Alexis Nungaray is pressing Harris County prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against the two men charged in her 12-year-old daughter Jocelyn Nungaray’s killing, keeping one of the county’s most closely watched cases in capital-murder territory. Jocelyn’s body was found June 17, 2024, in a creek near West Rankin Road and Kuykendahl in north Houston, close to the family’s home.
Harris County prosecutors charged Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Pena with capital murder and related offenses, and a Harris County grand jury later indicted both men on capital murder charges in September 2024. On Dec. 13, 2024, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced that her office would seek the death penalty, locking the case into the county’s most serious charging path.
Alexis Nungaray has said she wanted the “most justice that is possible” and the “worst punishment” for the men accused in her daughter’s death, but left the formal decision to the district attorney. Her comments have kept the case centered on Jocelyn, even as it has drawn intense public attention across north Houston and beyond.
In practical terms, the death-penalty request raises the stakes for every part of the prosecution. Harris County lawyers now have to prepare the case as a capital trial, where the state must prove the charges to a jury before death becomes an option and where punishment can end in death or life without parole. That posture usually means more pretrial preparation, more complex jury selection, and a longer road to resolution than in a noncapital homicide case.
The case also pushed lawmakers back to the Texas Capitol in Austin. Senate Bill 990 would have raised the age threshold for capital murder eligibility from children under 10 to children under 15, and supporters tied the proposal to Jocelyn’s death. The Texas Senate passed the bill in March 2025, but it later failed in the Legislature.
The case has become a broader political and legal flashpoint in Texas, drawing support from Crime Stoppers advocate Andy Kahan and repeated mention from Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump. For Harris County, the death-penalty request means the case will keep moving through the courts under the highest possible sentence exposure.
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