MEDIA ARTICLE: ‘He snapped’: Jail calls, photographs connect fraught custody battle to Tamarac triple murder (Sun Sentinel 2-13-26)

‘He snapped’: Jail calls, photographs connect fraught custody battle to Tamarac triple murder (Sun Sentinel 2-13-26)

By Shira Moolten | smoolten@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel and Angie DiMichele | adimichele@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel

PUBLISHED: February 13, 2026 at 8:00 AM EST | UPDATED: February 13, 2026 at 9:38 AM EST

The notes appeared throughout the now-quiet Tamarac home, on pieces of printer paper and legal pads.

“Videos give a good contrast of demeanor changes, coaching, & alienation,” one read.

“Won’t be a permanent final injunction,” said another.

A third contained a quote in blue ink: “The most dangerous time for a woman when she is leaving her abuser is the moments just before and after her ‘leaving.'”

“Timely,” was written above it.

The notes depict Mary Gingles’ efforts to escape an abusive marriage and get custody of her 4-year-old daughter in the years and months leading up to her death. 

Photographs of the notes and others like them are among a tranche of records released by the Broward State Attorney’s Office this week as part of the discovery process in the death penalty case against her estranged husband, Nathan Gingles, and reveal the extent to which their divorce proceedings — and their ensuing custody battle — consumed both their lives and culminated in him being accused of killing her, her father and a neighbor in the Plum Bay community in Tamarac almost exactly a year ago.

The records include thousands of pictures of evidence within both of their homes, hours of footage of a calm Nathan Gingles in the aftermath of the murders, dozens of calls he made to a close friend from jail, and extensive interviews with those who knew the couple.

A note found in Mary Gingles' home about the dangers of leaving an abusive relationship. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

A note found in Mary Gingles' home about the dangers of leaving an abusive relationship. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

The custody battle features prominently in the photographs and written documents. The notes found in Mary Gingles’ home about “alienation” and “coaching” refer to tactics sometimes used by parents to turn children against their estranged partners during custody disputes. Shortly after the killings, the Gingles’ daughter told deputies her father had intended to take her to Texas, where he has family. A close co-worker of Nathan Gingles said he had made similar comments, adding that he “snapped” due to troubles at work spurred by the divorce.

According to court and law enforcement reports, Gingles first shot and killed Mary’s father, David Ponzer, as Ponzer drank coffee on the patio of his daughter’s Tamarac home early on the morning of Feb. 16, 2025. Mary Gingles, 34, then ran from house to house down the street, trying to find a place to hide from Gingles as he stalked her with a gun, their daughter trailing behind. Mary Gingles opened a neighbor’s unlocked door; the resident, Andrew Ferrin, was asleep in his bed. Gingles shot both his estranged wife and Ferrin to death in the bedroom, deputies say. Nathan Gingles has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mary Gingles and David Ponzer are shown in an undated family photo. (Mary Gingles' family/Courtesy)

Mary Gingles and David Ponzer are shown in an undated family photo. (Mary Gingles' family/Courtesy)

In court and to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Mary Gingles repeatedly reported abusive and controlling behavior by Gingles, including threats to her life, in the months leading up to the murders. She obtained a restraining order against him in January that required him to surrender his stockpile of guns, but he never did, and the Sheriff’s Office never followed up to determine whether he had turned in his weapons. A total of 19 deputies were fired or disciplined for their handling of Mary Gingles’ reports about her estranged husband’s  behavior or for their response to the shootings that morning.

‘Goal was to kill the wife and take the kid and go somewhere,’ co-worker said

Gingles, 44, a decorated military veteran, is related to a prominent political family in Texas with ties to House Speaker Mike Johnson and may have been seeking to take his daughter there, according to documents and jail calls released Wednesday.

Gingles had served in the U.S. Army in the mid-2010s in Afghanistan and was one of several soldiers awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation for his service in 2013 and 2014 during Operation Enduring Freedom XIII-XIV in the Zabul Province, according to newly released military records. While Gingles held the rank of captain, he received the Meritorious Service Medal for his service as the Defense Coordinating Element of Region Ten for the U.S. Army North, headquartered in Texas.

