Published: June 17, 2009 01:02 pm      

Texan who led police to murder victim loses appeal

HOUSTON (AP) — A man condemned for the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old woman whose remains were found west of San Antonio almost two years after she vanished lost an appeal of his conviction and death sentence at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday.

Ramiro Gonzales, 26, had received two life sentences for the abduction and rape of another woman in Bandera County and was awaiting transfer to prison when he told authorities in October 2002 he knew where they could find Bridget Townsend. She was reported missing from her Bandera County home in January 2001.

He led them to her skeletal remains in a remote area of his family’s ranch in adjacent Medina County and confessed to robbing, raping and killing the woman.

Lawyers for Gonzales had raised 10 error points from his 2006 trial in Hondo, about 40 miles west of San Antonio, including claims that his confession was not sufficiently corroborated by independent evidence. They also challenged testimony from a forensic psychiatrist who told jurors Gonzales would be a continuing threat, one of the questions a jury must decide when considering a death sentence.

Other challenges were raised about the propriety of instructions the trial judge gave to the jury.

One appeals court judge, Paul Womack, dissented from the court majority saying he believed there should have been more research about the reliability of predicting behavior “before we accept an opinion that a capital murderer will be dangerous even in prison.”

Another judge, Cheryl Johnson, joined him in his dissent. The other seven judges, however, agreed the psychiatrist’s testimony was proper under existing law.

Gonzales, a seventh-grade dropout who built fences and also worked as a welder, led authorities to a remote hillside where they found a human skull and other bones that had been scattered by animals. They also found jewelry and clothing belonging to Townsend.

Gonzales first told deputies he let Mexican Mafia members use the ranch after they told him they needed a spot to dispose a body. Then he changed his story to say he was there when others killed Townsend.

He subsequently told a Texas Ranger details that were consistent with the evidence gathered during the investigation, that he went to his drug supplier’s house to steal cocaine because he knew the man’s girlfriend, Townsend, was there alone at the time. He said he abducted Townsend after taking some money and drugs from the house and after she tried to call her boyfriend, drove her to his family’s ranch, retrieved a high-caliber deer rifle and drove her to the spot where her remains were found.

He said the frightened woman offered him money, drugs or sex if he wouldn’t hurt her. He had sex with her, then shot her and went home. Her boyfriend later called police to report her missing.

At his trial, the woman Gonzales had been convicted of abducting and raping told jurors she believed she also would have been killed if she hadn’t been able to escape from a cabin where he left her bound with tape.

His trial lawyers blamed his behavior on childhood neglect, drugs and sexual abuse.

Gonzales does not have an execution date. He still has federal appeals he can pursue.