One of the illegal migrants charged in the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray is reportedly worried he won’t get a fair trial due to negative publicity.
In June, the young girl was found strangled to death in a Houston creek and 21-year-old Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Peña Ramos – both illegally in the U.S. from Venezuela – were charged with her murder.
Now, Peña’s attorneys have filed a protective order “preventing the parties to this cause, law enforcement officials, the Houston Forensic Science Center, or court personnel from making extrajudicial statements or otherwise disseminating information concerning this cause by any means of public communications.”
The attorneys claimed that negative media attention was “likely to produce a result of undue prejudice” for the illegal migrant, according to Fox News.
“The additional extra-judicial statements to the news media are likely to produce a result of undue prejudice in the community to deprive the Defendant of a fair trial guaranteed by Article I of the Texas Constitution and the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” the filing read.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg “made numerous statements about the case that went beyond the statements of the prosecutor during the probable cause hearing,” the motion by the attorneys alleged.
To back that claim, the filing cited Ogg saying: “[M]ake no mistake, this is a horrific crime” and “the immigration system is broken.”
Peña’s attorneys demanded that all those involved in the murder case “refrain from making any further extrajudicial statements relating to this cause and to refrain from further dissemination of information, regardless of whether the information was previously disclosed to the public, concerning this cause by way of public communication, and for all other relief just and proper in the case.”
Alexis Nungaray, the mother of the 12-year-old, along with other members of the family joined former President Donald Trump at the U.S.-Mexico border last week.
(Video Credit: KHOU 11)
“It’s still very, very early. It’s still very, very raw. It’s still very, very surreal,” the distraught mother said.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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