Southwest Texas man on death row gets August execution date

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A 33-year-old man on death row for the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Southwest Texas woman whose remains weren’t found until two years after she vanished has received an execution date.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Wednesday the agency has received court documents setting Ramiro Gonzales for lethal injection Aug. 10.

A Medina County jury in 2006 decided Gonzales should die for the slaying of Bridget Townsend. She was reported missing from her Bandera County home in January 2001.

Gonzales was sentenced to two life terms for the abduction and rape of a woman in Bandera County when he told authorities they could find Townsend’s remains at his family’s ranch in adjacent Medina County.

Last December, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case.