Replies

On June 24, 1993, Jennifer Lee Ertman (August 15, 1978 – June 24, 1993) and Elizabeth Christine Peña (June 21, 1977 – June 24, 1993), Waltrip High School students, were attending the pool party of a friend who lived in the Spring Hill Apartments. When the pair realized that they were going to be late returning home, they decided to leave the party in order to meet an 11 p.m. curfew. Ertman and Peña decided to take a 10-minute shortcut to Peña's residence in Oak Forest by following the railroad tracks and then passing through T.C. Jester Park.[1] The girls were walking along the White Oak Bayou when they encountered "Black and White" gang members drinking beer after holding a gang initiation.[2] The gang captured Peña, and Ertman had initially escaped but was captured after she ran back to help her friend when she screamed. Six gang members raped the girls repeatedly. After realizing that the girls might identify them, Peter Anthony Cantu,[3] a leader of the gang, ordered the members to kill the girls, so the members strangled them to death.[1] Derrick Sean O'Brien and Raul Omar Villarreal[4] strangled Ertman with a red nylon belt before the belt broke; then the gang members used shoelaces.[1][2] Cantu, José Medellín, and Efrain Perez strangled Peña with shoelaces. The members then stomped on the girls' throats to ensure their deaths.[1] Cantu, Medellín, Perez, and Villareal then congregated at Cantu's residence, where he lived with his brother, Joe Cantu, and sister-in-law, Christina Cantu. Christina Cantu questioned why Villareal was bleeding and Perez had a bloody shirt. This prompted Medellín to say the gang "had fun," and that details would appear on the news. He then elaborated that he had raped both girls.[5] Peter Cantu then returned, and divided valuables that had been stolen from the girls. José Medellín got a ring with an "E", so he could give it to his girlfriend, Esther. Medellín reported that he had killed a girl, and noted that he would have found it easier with a gun. O'Brien was videotaped smiling at the scene of the crime. After the gang left, Christina Cantu convinced Joe Cantu to report the crime to police.[6] Four days after the crime, the bodies were found in the park during hot weather conditions. They were badly decaying, and dental records were used for identification. The medical examiner corroborated that the cause of death was strangulation. All those believed responsible were ultimately arrested. Medellín gave both a written and taped confession.[7][8][9] Sentencing, incarceration, and executions See also: Medellín v. Texas

At sentencing, the offenders were remanded to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) system. Peter Anthony Cantu, José Ernesto Medellín, Derrick Sean O'Brien, Efrain Perez, and Raul Omar Villareal received death sentences. Venancio Medellín, the brother of José Medellín, was 14 at the time of the murder, the same age as Jennifer Ertman. Venancio received a 40-year prison sentence. When the Supreme Court of the United States banned the executions of people who committed crimes while they were below 18 years of age, the sentences of Perez and Villareal were automatically commuted life with parole.[2] O'Brien, an African-American and the only non-Hispanic in the gang, was the first to be executed, in July 2006. O'Brien was buried in the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas.[1][10] José Ernesto Medellín appealed his execution, saying that he had informed City of Houston and Harris County police officers that he was a Mexican citizen, and that he had been unable to confer with Mexican consular officials. The prosecutors said that Medellín never told authorities that he was a Mexican citizen. Medellín said in a sworn statement that he learned that the Mexican consulate could assist him in 1997.[11] He petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1998 regarding this issue; the appeal failed.[12]

The perpetrators who were under death sentences were later moved to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit Medellín's impending execution became an international controversy, since the state did not hold a hearing about whether the inability for Medellín to meet with Mexican consular officials harmed his defense. The right of a defendant to talk with his or her consulate is specified in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations; the United States is a party to the convention, although the U.S. withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986 to accept the court's jurisdiction only on a case-by-case basis.[13] In 2004 the International Court of Justice responded to a lawsuit filed by Mexico against the United States; the court ordered hearings to be held for inmates, including Medellín, who were denied consular rights.[14] In 2005, President George W. Bush ordered hearings to be held. The State of Texas, represented by Solicitor General Ted Cruz, challenged Bush's order, and the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that only the Congress of the United States has the right to order hearings to be held. In July, the World Court ordered a stay of Medellín's execution. Governor Rick Perry argued that Texas is not bound to World Court rulings. Death penalty opponents protested the impending execution. The families of both Ertman and Peña strongly favored the execution(s).[1]

Randy Ertman (1952 - 2014), father of Jennifer Ertman, wanted to have Andy Kahan, the City of Houston's crime advocate, witness the execution of Medellín. TDCJ refused to permit Kahan to witness the execution.[15] Michelle Lyons, a TDCJ official, said that Tropical Storm Edouard would likely not be a factor preventing the execution of Medellín.[16] José Ernesto Medellín was executed at 9:57 p.m. on August 5, 2008, after his last-minute appeals were rejected by the Supreme Court.[17] Governor Perry rejected calls from Mexico and Washington, D.C. to delay the execution, citing the torture, rape and strangulation of two teenage girls in Houston 15 years ago as just cause for the death penalty.[18] Seventeen years after the crimes, Peter Anthony Cantu was executed on August 17, 2010.[19] The lethal injection was performed at 6:09 p.m. and at 6:17 p.m. Cantu was officially pronounced dead.[20] During his lifetime, Randy Ertman advocated strongly against granting parole to Venancio Medellín.[21]

Thanks. People forget what a great orator he is. His mistake was getting crosswise with Trump. When Trump accused his father of being the hit man on the grassy knoll in 1963, Cruz should have just laughed and let it go.

I will never forget that as long as I live. Peter Cantu was a violent little monster who tried to kick the reporters and the camera men while walking into the jail. I’ve often wondered what terror those girls felt especially when Cantu was the ring leader and had a streak of sadism in him. No family member came to his execution and the air in Huntsville is better without his stench stinking it up. Bush being Bush tried like it said to stop the execution of the illegal and Abbott and Perry weren’t about to let that little snot off. Thank you Ted Cruz.

Pres. George Bush and Secretary Condi Rice ordered Texas to release [the murderer] to keep peace with the U.N

As if that would do the trick. As if it would do us any good anyway.

Just globalists doing what globalists do.

I remember this case, as it gripped not just those of us in the Houston area, but the entire state.

Good article and great reminder.

I wish Cruz would make a great ad, about this as well as all of the BS the Senate Dems have been pulling.

I can see him on the Supreme Court. Too much question on his birthright and as a President, there should NEVER be any question about birthright. As Supreme Court Justice, however, I believe he would do America proud.

BTTT

Well done. Had forgotten all about that......

This was one of many incredible achievements by Cruz.

It is genuinely sad he does not get more credit.

He will win here in Texas and crush Beto.