Franklin Jose Pena Ramos appears in Harris County Criminal Court
Illegal immigrants accused of killing 12-year-old Houston girl due in court
Fox News' Todd Piro reports the latest on the case.
One of the two illegal immigrant suspects charged with murdering 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston, Texas, last week had his bail set at $10 million during his first court appearance Monday.
Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26 and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, each have been charged with capital murder. Pena Ramos, who appeared Monday at Harris County Criminal Court, was determined by Judge Josh Hill to be a flight risk and was told that if he posts bail, he must wear a GPS monitor and remain under house arrest, among other restrictions.
"In this case the defendant lured a 12-year-old under a bridge, where he and his co-defendant remained with her for over 2 hours, took her pants off, tied her up, and killed her, then threw her body into the bayou," Harris County Assistant District Attorney Michael Abner wrote in court documents obtained by Fox News last week.
Prosecutors had requested bail for each suspect to be set at $1 million and a medical examiner listed the cause of death as strangulation.
SUSPECTS ‘LURED’ TEXAS 12-YEAR-OLD TO HER DEATH, PROSECUTORS SAY
Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, left, and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez have been charged in the killing of Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston, Texas, on Monday, June 17. (Harris County Jail)
On Thursday, Fox News reported that the two suspects from Venezuela had entered the U.S. illegally before being released from custody. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson confirmed the news on Friday, saying in a statement that "Martinez and Pena both illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole or admission by a U.S. immigration officer on an unknown date and at an unknown location."
WHITE HOUSE SLAMMED FOR STATEMENT ON DEATHS OF RACHEL MORIN, JOCELYN NUNGARAY
Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, was found strangled to death in a Houston creek this week. (Fox Houston courtesy of the Nungaray family)
Investigators used surveillance video to track the movements of Rangel Martinez and Pena Ramos before and after the killing, Houston police Lt. Stephen Hope said last week.
Police said Rangel Martinez and Pena Ramos, along with Jocelyn, were seen walking to a 7-Eleven convenience store.
Two men who were seen on surveillance footage with a 12-year-old girl hours before her body was found in a Houston creek earlier this week were arrested Thursday, June 20, 2024, in her death, police said. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle)
Afterward, the three of them walked to a bridge, where investigators said Nungaray was murdered. Rangel Martinez and Pena Ramos then walked to the apartment they shared and left the girl's body behind, police said. Police believe the pair lived in the same apartment complex as Nungaray.
Fox News' Bill Melugin, Louis Casiano and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
