A Los Angeles jury found actor Nick Pasqual guilty Friday of attempted murder after he broke into the Sunland, California, home of his ex-girlfriend, award-winning Hollywood makeup artist Allie Shehorn, and stabbed her more than 20 times in May 2024. The verdict, which also included convictions for forcible rape, first-degree residential burglary, and domestic violence, closes a case that laid bare a pattern of alleged abuse stretching back years.
Pasqual, 36, faces life in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 2, the New York Post reported, citing court records it reviewed.
Shehorn, 37, survived. She spent nearly a week in the intensive care unit fighting for her life after the attack, which happened at around 4:30 a.m. Her surrogate mother found her and she was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. She endured multiple surgeries. And then she came back, not just to health, but to the courtroom, where she testified against the man who nearly ended her life.
The stabbing in Sunland was not the first time Pasqual allegedly turned violent against Shehorn. She had filed a restraining order against him, accusing him in that filing of attacking her at least four times before the May 2024 assault. Those earlier incidents, she alleged, included Pasqual using a belt on her, breaking down doors, leaving her with a concussion, and raping and choking her.
The restraining order did not stop him.
Shehorn described the terror of the night she was attacked. During testimony at the San Fernando Courthouse, she told the jury what happened when Pasqual came through her door:
"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."
ABC7 reported that Shehorn's visible scars, slashes and cuts from the more than 20 stab wounds, were displayed across her body as she testified. The jury saw what Pasqual left behind.
Cases like this raise hard questions about how the system handles repeat domestic violence offenders. It is a grim reality that restraining orders, however necessary, are only as strong as the willingness of institutions to enforce them and the capacity of the justice system to intervene before the worst happens. The same failure has surfaced in other violent home-invasion attacks across Southern California.
After the attack, Pasqual did not wait around for accountability. He fled California entirely. Seven days after he stabbed Shehorn, authorities nabbed him in Sierra Blanca, Texas, a small border town, as he attempted to cross into Mexico.
The flight itself tells a story. A man who allegedly brutalized a woman more than 20 times with a knife did not turn himself in, did not seek counsel, did not face what he had done. He ran for the border. Law enforcement caught up with him on May 30, 2024.
That Pasqual was apprehended before crossing into Mexico is a credit to the officers who tracked him. But the fact that a violent offender with an alleged history of domestic abuse could flee nearly 1,400 miles before being stopped should concern anyone who cares about public safety and the enforcement gaps that persist in the system.
Court records reviewed by the Post showed the full scope of the jury's verdict. Pasqual was found guilty of attempted murder, forcible rape, first-degree residential burglary with person present, and injuring a spouse, cohabitant, fiancé, boyfriend, girlfriend, or child's parent, a charge tied specifically to domestic violence under California law.
Each charge carries serious weight. Together, they paint the picture of a man who did not simply lose his temper in a moment. He broke into a home. He attacked a woman who had already sought the law's protection from him. He did so with enough force and repetition to leave her in critical condition. And then he ran.
The entertainment industry has had no shortage of figures who found themselves on the wrong side of criminal courtrooms in recent years. A former "Dances With Wolves" actor was recently sentenced to life in prison for sexual assault, and other prominent names continue to face grave allegations. Pasqual, who had a 16-year acting career with appearances on shows including "How I Met Your Mother" and a role in the action-comedy "Code 3" alongside Rainn Wilson, now joins that roster.
What happened to Allie Shehorn was devastating. What she did afterward was remarkable.
After surviving the attack, enduring multiple surgeries, and spending nearly a week in the ICU, Shehorn returned to the makeup industry. She has racked up nine credits since 2025, a testament to her determination to reclaim the career that Pasqual's violence nearly destroyed.
Before the attack, Shehorn had already established herself as a serious talent. A year prior, she won "Best SFX Makeup" at the Hollywood Blood Horror Festival for her work on the film "Incorrigible." She was building something. Pasqual tried to take it from her.
She got it back. And she got something else: a guilty verdict against the man who attacked her. That is no small thing for a domestic violence survivor. Too many cases end differently, with charges dropped, plea deals that minimize the offense, or victims too afraid to testify. Shehorn stood in that courtroom, scars visible, and told the jury what happened.
Her courage stands in contrast to a broader pattern in which entertainment-industry figures facing serious criminal allegations often benefit from delayed accountability, public sympathy, or legal maneuvering that stretches justice thin.
Pasqual's sentencing hearing on June 2 will determine how long he spends behind bars. The charges he was convicted of carry the possibility of life in prison. Given the severity of the attack, more than 20 stab wounds, a flight across state lines, and a documented history of alleged prior violence, anything short of a substantial sentence would be difficult to justify.
The case also raises broader questions the court records do not answer. What happened after Shehorn filed her restraining order? Were there enforcement actions? Were there missed opportunities to intervene before the attack escalated to attempted murder? Those gaps matter, not just for Shehorn, but for every domestic violence victim who relies on the system to stand between them and their abuser.
Violent crimes committed in the home, against people who trusted their attacker, demand the full weight of the justice system. Recent stabbing cases in the region have underscored how quickly domestic settings can become crime scenes when warning signs go unheeded.
The jury did its job. Now the court needs to finish the work, and make sure the sentence matches the crime.
Allie Shehorn survived because she was lucky and because someone found her in time. Justice shouldn't depend on luck. It should depend on a system that takes prior violence seriously before a restraining order becomes a piece of paper soaked in blood.
