A convicted murderer currently on death row begged for his life this week through a video in an effort to get his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
Convicted killer Ramiro Gonzales, 41, was sentenced to death over the kidnapping , rape and murder of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend in 2001—Gonzales apologized to the victim's mom in the video. "I just want [Townsend's mother] to know just how sorry I really am." Gonzales spends a portion of the 23-minute video denouncing the murder and acknowledging how the teen's death scarred her family.
The felon was reportedly in the midst of a severe drug addiction around the time of his murder. "I took something valuable from a mother because of my stupidity. Because of what I did."
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He then says there is a massive debt owed to the mother that will require continual effort to repay. “So, going through these levels of remorse, the complexity of that, it’s like the depth of what I owe.”
The video makes known that the death row inmate has spent 18 years undergoing spiritual growth and atonement as he awaited his death. He seeks to convince the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to commute his execution to life in prison, but his prior attempts signal that he is likely to fail.
In July 2022, he asked the board to defer his execution for Townsend's murder so he could donate a kidney—that motion was promptly denied. The felon seemed to luck out though as his execution was halted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who said the verdict in Gonzales' trial may have been influenced by false testimony.
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The investigation only delayed the seemingly inevitable as the inmate's death sentence was rescheduled for June 26 once officials determined no such testimony led to the guilty verdict.
This led to the release of Gonzales' video in a last-effort attempt to sway the BPP to give him life in prison instead. In addition to issuing a heart-felt apology and showing positive personal growth, Gonzales used his social status on death row as a reason to reconsider his execution, asserting that his presence is comforting to other inmates nervously awaiting their executions.
The death row inmate had already been given two life sentences for the kidnapping and rape of a Bandera real estate agent before he confessed to kidnapping Townsend, who had been missing for two years at the time, raping her and ultimately shooting her in cold blood. The admission was sudden.
Gonzales decided to confess to Sheriff James MacMillan while waiting to be transferred to prison. MacMillan was dubious about the inmate's sudden urge to come clean but his suspicions were washed away once the convicted killer offered to lead authorities to the teen's body.
Gonzales brought the sheriff and his deputies to a ranch in Medina County where they drove to a remote hillside and trekked about one hundred yards until the felon halted and said "this is it."
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