Nathan Gingles is shown in military uniform in a photo included in thousands of documents released Wednesday by the State Attorney's Office. (State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

Nathan Gingles is shown in military uniform in a photo included in thousands of documents released this week by the Broward State Attorney's Office. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

Dozens of photos included in the documents released Wednesday are military handbooks, field guides and cultural texts, some dating back to the early 2000s that appeared to belong to Gingles, as well as numerous books from the SANS Institute detailing computer hacker tools.

The documents also reveal signs of abuse in Nathan and Mary Gingles’ relationship as far back as 2017, prior to their marriage.

Ponzer, her father, had called authorities in Alaska that year for a welfare check because his daughter was there with Gingles and the two had an argument. He told them Gingles threw her phone out the window of the car because she was recording him, according to an incident report from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

Mary Gingles took their daughter and filed for divorce in 2024, according to court records. The divorce became such a focus in Gingles’ life that he was taking time off from his job, according to the newly released documents.

Before his arrest, he had been working at a major global information technology company that works with government agencies, according to transcripts of interviews released Wednesday. A detective called a man who was one of Gingles’ “closest” co-workers to find out whether Gingles had been discussing his divorce and custody issues with his daughter.

The co-worker said Gingles talked about the divorce often and had been “going through a lot with his work,” according to the transcript. The detective asked if Gingles ever talked about kidnapping his daughter or killing his wife, to which the co-worker said he did not. Later in the interview, he said Gingles talked about how he cared for his daughter.

Gingles had been nearly demoted at his job, the co-worker said, due to taking too much time off because of his pending divorce. He added that Gingles was being given “impossible” tasks and that “malicious” things were being done to him.

“— obviously, he, he snapped, um, because he knew he was getting fired,” the co-worker told the detective.

The co-worker said there was talk of Gingles being terminated at some point, and believed Gingles’ “goal was to kill his wife and take the kid and go somewhere,” according to the transcript.

In Gingles’ apartment, investigators found a letter from the DMV in Texas, dated less than two weeks before the murders, rejecting an application for a Texas certificate of title for a vehicle. When deputies spoke to his daughter the day of the murders, documents show, she told them, unprompted, “My dad was trying to move me to Texas.”

Blood, bullet casings, children’s clothes

The custody battle had also been a major focus for Mary Gingles. Her estrangement from Nathan caused her to fear for her own life, and she wrote that the dragging divorce kept her stuck in Tamarac despite her desire to move, according to photographs and screenshots of texts released Wednesday.

“How’s everything going, still on track to move,” a neighbor texted her in June 2024, one screenshot shows.

“Nathan has rejected all the negotiations, I think I’ll have to petition to move,” Mary Gingles replied, adding in another text, “it’s all so much more complicated than I was hoping.”

Throughout the home, Mary Gingles had written down notes about to-do items, including mentions of psychological and substance abuse evaluations for court, “cut screens” on her windows upstairs and a backpack containing handcuffs and pills. She had jotted down the names of Broward Sheriff’s Office investigators assigned to investigate possible criminal activity by Nathan Gingles.

Mary Gingles had called BSO for help more than a dozen times, including the day before she was killed. But deputies did not properly investigate her discovery of a GPS tracker hidden on her car or a backpack filled with suspicious supplies, according to an internal affairs investigation. Both cases remained open just three days before the murders, the Sun Sentinel previously found.

In her petition for the restraining order, Mary Gingles had also written that she believed Nathan Gingles would attempt to kill her by the end of February, when the lease was set to end and she and their 4-year-old would finally move out of the Tamarac home.

“He has already taken steps to prepare to murder me, but is waiting for the opportune time,” she wrote. “I think it is likely that without a restraining order he will attempt this before the lease is up at the end of February.”

