Roommate saw surveillance footage while watching TV with Jocelyn Nungaray's alleged killers and tried not to react

New arrest and search warrants obtained by KPRC 2 reveal new details about the timeline between the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray and the arrests of her alleged killers, Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Pena.

On the night of Wednesday, June 19, three days after Jocelyn was killed, search warrants indicate that officers received a phone call from a man in Laredo, Texas. The man said his cousin, whom he called “Joe,” lived in Houston and that he had been texting him saying he thought he was living with the two men responsible for Jocelyn’s death.

Joe also sent his cousin a photo of himself with Pena and Martinez-Rangel at the Ojos Locos bar the night of the murder.

He had just moved into the apartment with the suspects — whom he knew only as “Gordo” and “Gordo’s cousin” — on Monday, June 17. He had first met the duo during the migration process and they all reconnected after he moved to Houston.

Their apartment had two bedrooms and Joe shared one with the suspects, while the suspects' construction boss lived in the other room.

Joe said he picked up Pena and Martinez-Rangel Sunday night and went to the bar with the suspects before leaving without them around 10 p.m.

On Tuesday, June 18, Joe was watching the news with Pena and Martinez-Rangel when he recognized the two suspects in the 7-Eleven surveillance footage, which had just been released by Houston police around 8:20 p.m. that evening.

He tried not to react, according to the warrant, because he didn't want them to know he recognized him. After sharing the image of the three of them at the bar with his cousin, he deleted it from his phone.

Joe couldn't talk to his cousin because he was afraid the suspects would hear him. He made an excuse to leave the apartment Wednesday night before meeting with an HPD investigator, who took him into town for an interview.

Around the same time, the suspects' boss went to HPD headquarters for an interview, documents show, and he told investigators that Pena confided in him while the boss drove him home. him.

Pena allegedly told the boss that he and another person had “made a mistake after partying” and had “hurt someone” who was now dead.

The boss then told his girlfriend about Pena's confession, and she showed him the persons of interest surveillance footage released by HPD.

After connecting the dots, the boss called the authorities.

When HPD moved in to make an arrest, records show they did not know the suspects' names but used Ojos Locos' photo as an identifier.

When officers searched their apartment, they seized several items, including toothbrushes, hair clippers, underwear and paper possibly containing blood, the search warrant return states.

Pena and Martinez-Rangel were each given $10 million bail.

Former President Donald Trump addressed Jocelyn's murder during the 2024 U.S. presidential debate Thursday night. He said he spoke to her mother, Alexis Nungaray, before the debate and criticized President Joe Biden's immigration policies.