FEDERAL CORRECTION OFFICER HAS ILLICIT AFFAIR WITH CONVICTED COP KILLER RONELL WILSON WHILE IN CUSTODY AND BECOMES PREGNANT

RONELL WILSON CONVICTED COP KILLER BEING LED TO COURT BY DETECTIVES

He was one of the most notorious criminals in New York’s recent history, whose execution-style murder of two undercover police officers led a jury to issue the first federal death sentence in the city in more than a half century.

FEDERAL CORRECTION OFFICER NANCY GONZALEZ

She was a lonely correction officer, assigned to guard the cell block at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he was being held.       

Inside the federal jail, Ronell Wilson, the convicted killer, and Nancy Gonzalez, his nighttime guard, would talk for hours, according to other inmates. They would disappear together for minutes at a time, behind closed doors. Several times, they were seen kissing, confirming suspicions of an illicit romance.

Ms. Gonzalez later admitted that the two had sex repeatedly, with the goal of having a child together. She was aware, she said, of the many possible complications, from the prospect of facing jail herself to the difficulty of telling her child the truth about his father. She explained her motivations to another inmate: “Why not give him a child, as far as giving him some kind of hope?”

On Tuesday, Ms. Gonzalez, 29, displaying the full contours of a pregnancy now in its eighth month, was arraigned in federal court on charges of sexual abuse of a person in custody, because an inmate cannot legally consent to sex. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. She stood before the judge in a black overcoat and sweat pants, softly answering procedural questions while dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

The press surged around Ms. Gonzalez the instant she stepped out of the courthouse, and she put her head on the shoulder of her lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco. “She’s had a very tragic life and as this case proceeds, you’ll learn more about it and how these affected her judgment,” Mr. Ricco said. He added, “People find love in the strangest places.”

The allegations added a scandalous new element to an already shocking case. In March 2003, Mr. Wilson climbed into the back seat of a car on Staten Island. In front were two undercover detectives, James V. Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews, who were running a gun operation. He shot both men in the back of the head.

DETECTIVES RODNEY ANDREWS AND JAMES V. NEMORIN WERE KILLED BY RONELL WILSON IN 2003

      

During the subsequent trial Mr. Wilson, who does not have any other children, wrote a letter to another inmate suggesting that his potential death sentence had provoked concerns in him about his legacy: “I just need a baby before thiz pigz try to take my life. I need to have something behinde.”

After the death sentence was read, Mr. Wilson, who had seemed mentally disturbed at times, stuck out his tongue at the families of the victims.

Years later, a court of appeals overturned the death sentence, but not the conviction, ruling that a prosecutor had gone too far in vilifying Mr. Wilson before the jurors. He is awaiting a ruling from the judge overseeing the case to determine whether the government can continue to seek the death penalty, or whether he will face life in prison. Lawyers for Mr. Wilson contend that his I.Q. is so low that he is not subject to capital punishment.

The affair between Ms. Gonzalez and Mr. Wilson began last March and continued until August, when he was moved to solitary confinement without explanation, according to court documents.

A special agent with the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, Omar Daza, began the investigation after inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center said they had observed Ms. Gonzalez and another inmate “hugging and kissing,” according to court papers. Another inmate reported that he saw Ms. Gonzalez in Mr. Wilson’s cell, standing in front of him while his pants were pulled down and his genitals were exposed. Some of the claims were supported by recordings from jail security cameras.

The case is being prosecuted by the office of the United States attorney for the Eastern District, Loretta E. Lynch.

The affair, which was described by Ms. Gonzalez in several recorded telephone calls, began because Ms. Gonzalez was “kind of sucked into his world.”

“I took a chance because I was so vulnerable and wanted to be loved and now I am carrying his child,” Ms. Gonzalez said in one of the calls. She was speaking to another inmate she had met inside the jail, and with whom she had continued a romantic relationship after he was transferred to another prison. (The second inmate, who was not identified, offered to raise the baby as his own when he was released.) Months later, when Ms. Gonzalez learned she was being investigated, she lamented ever having become involved with Mr. Wilson.

“I know what is going to be said about me. I know that for me as a parent, how am I going to explain this to this little boy? ‘Mommy was in the military, Mommy was a C.O.,’ ” she said, “And then the opposite end is with a person who took lives.”