**Texas Man Executed on the 41st Birthday of His Teenage Victim**
On Wednesday evening, Ramiro Gonzales, a Texas man convicted of the 2001 kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, was executed. The execution took place on what would have been Townsend’s 41st birthday, adding a poignant layer to an already tragic story.
Gonzales, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CDT following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. His final moments were marked by repeated apologies to the victim’s family. “I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt, what I took away that I cannot give back. I hope this apology is enough,” Gonzales said. “I never stopped praying that you would forgive me and that one day I would have this opportunity to apologize. I owe all of you my life and I hope one day you will forgive me.”
As the sedative pentobarbital began to flow, Gonzales took seven breaths and then made sounds resembling snores. Within less than a minute, all movement ceased.
The remains of Bridget Townsend were not discovered until October 2002, nearly two years after she disappeared. Gonzales, who had already received two life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman, led authorities to the location in Southwest Texas where he had left her body.
Patricia Townsend, Bridget’s mother, expressed the emotional weight of the execution date. “When they told me June 26, I started crying, crying and crying,” she told USA Today. “That’s her birthday.”
Gonzales was condemned for fatally shooting Townsend after stealing drugs and money and kidnapping her from a home in Bandera County, northwest of San Antonio. He took her to his family’s ranch in neighboring Medina County, where he sexually assaulted and killed her.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined a defense plea to intervene about an hour and a half before the execution was scheduled to start. The high court rejected arguments by Gonzales’ lawyers that he had taken responsibility for his actions and that a prosecution expert witness had been wrong in testifying that Gonzales would be a future danger to society, a legal finding necessary to impose a death sentence.
“He has earnestly devoted himself to self-improvement, contemplation, and prayer, and has grown into a mature, peaceful, kind, loving, and deeply religious adult. He acknowledges his responsibility for his crimes and has sought to atone for them and to seek redemption through his actions,” Gonzales’ lawyers wrote in their petition. A group of faith leaders also asked authorities to stop Gonzales’ execution.
Gonzales’ lawyers argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had violated his constitutional rights by declining to review his claims that a prosecution expert, psychiatrist Edward Gripon, had wrongly asserted Gonzales would be a future danger. After re-evaluating Gonzales in 2022, Gripon admitted his prediction was wrong.
“I just want [Townsend’s mother] to know how sorry I really am. I took everything that was valuable from a mother,” Gonzales said in a video submitted as part of his clemency request to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. “So, every day it’s a continual task to do everything that I can to feel that responsibility for the life that I took.”
However, Bridget Townsend’s brother, David Townsend, was not persuaded by Gonzales’ expressions of remorse. In various petitions and posts on Change.org, David criticized efforts to portray Gonzales as anything other than a convicted murderer who committed “unforgivable acts.” He stated that the death sentence should be carried out. “Our family seeks not revenge, but closure and a measure of peace after years of heartache—a quest that is hindered, not helped, by decisions that allow the perpetrator of our pain to remain in the public eye,” David Townsend wrote.
Earlier this month, a group of 11 evangelical leaders from Texas and around the country asked the parole board and Governor Greg Abbott to halt the execution and grant clemency to Gonzales, saying he now helps other death row inmates through a faith-based program. “We are writing as Christians calling for you to spare the life of another Christian—Ramiro Gonzales. Ramiro has changed. Because he has changed, we believe the circumstances surrounding him should change as well,” they wrote.
On Monday, the parole board voted 7-0 against commuting Gonzales’ death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a six-month reprieve. Prosecutors described Gonzales as a sexual predator who told police he ignored Townsend’s pleas to spare her life. They argued that jurors reached the right decision on a death sentence because he had a long criminal history and showed no remorse. “The State’s punishment case was overwhelming,” the Texas Attorney General’s Office said. “Even if Dr. Gripon’s testimony were wiped from the punishment slate, it would not have mattered.”
Gonzales’ execution marks the second this year in Texas. Convicted murderer Ivan Cantu was executed in February. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Texas currently has 185 people on death row.
“She was a beautiful person who loved life and loved people,” Patricia Townsend told USA Today about her daughter. “Every time she was with somebody she hadn’t seen in a while, she had to hug ’em … She didn’t deserve what she got.” She told USA Today before the execution that it would be a “joyful occasion” for her and her family.
The day would have been Bridget Townsend’s 41st birthday. Instead of having a party, her family was in Huntsville watching her killer be put to death. “We have finally witnessed justice being served with the execution,” said David Townsend, adding that the family had longed for this day but they were not celebrating. “It provides us with a little bit of peace and I do want to say that we are not joyous. We’re not happy; we’re never happy with a life being taken.”
After the execution was complete, the Townsend family said they would continue to keep Bridget’s memory alive.
Source: CBS/AP, USA Today
