Ramiro Gonzalez admitted that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and fatally shot Bridget Townsend in 2001.
A Texas man who admitted that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and fatally shot the 18-year-old girlfriend of his drug dealer was set to be executed on Wednesday — what would have been the victim’s 41st birthday.
The remains of Bridget Townsend weren’t found until October 2002, nearly two years after she vanished, when , having received two life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman, led authorities to the spot in Southwest Texas where he left her body.
His execution by lethal injection was planned for Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Patricia Townsend, the victim’s mother, told USA Today that June 26 is her daughter’s birthday. She would have turned 41 years old Wednesday.
«When they told me June 26, I started crying, crying and crying», she said. «That’s her birthday.»
Gonzales, 41, was condemned for fatally shooting Townsend after stealing drugs and money and kidnapping her in January 2001 from a home in Bandera County, located northwest of San Antonio. He took her to his family’s ranch in neighboring Medina County, where he sexually assaulted her and killed her.
Gonzales’ lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing that he has taken responsibility for what he did and that a prosecution expert witness now says he was wrong in testifying that Gonzales would be a future danger to society, a legal finding needed 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.
