SAN ANTONIO – After a lengthy capital murder trial in October and a separate trial this month to address his competency, Mark Anthony Gonzalez was sentenced to death Friday morning by 175th District Court Judge Mary Roman.
Gonzalez showed no emotion as Roman said, “You are hereby sentenced, in accordance with Texas law, to death.”
Gonzalez was convicted of capital murder in the May, 28 2011, ambush-style shooting death of Bexar County sheriff’s Deputy Kenneth Vann. He was killed by a volley of shots from an assault rifle as he waited for a traffic signal at a South East San Antonio intersection.
Gonzalez’s formal sentencing was delayed until Friday pending completion of a competency trial in which Gonzalez was found competent.
In her victim impact statement delivered in court following Gonzalez’s sentencing, Vann’s widow spoke of her loss.
“I miss my husband,” Yvonne Vann said. “Every single day, I miss him.”
“I will never have any more alone time with my husband,” she said as her voice trembled with emotion. “And my time now is truly alone in every sense of the word.”
Asked if she could forgive her husband’s killer, Vann said, “To me, this is just unforgiveable, and in my heart and in my mind, it will never be forgivable.”
Gonzalez's attorney Paul Goeke said that his client would file an appeal to the verdict in addition to appeals that automatically accompany a death sentence.