her about Daniel, Say hi to Daniel! He said I could come out here & f-ck you up. That’s what I’m doing!
While Antonetta carried on with her blows, Janine could be heard laughing & egging her future sister-in-law on in the background while Ashley repeatedly asked Antonetta to get off of her.
The video that Janine filmed throughout the attack is so violent & graphic that it hasn’t been released in its entirety.
As she carried on, Antonetta paused to ask Janine if she wanted in on the fight & she said she did. With that, Janine marched over to Ashley, who lay on the pavement, & violently kicked her in the midsection & back.
Not only did they viscously attack Ashley, but they also stole her phone during the altercation, claiming that they intended to use it to contact Ashley’s fiance about the affair.
As Antonetta carried on with her rage & she & Ashley rolled around the street, an employee from the apartment complex drove by on a golf cart & went on to call 911, explaining that two girls were fighting & one was very bloody. Antonetta was easily able to dominate Ashley during the fight since Ashley had a petite, tiny stature.
According to Ashley’s family members, she had never been the fighting type & despite the fact that she was often sporting sweatpants & a sweatshirt, one family member described her as a diva who always had her makeup & hair done.
As the fight came to an end, Ashley was left battered in the street as Antonetta & Janine went back to their apartment with her phone in tow. Despite her immense injuries, she followed the pair to their apartment in order to get her phone back.
Daniel later told investigators that when Antonetta & his sister came back into the apartment, he’d still been asleep, but because they were carrying on about the fight, he woke up from the commotion. Moments later, Ashley began knocking on the door, demanding her phone back.
Daniel indicated that when he went to the door where Ashley stood, he was shocked by the sight of the injuries she’d sustained during the attack. He said that he was stunned to the point that he initially closed the door on her, but eventually opened it back up & gave her phone back to which she left.
Later that night, Daniel told investigators that his relationship with Antonetta had been falling apart for some time & when she’d confronted him about his relationship with Ashley on the previous day, he told her that he was no longer attracted to her.
Daniel handed his phone over to detectives & consented to a download of messages & with this, they were able to read messages that Ashley sent him right after the attack. She told him she was struggling to breath, it felt as if her heart was skipping beats & she planned to go to urgent care. Her texts indicated that she was fine until Janine kicked her in the back by her heart & in the chest.
It was clear that while Ashley carried on after the attack, she wasn’t aware of the severity of her injuries. After she got her phone back, she returned to her own apartment where surveillance video depicted her staggering & groaning as she let herself inside. She called her fiance, Julian, to let him know what happened & by the time he returned home, it was clear that Ashley was struggling to breath as video depicted her leaning over the ledge of the second-story railing in an attempt to catch her breath.
Ashley was taken to Memorial Hospital where an ER nurse treating her contacted authorities regarding the fact that her patient had been assaulted.
In the meantime, two hours after the attack, investigators responded to Daniel & Antonetta’s apartment complex at 1 pm after they’d received a call from the leasing office. Here, they found 27-year-old Antonetta Stevens & 17-year-old Janine Gonzalez; they immediately attempted to shift the blame, claiming it had been Ashley who was the aggressor.
Antonetta stood outside their apartment door as she explained that her fiance’s manager had been sleeping with him & she was forcing him to have sex with her. She claimed that Ashley threatened that if Daniel didn’t continue to engage in sexual relations with her, he would be fired.
As she continued on with her version of events, Antonetta conveniently left out the fact that she had been the one to lure Ashley to the complex that day, posing as Daniel.
Antonetta told the officers that when she went to the QuickTrip convenience store one day earlier she saw Daniel with Ashley & her women’s intuition told her that this was the girl he was sleeping with. She claimed that after they argued, Daniel broke things off with Ashley, but she continued to text & call him, claiming that she was going to come to their apartment.
Antonetta admitted that she waited outside for the other woman to arrive but left out the part of being the one responsible for luring her to the apartment. She claimed that they began fighting because Ashley approached her home & it wasn’t until investigators were able to go through Daniel’s phone when they learned the truth.
When investigators contacted the hospital where Ashley was receiving treatment, she was still conscious, alert & speaking so they were able to talk to her over the phone. They explained that according to Janine & Antonetta, it was a mutual fight that began over the fact that she was sleeping with her fiance. Ashley was able to tell the officer that this was not the truth. During their conversation, Ashley could be heard coughing as she spoke. She told the officer that she had bite marks to her face, arm & leg & cuts on her back. She said that Antonetta was sitting on her during the attack while the other girl (Janine) was kicking the crap out of her.
Sadly, what both Ashley & the medical team didn’t realize at the time was that her condition was far worse than it appeared as she was suffering from internal bleeding.
Her condition rapidly deteriorated & Ashley was airlifted to another hospital for emergency surgery. According to her sister, Jessica, by the time Ashley reached the hospital, she was no longer able to breath on her own & was placed on a ventilator. Tragically, she died a few hours later before she could even make it into surgery. When Julian was given the devastating news, he wept in the waiting room of the hospital.
