Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vows to introduce ‘Jocelyn’s Law’ after 12-year-old’s alleged killers granted $10 million bail

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the Texas Senate would work to pass a bail reform law named in honor of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray that would effectively deny bail to capital murder suspects.

Nungaray’s family and friends gathered Thursday night to celebrate her life and share memories of the joyful young girl whose body was discovered in a shallow Houston creek bed last week. Two Venezuelan men seen with Nungaray the night she died have since been arrested and charged with her murder.

Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Peña were seen on surveillance video with Nungaray at a local convenience store on the night of June 17. Authorities say the two men walked with Nungaray to a bridge over the creek that night where they assaulted the girl, who was shot to death. her pants and strangled her before leaving her body in the bayou below.

Immigration officials have since confirmed that the men entered the country illegally and were not authorized to be in the United States at the time of Nungaray’s death. Both Martinez-Rangel and Peña are being held in the Harris County Jail on $10 million bail each.

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Legislation proposed by Patrick would allow Texans to vote to amend the Constitution to deny bail to suspects charged with capital murder.

“I told Jocelyn’s mother that the Texas Senate will once again pass bail reform and will not accept the House of Representatives rejecting this legislation,” Patrick said in a message to X. “It will be named after her daughter, ‘Jocelyn’s Law,’ so that her daughter’s name will never be forgotten and will ensure that capital murderers are never eligible for bail again.”

“I am confident that Texans will overwhelmingly approve this change to our constitution,” he said.

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I just left the funeral of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. Her alleged killers, both illegal immigrants, one of whom was wearing a federally issued electronic tag, are accused of brutally murdering her last week.

Jocelyn’s family was shocked that the bail was…

– Office of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) June 27, 2024

State Sen. Joan Huffman said she will file the bill for the next legislative session.

Patrick said Texas senators would also improve Lauren’s Law to make the murder of any child under 15 a capital offense. Under state law, only the murder of a child under 10 is a capital offense.

Despite opposition from Houston Mayor John Whitmire, who publicly called for Martinez-Rangel and Peña to be held without bail, Texas law did not immediately allow a judge to deny bail to the two men. Prosecutors are awaiting test results to determine whether Nungaray was sexually assaulted the night she died, which could lead to additional charges against the two men.

“If we change this case to capital murder with sexual assault or kidnapping as its origins, those cases are eligible for the death penalty and at that time we can have a hearing to prove the case.” , prosecutor Megan Long said earlier this week.

A white horse-drawn carriage carried the coffin containing Nungaray’s body to her burial site on Thursday. Hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects to Nungaray at a celebration of life ceremony that followed the girl’s funeral on Thursday.

“She was amazing,” her mother Alexis Nungaray said at a news conference Monday. “I still see her face in my head all day, every day.”

“I hear his words repeating over and over in my brain,” she said. “His stupidity, his weirdness. She definitely made people laugh. I will always remember these memories because she had such a bright future ahead of her and I knew she would go far. These monsters took this opportunity away from him.