Photographs released Wednesday depict a quiet family home turned into a crime scene: blood spatter near the shattered handle of a mug; bullet casings; a note about the toddler program at a nearby preschool; a bathtub full of children’s toys.

Meanwhile, when deputies searched Nathan Gingles’ apartment after the murders, they found it entirely cleared out, save for a few items neatly packed into bags. Among his belongings, they found stacks of hundred-dollar bills, children’s clothes, and electronics. There was no food in the apartment or evidence that anyone had ever eaten there, save for a pizza box discarded in the trash.

Investigators also came across a calendar, according to records released Wednesday. In small, neat handwriting, he had noted down the dates of hearings for the divorce case and appointments with the VA. And at the very end of the month, he marked Feb. 28.

“Plum Bay move out,” he wrote.

Gingles’ family fought for custody after murders

After Nathan Gingles was jailed, the custody battle continued, records show, as his cousin, Damaris Barton Schuler, fought Mary Gingles’ sister to win parental rights over his daughter.

Schuler’s father and Nathan Gingles’ uncle, David Barton, is a well-known Texas pastor who was named one of Time magazine’s “most influential evangelicals” in 2005, according to news reports, which describe him as a Christian nationalist. He served as vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas and is the founder of Wallbuilders, an organization that promotes his views and vision of America. He has served as an adviser to Mike Johnson, while prominent politicians, including Sen. Ted Cruz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have sought his endorsement.

Barton himself was deposed during the Gingles’ divorce, his name appearing on notes in Mary’s home, according to records. The pastor helmed a trust, of which Nathan Gingles was a co-trustee. His deposition had to do with whether Nathan Gingles had access to money from the trust during the divorce, according to court records and photographs of Mary Gingles’ notes.

Schuler and her mother, meanwhile, appeared at the Plum Bay home after the murders to take items from the house, according to an incident report from the time. Schuler did not return a phone call Thursday afternoon. Attempts to reach Barton were unsuccessful.

Gingles, by his own account, is estranged from his parents, according to his jail calls. He asked a family member to tell his mother to stop writing to him in jail and, in another call, informed his friend that he hadn’t talked to his father in 10 years.

A calendar found at Nathan Gingles' apartment. (Courtesy/Broward State Attorney's Office)

A calendar found at Nathan Gingles' apartment. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

In multiple phone calls from jail, Nathan Gingles discussed the dependency court case, asking his friend in Texas to pass along information and criticizing Mary’s sister, who was fighting for custody against Schuler.

The phone conversations appear among the more than 30 jail recordings released Wednesday, many of them between him and the friend in Texas from the time period shortly after he was booked through last summer.

In several calls, Gingles repeatedly accused people within the justice system of colluding against him and complained about the food and other conditions. Multiple times, he said people were trying to “traffick” his daughter.

“Criminals set me up and criminals are trying to crucify me and child traffick my daughter,” he told his friend in one call, after discussing how “they finally got the psycho judge off the case” and described the Department of Children and Families and the guardian ad litem as “extremely biased.”

Gingles also asked his friend to pass on information about his sister-in-law to keep her from getting custody of the young girl. He described his sister-in-law as abusive and dangerous.

Nathan Gingles seen in interrogation room video. He is accused of killing his wife, father-in-law, and a neighbor in Tamarac. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

Nathan Gingles is seen in interrogation room video after his arrest. He is accused of killing his wife, father-in-law and a neighbor in Tamarac. (Broward State Attorney's Office/Courtesy)

In one call shortly after his arrest, Gingles told his friend that he had just been arrested but his only concern was his daughter.

“As long as my little girl gets out of here, that’s all I care about,” Gingles said.

The friend replied that Schuler “is pretty hot and heavy on that” and was “gonna try to get her as soon as possible.”

At one point, the friend also told Gingles, “it said that you were arrested for the violation of the injunction, not anything else.”

“Oh no, it was triple homicide,” Gingles replied calmly.

“Triple!?”

“Uh huh,” Gingles said.

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