HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas man who admitted he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and fatally shot an 18-year-old woman in 2001 was executed Wednesday evening.
“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,” he said. Gonzales kidnapped Townsend, who would have turned 41 on Wednesday, from a rural home in Bandera County, northwest of San Antonio. He later took her to his family’s ranch in neighboring Medina County, where he sexually assaulted her before killing her. Her body wasn’t found until October 2002, when Gonzales led authorities to her remains in southwest Texas after he had received two life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined a defense plea to intervene about 1 and 1/2 hours before the execution's scheduled start time. The high court rejected arguments by Gonzales’ lawyers that he had 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.
In video submitted as part of his clemency request to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Gonzales admitted responsibility.
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