Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he told the mother of a 12-year-old Houston girl who was allegedly killed by two illegal immigrants that he wants state lawmakers to pass a bill named after the victim and that would deny bail to certain murder suspects.
Patrick, a Republican, said he spoke with Alexis Nungaray, Jocelyn Nungaray's mother, after the girl was buried Thursday. The alleged killers — Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26 — are being held on $10 million bail.
“Jocelyn's family was shocked that bail was granted in this case,” Patrick wrote in X. “I told Jocelyn's mother that the Texas Senate will once again pass bail reform and will not accept the House repealing this legislation. She will name her daughter 'Jocelyn's Law,' so that her daughter's name will never be forgotten and it will be ensured that capital murderers will not be eligible for bail ever again.”
SUSPECTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF MURDERING JOCELYN NUNGARAY WAS WEARING AN ICE ANKLE MONITOR
Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, left, and Johan Jose Martinez Rangel have been charged with the murder of Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston, Texas, on Monday, June 17. (Harris County Jail)
“Jocelyn's Law” would allow Texans to vote on a constitutional amendment to automatically deny bail to those charged with capital murder.
“Jocelyn's murder is reigniting this movement to pass this constitutional amendment and we certainly hope it passes,” Rania Mankarious, executive director of Houston Crime Stoppers, told Fox News Digital.
The state Legislature is expected to convene on January 14, 2025.
“The first day we can file bills for the upcoming legislative session, I will be introducing Jocelyn's Law,” state Sen. Joan Huffman, also a Republican, wrote online.
Patrick accused state Democrats and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a fellow Republican, of killing previous bail reform bills that had enjoyed bipartisan support and that Huffman had proposed. He cited SJR No. 44, a resolution proposed by Huffman that would have made Martinez Rangel and Pena Ramos ineligible for bail.
HOUSTON'S 'MATTRESS MACK' TO PAY FOR JOCELYN NUNGARAY'S FUNERAL
Nungaray was buried last week, days after she was found strangled in a Houston creek. Martinez Rangel and Pena Ramos, both Venezuelan citizens, lured her under a bridge on June 16 and sexually assaulted her before killing her, Harris County prosecutors said.
Both men had entered the United States illegally through El Paso, Texas, weeks earlier. A Harris County judge ordered both to remain detained on separate $10 million bonds.
“We don't know the background of these people. Normally in a criminal case… there is some kind of background information available so that the judge can make an appropriate risk assessment and determine the bail level or what to do with this person,” Mankarious said.
While the state Senate is looking at the bail issue from a public safety perspective, state House lawmakers are also concerned about public safety, but also seem to view it through a “hypersensitive lens” in an effort to avoid placing an undue burden on a criminal defendant, Mankarious said.
“The idea is that judges will abuse this additional tool of denying bail, and we don't think so,” he said. “There are many, many, many egregious cases — we're seeing this, not just in Harris County but in every major city in this country — where the criminal element is unlike anything we've seen in years past, and we need to address it.”
JOCELYN NUNGARAY MURDER SUSPECT SET BAIL AT $10 MILLION
Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, was found strangled to death in a Houston creek this week. (Fox Houston courtesy of the Nungaray family)
Jocelyn's Law would also improve Lauren's Law, named after 13-year-old Lauren Landavazo of Wichita Falls, to make the murder of a child under 15 a capital offense, Patrick said.
Landavazo was shot and killed in 2016 while walking home from school. The killer, Kody Lott, is serving a life sentence and is eligible for parole after serving 30 years.
Currently, only the murder of a child under the age of 10 is a crime punishable by death.
Crime victim advocates in Texas have been trying for years to get stricter bail laws passed, especially in certain cases involving heinous crimes. In past years, many Harris County offenders were released on low bail or no bail at all, and some reoffended, sometimes violently, Mankarious said.
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“At the time, the courts were leaning toward the idea that everyone deserves bail and that bail cannot be punitive,” he said. “The last few years have been difficult for all of us working in this system.”