According to the attending emergency physician, Dr. Melissa Chen, Ashley’s injuries were consistent with an attack of extreme brutality & it was very obvious that the force used was far beyond what would be needed to simply intimidate someone.
The autopsy determined that Ashley’s manner of death was homicide caused by generalized trauma with rupture of the gland, a small, triangular-shaped gland that sits atop the kidneys, that caused her to bleed out.
After Ashley was pronounced dead, the case instantly changed from assault to murder.
Investigators went back to Antonetta & Daniel’s apartment to notify Antonetta & Janine of Ashley’s death while Daniel wasn’t there at the time. Hearing the news that Ashley died as a result of her injuries, Antonetta seemed surprised as she continued to maintain that it had been a mutual altercation after Ashley showed up to her apartment. Meanwhile, Janine stood silently behind her in the doorway.
After the detective explained that they needed to get a more formal statement from her, Antonetta continued to reinforce the idea that the altercation had been mutual. She also indicated that she’d been dealing with a lot as she was suffering from bipolar depression.
Antonetta & Janine were brought down to the station & placed into separate rooms for questioning. Throughout nearly the entirety of Janine’s conversation with detectives, she was seen laughing & smiling, showing absolutely no remorse about the fact that Ashley just died as a result of their attack. She explained that Daniel & Antonetta had not been on good terms & they were often arguing. She indicated that she & Antonetta were extremely close & she viewed her as more of a sister than she viewed her actual brother as a brother to her.
Janine was very forthcoming with investigators as she happily explained the details of the fight, saying that the majority of the attack was done by Antonetta as she only dragged her, just a little bit in the beginning.
When Antonetta told Janine to grab Ashley’s phone, she did. It was very clear that while she continued to casually tell her story, Janine was not understanding the gravity of the situation & the fact that she was being implicated for murder.
Investigators caught Janine in a lie when she told them that she was unaware that Antonetta had lured Ashley out to their complex as when their phones were analyzed, a video from Janine’s phone depicted Antonetta sending the messages from Daniel’s phone as they sat outside waiting for Ashley to arrive.
As the pair sat outside their apartment, Antonetta texted Ashley, asking where she was. While she continued to pose as Daniel, she wrote, I need to see you. Ashley responded that she was in bed & she wished he was with her. Antonette went on to create an illusion that as a result of Daniel’s affair, he’d gotten kicked out of the apartment he shared with his fiance. In response, Ashley wrote that she would put something on & come over.
When the detective asked Janine if she’d recorded the fight, she responded that she hadn’t since she wasn’t dumb enough to do so, another blatant lie. She remained casual & calm throughout the interview, laughing & even yawning at times.The detective asked Janine how she felt about the fact that Ashley died as a result of the injuries she sustained during the fight.
Meanwhile, Antonetta was much quieter in her separate interrogation room & asked for a lawyer. She explained that she never intended to get into an altercation with Ashley that day & it had been Ashley who came to her house looking for Daniel.
It wasn’t until Daniel stood in front of his apartment building later that night, speaking with detectives when he learned that Ashley had not survived the attack. He asked the detective how she was doing, if she was hurt & when the detectives broke the news of her passing, Daniel immediately became inconsolable.
Both Antonetta & Janine were arrested & charged with aggravated battery, robbery & felony murder. When Janine was told that she was being charged with murder, she told detectives I barely laid hands on her, all I did was pull her hair.
However, it was revealed that it had been Janine’s kick that ended up being the final, fatal blow for Ashley.
Antonetta & Janine were taken to the Gwinnett County Jail while Daniel Gonzalez was at home with their 3-year-old son. With this, three young boys were left without a mother as a result of the rage-filled attack that was fueled by jealousy over a love triangle.
In 2023 both Ashley & Janine pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter & received 20-year prison sentences with their release dates set for August 2042. While some consider this justice, others felt this too lenient of a punishment given the premeditated nature of the attack & that Ashley lost her life.
During her time behind bars, Janine somehow managed to post a smug video of herself smiling on TikTok which only solidified the fact that she had no remorse for her actions.
No sentence can ever undo the void left behind at the loss of Ashley & the fact that a little boy will grow up without his mom by his side. This isn’t just a tale of betrayal and rage; it’s a stark reminder of how quickly emotions can unravel into tragedy. Ashley’s family grieves a vibrant soul, while three young boys grow up marked by loss.
References:
- YouTube: Law & Crime: Teen killer beat a young mom to death & bragged about it
- YouTube: New York Post: Mom’s callous reaction caught on camera after cops confront her over fiance’s dead mistress
- Criminal: They tricked her, attacked her, filmed it & then laughed: The sad case of Ashley Bocanegra
- YouTube: True Crime News: Exclusive video shows victim struggling after lover’s fiance attacked her
- Facebook: True Crime Recaps: Sister & girlfriend team up to beat man’s secret lover
- TikTok: True Crime News: AfExclusive video shows victim struggling after lover’s fiancée attacked herfair with boss turns deadly
