A Los Angeles jury found actor Nick Pasqual guilty on Friday of attempted murder for breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home in May 2024 and stabbing her more than 20 times, a verdict that could send the 36-year-old to prison for life.
Pasqual, whose 16-year acting career included appearances on "How I Met Your Mother" and Rainn Wilson's action-comedy "Code 3," was convicted on every count brought against him. The charges included attempted murder, forcible rape, first-degree residential burglary with a person present, and injuring a spouse, cohabitant, or domestic partner, the New York Post reported, citing court records.
The victim, 37-year-old Allie Shehorn, is an award-winning Hollywood makeup artist who nearly died from the attack. She spent close to a week in intensive care, underwent multiple surgeries, and was found in critical condition by her surrogate mother after the assault inside her Sunland, California, home.
Shehorn had filed a restraining order against Pasqual before the attack. In that filing, she accused him of using a belt, breaking down doors, leaving her with a concussion, and raping and choking her. She alleged he had attacked her at least four times before the stabbing.
None of it kept him away.
Prosecutors said Pasqual broke into Shehorn's home on May 23, 2024, at around 4:30 a.m. and stabbed her more than 20 times. Shehorn suffered slashes to her neck and cuts across her arms and abdomen. The Washington Times reported that jurors also found true special allegations that Pasqual inflicted great bodily injury in a domestic violence circumstance and used a deadly weapon.
Shehorn testified last week at the San Fernando Courthouse, describing the moments the attack unfolded. She told the jury, as reported by ABC7:
"I locked the door and he just started punching holes in that door and broke that open, and I just ran into the bathroom because I thought there's another lock on that door."
That testimony painted a picture of a woman trapped in her own home, trying to put locked doors between herself and a man the courts had already been asked to restrain. The bathroom lock was her last line of defense. It was not enough.
After the attack, Pasqual fled California. Seven days later, on May 30, authorities nabbed him at the border in Sierra Blanca, Texas, as he attempted to cross into Mexico. The fact that he ran, and ran toward an international border, speaks for itself.
High-profile criminal cases involving celebrities and public figures have drawn sustained attention in recent years. The ongoing legal battles surrounding Diddy Combs' sentencing are only the latest reminder that fame offers no shield from accountability, or at least it shouldn't.
Fox News reported that Shehorn had sought the restraining order just days before Pasqual broke into her home, and that she underwent 14 hours of surgery following the stabbing. The severity of her injuries, more than 20 stab wounds, a near-fatal loss of blood, and days fighting for her life in the ICU, underscores the gap between a protective order on paper and actual protection in practice.
Before the attack, Shehorn had won "Best SFX Makeup" at the Hollywood Blood Horror Festival for her work on the film "Incorrigible." She was a respected professional in a competitive industry, not a tabloid fixture, but someone who had built a career through skill and persistence.
That career was nearly taken from her. But Shehorn survived, recovered, and returned to work. Since 2025, she has accumulated nine credits in the makeup industry. Her willingness to testify against Pasqual in open court, reliving the worst moments of her life in front of a jury, took a different kind of courage.
The case is one of several recent high-stakes criminal proceedings that have tested the justice system's ability to deliver clear outcomes. In Massachusetts, a former officer was acquitted after a judge found reasonable doubt in a standoff shooting case, a reminder that courtroom results can cut in any direction. Here, the jury left no ambiguity.
Pasqual now faces life in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 2. The guilty verdict covered every charge prosecutors brought: attempted murder, forcible rape, first-degree residential burglary with a person present, and domestic violence-related injury. The special allegations, great bodily injury in a domestic violence circumstance and use of a deadly weapon, were also sustained.
There is no public record in the source material of Pasqual offering a defense or making any statement. No motive was stated in court records reviewed by the Post. What is clear from the record is a pattern: alleged prior attacks, a restraining order, a pre-dawn break-in, a savage stabbing, a flight toward the Mexican border, and now a conviction on all counts.
Entertainment-world legal dramas have become a recurring feature of the news cycle. The case of Michael Avenatti's release to a Hollywood halfway house after years behind bars is just one example of how the intersection of fame and criminal conduct keeps drawing public scrutiny.
But this case is not really about Hollywood. It is about a woman who did what the system tells victims to do, she filed a restraining order, she sought legal protection, and was nearly killed anyway. It is about a man who allegedly attacked his partner repeatedly, escalated to attempted murder, and then tried to flee the country.
The open questions here are uncomfortable ones. How did Pasqual gain entry to Shehorn's home at 4:30 a.m. despite a restraining order? What enforcement mechanisms, if any, were in place between the filing of that order and the attack? The court records viewed by the Post do not answer those questions. But the timeline, restraining order filed, then a pre-dawn home invasion days later, raises them unavoidably.
Domestic violence cases like this one expose a hard truth that no amount of policy talk can soften. A piece of paper, no matter how legally binding, cannot stop a determined attacker at 4:30 in the morning. The system's obligation is to make sure that when the paper fails, the consequences for the perpetrator are severe and certain.
Other recent cases involving serious criminal charges and complicated extradition and bond proceedings have tested that principle in different ways. In Pasqual's case, the jury delivered the kind of unambiguous result that victims and their families deserve.
A sentencing hearing on June 2 will determine whether the punishment matches the verdict. Life in prison is on the table. For a man who broke into a sleeping woman's home, stabbed her more than 20 times, and ran for the border, anything less would be an insult to the woman who survived it, and to the system that asks victims to trust it in the first place.
Allie Shehorn did everything right. She filed the paperwork, she testified, and she went back to work. The least the justice system can do now is finish the job.