According to an affidavit, the Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was watching TV with his roommate when security camera footage of the pair appeared on the screen, and the roommate later cooperated with authorities in arresting the killer.
According to the affidavit, Yohefredder Rodriguez told authorities that on Tuesday, June 18, two days after Jocelyn’s murder, he was at the apartment he shared with Johan Jose Martinez Rangel and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos when he recognized the two suspects from news footage outside a 7-Eleven.
Martinez Rangel and Peña Ramos are accused of luring the girl, who was in her early teens, under a bridge, stripping her topless and assaulting her for two hours before killing her.
Rodriguez said that at the time, he and his roommates, whom he only knew as “Gordo” and “Gordo’s cousin,” were inside the house watching TV together.
According to the affidavit, Rodriguez told police he met the suspects while immigrating to Mexico, then reunited while working construction jobs in Houston and had only begun living together the day before.
He said he was careful not to react because he didn’t want the men to notice him, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Rodriguez then sent frantic messages to his cousin saying he was “scared” and “didn’t know what to do.”
He also sent his cousin a photo of Martinez Rangel and Peña Ramos taken at Ojos Locos bar the night Jocelyn was killed, then later deleted the photo from his device.
Rodriguez said he picked up Martinez-Rangel and Peña Ramos on the night of June 16 and took them to a bar.
He claimed he left the home without the children around 10pm, the same time Jocelyn allegedly snuck out of the house.
Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungarei, discovered her daughter missing the following morning.
Rodriguez allegedly recognized his roommate on the news and made an excuse to leave the apartment on the night of June 19, then met with Houston police investigators for questioning.
Around the same time, the suspect’s supervisor also went to Houston Police Headquarters and told investigators that Peña Ramos admitted to police that he and another individual “made a mistake after a party” and then “injured a person,” which resulted in the person’s death.
Follow The Washington Post’s coverage of Jocelyn Nangaray’s murder
- The Venezuelan immigrants accused of murdering Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston lured the 12-year-old girl under a bridge, stripped her topless and assaulted her for two hours, shocking new court documents reveal.
- On the night of Jocelyn’s murder, Johan Jose Martinez Rangel and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos were seen on surveillance video entering a 7-Eleven with Jocelyn and then accompanying her to the bridge where her body was later found partially naked and strangled.
- Peña, 26, and Martinez Rangel, 21, allegedly tied Jocelyn’s hands behind her back during the brutal assault, before strangling her and dumping her body in the bayou.
- According to a Homeland Security source, Peña entered the U.S. in El Paso, Texas, on May 28. He was released shortly after interacting with Border Patrol agents.
- After being lured under a bridge and assaulted, Jocelyn fought back against her attackers, leaving scratches and bite marks on one of the illegal immigrants she is accused of killing.
- A Homeland Security source said Peña was wearing an ankle monitor when he was apprehended at the border in May and released into the US, but reportedly disconnected the monitor after Jocelyn’s body was discovered.
- Republicans denounced the White House’s “pathetic” and “shameful” statement about the murders of Jocelyn and Rachel Maurin, a Maryland mother of five, which made no mention that they were killed by illegal immigrants.
Peña Ramos and Martínez Rangel were arrested the following day, June 20, and charged with murder.
Meanwhile, the affidavit also reveals that when Jocelyn’s concerned mother woke up to find her daughter missing, she tracked her daughter’s cell phone and traced it to the area of the skate park along the bayou where the body of the early teenage girl was found.
Investigators said the girl was found naked from the waist down and with her hands and feet bound, and an autopsy determined she had been strangled.
The arrest of the two migrants sparked an outcry against illegal immigration, with one of Jocelyn’s family members calling on the government to more thoroughly vet those crossing the border.
“These men, these illegal immigrant men, took away my daughter, took away our family’s opportunity to watch her grow up to be a wonderful person,” Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
