2 men accused of strangling 12-year-old in Houston are charged with capital murder

Two men have been charged with capital murder in the strangling of a 12-year-old girl whose body was discovered in a shallow creek north of Houston.

Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Pena, 26, were charged Friday with capital murder of a child between the ages of 10 and 15, according to authorities and court records.

Jocelyn Nungaray was found around 6:15 a.m. Monday and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences determined she died of strangulation, according to Houston police.

Officials said Thursday they are working around the clock to take the person responsible for Jocelyn’s death off the streets. Surveillance video and witnesses led police to the arrests Thursday, officials said.

“Crews were out there, and they were going through every potential video feed, and they were talking to every possible person who might have seen or heard something,” said Acting Houston Police Chief Larry Satterwhite. “Their hard work paid off as we were able to find video and… trace the movements of our suspects and… Jocelyn… to the time she was murdered and abandoned in a bayou in the water.

Tests would determine whether the girl was sexually assaulted, Satterwhite said.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the case was horrific.

“As a mayor, a grandfather and a father, things can’t be worse,” he said.

Houston police Lt. Stephen Hope said the suspects left a restaurant together Sunday evening and were spotted by a surveillance camera. Officials said the men were then seen talking to Jocelyn and the three walked together to a convenience store, where footage was captured and later released to the public, police said.

The trio then walked to a bridge, where Jocelyn was killed, Hope said.

The suspects and Jocelyn spent a few hours together before she was killed, Hope said.

Martinez-Rangel and Pena were being held Friday afternoon at the Harris County Jail, according to John Donnelly, a spokesman for the county attorney’s office.

Martinez-Rangel and Pena were scheduled to make their first court appearance Friday in a probable cause hearing before a magistrate in which prosecutors would seek $1 million bail for each suspect, Donnelly said.

It was unclear Friday evening whether Martinez-Rangel and Pena had retained attorneys.

The suspects were not eligible for the death penalty as of Friday afternoon, but that could change as their case moves through the courts, Donnelly said.

Both suspects had immigration violation holds from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their court records.

At Thursday’s news conference, authorities said they would contact Homeland Security Investigations regarding questions about the suspects’ immigration status. No one from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or ICE could be reached for comment Friday.

NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston reported that Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, said she had never seen the two men before. She didn’t know if her daughter knew them and told the news station they didn’t live in the complex where she and Jocelyn lived.