HEARNE, Texas (KBTX) -A former U.S. soldier received a 30-year prison sentence last week for the 2001 murder of Amanda Gonzales, a pregnant, 19-year-old Army private killed in her barracks at a U.S. military base in Germany. The sentencing of Shannon L. Wilkerson, 44, ends a 22-year pursuit for justice led by the Gonzales family and federal authorities.
In May, a Pensacola jury convicted Wilkerson of second-degree murder after hearing evidence that he had beaten and strangled Gonzales on Nov. 3, 2001, at Fliegerhorst Kaserne in Hanau. Prosecutors argued Wilkerson feared that her pregnancy would damage his military career and his marriage to another soldier stationed on the base.
Gonzales, a Hearne native who grew up in Madisonville, is remembered by family members, who called the sentencing “relief” and “justice long overdue.”
Her parents traveled from their home in Wylie, Texas, to be present. They described the experience as bittersweet, with the anniversary of Gonzales’ death approaching…