New arrest and search warrants just obtained by KPRC 2 reveal new details about the timeline between 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray’s murder and the arrest of her alleged killers, Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Pena.
On the night of Wednesday, June 19—three days after Jocelyn’s murder—the search warrants indicate that officers received a phone call from a man in Laredo, Texas. The man said his cousin, who he referred to as “Joe,” lived in Houston, and he had sent him text messages saying that he believed he was living with the two men responsible for Jocelyn’s death.
Joe also sent his cousin an image of him with Pena and Martinez-Rangel at the Ojos Locos bar on the night of the murder.
He had just moved into the apartment with the suspects—whom he only knew as “Gordo” and “Gordo’s cousin”—on Monday, June 17. He initially met the duo during the migration process and they all reconnected after he moved to Houston.
Their apartment had two bedrooms, and Joe shared one with the suspects, while the suspects’ construction boss lived in the other room.
Joe said that he picked up Pena and Martinez-Rangel on Sunday night and went to the bar with the suspects before leaving without them around 10 p.m.
On Tuesday, June 18, Joe was watching the news with Pena and Martinez-Rangel when he recognized the two suspects in images from the 7-Eleven surveillance footage, which had just been released by Houston Police around 8:20 p.m. that evening.
He tried not to react, according to the warrant, because he didn’t want them to know that he recognized them. After he shared the image of the three of them at the bar with his cousin, he deleted it from his phone.
Joe couldn’t speak with his cousin because he was afraid the suspects would hear him. He came up with an excuse to leave the apartment on Wednesday evening before meeting an HPD investigator, who took him downtown for an interview.
Around the same time, the suspects’ boss came to HPD Headquarters for an interview, records show, and he told investigators that Pena had confided in him while the boss gave him a ride home.
Pena allegedly told the boss that he and another person had “made a mistake after partying” and that they “hurt someone” who was now dead.
The boss later told his girlfriend about Pena’s admission, and she showed him the surveillance images of the persons of interest released by HPD.
After connecting the dots, the boss called authorities.
When HPD moved in to make an arrest, records show they did not know the suspects’ names but used the photo from Ojos Locos as an identifier.
When officers searched their apartment, they seized several items including toothbrushes, hair trimmers, underwear and paper with possible blood, the search warrant return indicates.
Pena and Martinez-Rangel have each been given $10 million bonds.
Former President Donald Trump mentioned Jocelyn’s murder during Thursday night’s 2024 U.S. Presidential Debate. He said that he spoke to her mother, Alexis Nungaray, before the debate and criticized President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.