Texas DA seeking death penalty in Jocelyn Nungaray case warns migrant criminals: 'You cannot run and hide'
Outgoing Harris County, Texas District Attorney Kim Ogg has a stark message for migrant criminals breaking the law: You can't run and hide.
The Texas Democrat leaving office at the end of the year is involved in the high-profile Jocelyn Nungaray murder case in which illegal migrants and alleged Tren de Aragua gang members Franklin Pena, 26, and Johan Martinez-Rangel, 22, are accused of raping 12-year-old Nungaray and strangling her to death before leaving her body in a shallow creek near her home.
Ogg intends to seek the death penalty for the suspects.
DA TO SEEK DEATH PENALTY AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ACCUSED IN NUNGARAY MURDER CASE
"Our message is you cannot run and hide in this county and state from a crime as brutal as this and expect to get away with it. You're going to be treated with equal justice, which means no one is above the law regardless of where they come from. Not if they commit these kinds of crimes," she told "Fox & Friends" co-host Lawrence Jones during a sit-down interview that aired Wednesday.
According to ICE, the two migrants illegally entered the U.S. from Venezuela. Ogg called that unlawful entry their "first crime."
"These murderers committed their crime crossing the border…" she said. "…. and [they] were unfortunately released after they'd been caught."
Jocelyn's mother Alexis Nungaray has repeatedly blamed the Biden-Harris administration's border policies for creating the conditions for the crime to happen, even making appearances on the campaign trail with President-elect Donald Trump and speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee about the impact of illegal immigrant crime on U.S. citizens.
Still crushed by Jocelyn's loss, she told Jones the issue isn't "red or blue" but rather an issue "about human value."
"I'll always say forever that I fully, always have and will support immigration, but there's a reason there's policies and procedures in place," she said.
Jocelyn's grandfather, Kelvin Alvarenga, also spoke with Jones.
"Coming from a Latino-descent family, it hits you raw that these people would have the heart, the mind [to do this]. I've always said that… my granddaughter was not their first. It's definitely going to be their last. And keep it in mind that hopefully no other families will go through this pain," he said.
Ogg arrived at the decision to pursue the death penalty based off the gruesome evidence and after speaking to Nungaray's family.
"They need to be treated like anybody else in this country who would do that to a child. And in Texas, that crime is punishable by death. And that is exactly what we believe the evidence shows they've earned.
Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.