HOUSTON — The two suspects charged with capital murder in the death of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray were back in court Wednesday morning.
The two men were in court for a hearing on a motion filed by the men's lawyers for a gag order in the case.
Judge Josh Hill did not grant the gag order that the defense for both suspects was asking for but instead offered to write up his own order, which he plans to release later in the day to protect the integrity of the trial.
The defense for Franklin Peña originally wanted a gag order because of the national attention this case has received and more specifically comments made By Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg to both local and national media about the case.
Peña's defense attorneys said Ogg has allegedly called both suspects monsters and spoke about them as if they’ve been found guilty.
Now the attorneys for the other suspect in this case Johan Martinez-Rengel said they wanted a gag order simply to protect the evidence being gathered in this case after a lab leaked DNA results to a local media outlet.
“All that we want is a fair trial for our client. We don’t want this process to be politicized,” said Mario Madrid, Martinez Rangel’s attorney. “We want a fair jury and we can't get that with people discussing the case when they don’t have any facts or evidence about it, so we're just looking for a fair trial for our client."
The judge explained to both sides that his authority is only limited to the attorneys in the courtroom and he has no authority to limit the press on what they can share or restrict the family of Jocelyn from expressing their thoughts to the media.
Meanwhile, an oral admonishment remains in place. We reached out to the DA's Office for their side, but they told us, "no comment."
Justice for Jocelyn Act
This comes just a day after Jocelyn's mother appeared before a Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington D.C., speaking in support of the Justice for Jocelyn Act.
Alexis Nungaray said she wants more accountability from lawmakers when it comes to securing the border and monitoring undocumented immigrants.
This past June, investigators said Jocelyn's accused killers are two Venezuelan nationals who had both been detained before the death of the 12-year-old on separate occasions in El Paso and were released on the same day with orders to appear before an immigration judge later.
Both ended up in Houston about a month before Jocelyn was killed.
“I come to you all as a grieving mother to please help this country make a change for the greater good. This country needs to make a change,” Alexis Nungaray said to the committee. “We need to properly secure our borders. We need to have that security knowing we are safe in our own country, and most importantly we need to protect our children. They are supposed to be our future."
Jocelyn's mother spoke in support of the Justice for Jocelyn Act which would require Immigration Customs Enforcement to exhaust all reasonable efforts to keep undocumented immigrants in custody before releasing them.