DA in Jocelyn Nungaray Case Seeking Ultimate Penalty

AP Photo/Annie Mulligan

On Friday, Harris County, Texas District Attorney Kim Ogg, a Democrat, announced that her office will be seeking the death penalty for the murderers of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

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“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,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in an announcement on Fox and Friends. “Both were Venezuelan nationals. They had been captured while committing a crime, coming into this country illegally, and then, within days, murdering and raping Jocelyn Nungaray.”

“We are seeking death because we want the message out there that regardless 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,” Ogg said.

Both of Jocelyn Nungaray's attackers were known Venezuelan gang members. Both were in the country illegally. Both have been convicted of the assault and murder of Jocelyn, who was 12 years old at the time of the attack.

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DA Ogg states that she has spoken with Jocelyn's family on the matter.

Deciding to seek the death penalty was based on the strength of the evidence and the gruesomeness of the crime, according to Ogg.

“I’ve spoken to Alexis Nungaray multiple times along with her father,” she said. “Their family is supportive of this move. We don’t make the victim choose, our prosecutors determine what’s most likely, but we feel that a Texas jury will sentence these two defendants, based on the evidence we have, to death.”

Ogg is a Democrat but argued her party’s border policies have failed the public, she said.

That last sentence is belaboring the obvious, but it's a point worth reinforcing; this is an issue that goes beyond Jocelyn Nungaray, and even beyond other victims of illegal alien gang members, such as Laken Riley and Rachel Morin. These incidents and others like them are directly attributable to the failures of the Biden administration to take any meaningful action on our nation's borders.

“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,” Ogg said. “I think it’s unfair for anybody with children to be subject to criminals committing horrific crimes that don’t have to happen.”

“If these fellas hadn’t been in our country, Jocelyn would be alive. If the Border Patrol had continued to keep them in custody, as Sen. Cruz’s bill would have required, Jocelyn would be alive. So what really gets at prosectors and gets to me about this case is that it was preventable,” the district attorney said.

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In January, there will be a new administration, and part of that administration will be the new Border Czar, Tom "The Hammer" Homan. But it comes too late for the families of Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley, and Rachel Morin. The best we can hope for now is that justice be meted out on their killers.


See Related: Border Patrol Chief 'Excited' About Incoming Trump Administration

IT BEGINS: Nervous About Trump Policies, Illegals Starting to Return Home


It's hard to imagine two criminals more deserving of the ultimate penalty than the two illegal aliens who assaulted and murdered Jocelyn Nungaray.

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