LIVINGSTON, Texas – Ramiro Gonzales, 34, might never have been on death row had he not admitted to kidnapping, raping and killing Bridget Townsend, 18, in 2001.
He confessed that he abducted Townsend from the home of his drug dealer and took her to a remote section of a Hill Country ranch, where he raped her before shooting her to death.
In 2002, Gonzales was convicted in a similar case. He was found guilty of kidnapping and raping a Bandera County real estate agent.
Gonzales was sentenced to two life sentences. While awaiting transfer to prison in that case, he admitted to killing Townsend.
“It was just the right thing to do,” Gonzales said during an interview at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston.
“It was her mother,” he said when asked why he confessed. “An individual had told me about her mother and it impacted me really, really bad.”
“I believed that she deserved to know,” he said.
Authorities in Bandera County said they had little to go on in Townsend’s murder and might not have solved the case without Gonzales’ admission.
He led the Bandera County sheriff to Townsend’s decomposed body on a remote section of a ranch where his father had worked.
In 2006, Gonzales was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
He is scheduled for execution on Aug. 10.
“I have no qualms about dying,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me. It’s just a way out of prison.”