Capital murder charges filed against two Venezuelan men in death of 12-year-old girl in Houston

Prosecutors filed capital murder charges Friday against two men suspected of killing a 12-year-old Houston girl whose body was found in a creek after she disappeared while walking to convenience store.

Charging documents filed in Harris County, Texas, court do not list attorneys who could speak on behalf of Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, both jailed for the death of Jocelyn Nungaray.

The girl’s body was found Monday in a shallow river after police said she had sneaked out of her nearby home the night before. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be strangulation.

Police arrested Martinez and Ramos on Thursday, who investigators said were roommates. Police said surveillance video showed two men approaching Jocelyn before going with her to a Houston convenience store. The three men then walked together to a bridge where Jocelyn was killed, police said.

Acting Houston Police Chief Larry Satterwhite said investigators went through “all potential video feeds” to identify the suspects.

“They were talking to anyone who might have seen or heard something. And their hard work paid off,” Satterwhite said at a news conference Thursday.

The two men are Venezuelan nationals who entered the United States illegally in March, according to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Martinez was arrested on March 14 and Pena on March 28, both by the U.S. Border Patrol near El Paso, Texas, about 670 miles (1,078 kilometers) from Houston, the release said. Both were later released with orders to appear in court at a later date. How they got to Houston has not been revealed.

According to court documents filed Friday, the suspects lured the girl under a bridge and stayed there with her for more than two hours. They allegedly took off her pants, tied her up and killed her before dumping her body in the bayou, a Harris County prosecutor wrote in a court filing.

Police said the results of the sexual assault examination of the victim were awaited.

It was unclear whether Jocelyn knew the men, police said. The girl’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, told KRIV-TV she didn’t recognize them. Earlier this week, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the girl was talking on the phone with her teenage boyfriend after sneaking out of her home, and that he could hear men in the background.

“There are a lot of crazy people out there, and just by looking at them you can never really tell,” Nungaray said. “My baby didn’t deserve this at all.”

Nungaray told KPRC-TV she wants justice for her daughter.

“I want karma to hit them. I’m mad. They took advantage of her. She is so young,” Nungaray said. “They took away my firstborn.”