Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Friday morning she would seek the death penalty against two illegal immigrants charged in the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.
Police arrested 21-year-old Johan Jose Rangel Martinez and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, both migrants from Venezuela, and charged them with Nungaray’s murder in June. Ogg announced the decision to seek death sentences in an interview with “Fox and Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones. (RELATED: Former Trump Official Reminds Jim Acosta Of ‘Over 330,000 Children’ Biden-Harris Admin Lost Track Of At Border)
“We’ll be filing notice by the state of Texas that we intend to seek the death penalty against Jocelyn’s murderers, Pena and Rangel. Both were Venezuela nationals, they have been captured while committing a crime, coming into this country illegally and then within days, of murdering and raping Jocelyn Nungaray,” Ogg told Jones. “So we are seeking death because we want the message out there that regardless of who you are, but especially if you are illegally in this country, that you will face the same consequences as anyone else for murdering a child during the course of raping and kidnapping her.”
WATCH:
The murders of Nungaray, Rachel Morin and nursing student Laken Riley propelled illegal immigration to a top issue in the 2024 presidential election. Riley’s killer was sentenced to life without parole in Georgia Nov. 20.
Ogg criticized the lax border policies of the Biden administration, saying that Nungaray’s murder was “preventable.”
“The Democratic policies of open borders have failed the American public. If the Justice for Jocelyn Act filed by Senator Ted Cruz or any of the policies that President-elect Trump is pushing had been in effect, then it’s likely that Jocelyn Nungaray would be alive today,” Ogg said. “These types of horrific crimes committed by illegal immigrants crossing our border have to stop. The family of Jocelyn is in a position they never dreamed would happen to them and I think it’s unfair to anybody with children to be subject to criminals committing horrific crimes that don’t have to happen.”
“If these fellows hadn’t been in our country, Jocelyn would be alive. If the border patrol had continued to keep them in custody, as Senator Cruz’s bill would have required, Jocelyn would be alive,” Ogg continued. “So what really gets at prosecutors and gets to me about this case is that it was preventable.”
Ogg expressed a willingness to work with Trump’s “Border czar,” Tom Homan, to address illegal immigration. (Click Here To Watch The Daily Caller Documentary “Cartelville USA”)
“I say it’s about time we work with the border czar to stop the violent criminals from crossing into our state, killing our citizens, and raping and murdering children,” Ogg said. “It’s got to stop and I look forward to his new policies, to Trump’s policies, and to Senator Cruz getting this very important legislation through Congress and the Senate.”
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