Texas
Judge sets $10 million bond for Venezuelan man accused of killing a 12-year-old girl
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge in Texas set bond of $10 million Monday for an undocumented Venezuelan man accused of killing a 12-year-old Houston girl whose body was found in a creek after she disappeared during a walk to a convenience store.
Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26, is one of two men charged with capital murder in Jocelyn Nungaray’s death. The other is Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22.
Peña’s bond was set during a court hearing in which prosecutors told state District Judge Josh Hill that he and Martinez-Rangel tried to flee the Houston area after the killing.
The two men are Venezuelan nationals who entered the United States illegally in March, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. U.S. Border Patrol near El Paso, Texas, arrested Martinez-
Rangel on March 14 and Peña on March 28. Both were released with orders to appear in court at a later date.
Immigration is a top concern for voters, with many saying President Joe Biden hasn’t been doing enough to secure the country’s borders. Earlier this month, Biden unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Both Peña and Martinez-Rangel are now under immigration holds by federal authorities, meaning they would remain in custody even if they could post bond. Martinez-Rangel is set to appear in court to review his bond status on Tuesday.
Nungaray’s body was found June 17 in a shallow creek after police said she sneaked out of her nearby home the night before. She was strangled to death, according to the medical examiner.
The suspects allegedly lured Nungaray under a bridge and remained with her there for more than two hours, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege the men took off her pants, tied her up and killed her before throwing her body in the bayou. It doesn’t appear that the two men knew the 12-year-old, said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
“Make no mistake, this is a horrific crime,” Ogg said during a news conference following Peña’s court hearing.
Lisa Andrews, a court-appointed attorney for Peña, did not immediately reply to a call and email seeking comment.
The victim’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, remembered her daughter on Monday as someone who was quirky and “definitely made people laugh.”
“I’m always going to remember those memories because she had such a bright future ahead of her and I knew she was going to go very far,” she said. “These monsters took that opportunity from her, from her family.”
Police arrested Martinez-Rangel and Peña, who investigators said were roommates, on Thursday. Authorities said surveillance video showed two men approaching Jocelyn Nungaray before walking to a Houston convenience store with her. The three then walked together to a bridge, where the girl was killed, police said.
Kelvin Alvarenga, Jocelyn Nungaray’s grandfather, said Monday that his granddaughter’s death could have been prevented if the country’s immigration system had been “redone.”
“I don’t believe that everyone who crosses the border is bad. But within them, there are some who are,” he said. “Why not take some more time and investigate these people who come here?”
Ogg said the capital murder charges Peña and Martinez-Rangel face are not death penalty eligible. But if additional DNA testing or other evidence shows the victim was sexually assaulted or kidnapped, the death penalty would be possible, she said.
Washington
States fail to track abuses in foster care facilities housing thousands of children, U.S. says
WASHINGTON (AP) —Many states are failing to track how frequently children in foster care facilities are abused, sexually assaulted or improperly restrained, leaving them vulnerable to mistreatment, the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said in a report Wednesday.
The findings come as hotel heiress Paris Hilton heads to Congress to lobby in person on the problem. The report follows a Senate committee investigation that revealed children are subjected to abuse in foster care facilities around the country that are operated by a handful of large, for-profit companies and financed by taxpayers.
States that are responsible for the nearly 50,000 children in these facilities are not doing enough to piece together which facilities or companies are problematic, according to the latest federal report.
More than a dozen states don’t track when multiple abuses happen at a single facility or across facilities owned by the same company, the HHS OIG report found.
“We found that many states did not have the information they would need to identify patterns of maltreatment in residential facilities,” the report said.
States are also not consistently sharing information about abuse, even when it occurs at facilities owned by companies that operate across the country.
Federal taxpayers spend billions of dollars on foster care for thousands of children around the country. Some children are placed with families in homes or with their relatives. The most expensive care, which can cost hundreds of dollars a day or more, involves a residential treatment facility — essentially a group home for children. Those children sometimes have complex medical or behavioral needs.
In recent years, those facilities have come under scrutiny. Hilton planned to address the House Ways and Means Committee about the abuse she endured at one of those facilities as a child, during a hearing that will look at strengthening oversight of the facilities.
In 2020, for example, 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks died in a Michigan center after staffers physically restrained him for 12 minutes as punishment for throwing food. Michigan overhauled its care system, prohibiting the facilities from restraining children face down, like Fredericks was. A Philadelphia Inquirer investigation that same year uncovered more than 40 children who were abused at facilities across Pennsylvania.
Those public reports were detailed in the Senate Finance Committee’s investigation released earlier this month.
However, 32 states told the HHS Inspector General that they do not track the abuses that happen in facilities that are run in other states by companies they have contracts with.
HHS should help states track abuses at facilities, as well as ownership information, and create a location for states to share information about the problems occurring, the Inspector General recommended in its report.
“We found that many states lacked important information that could support enhanced oversight of residential facilities for children,” the report says.
HHS said it agreed with the recommendation, but it would not require states to gather such information.
Judge sets $10 million bond for Venezuelan man accused of killing a 12-year-old girl
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge in Texas set bond of $10 million Monday for an undocumented Venezuelan man accused of killing a 12-year-old Houston girl whose body was found in a creek after she disappeared during a walk to a convenience store.
Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26, is one of two men charged with capital murder in Jocelyn Nungaray’s death. The other is Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22.
Peña’s bond was set during a court hearing in which prosecutors told state District Judge Josh Hill that he and Martinez-Rangel tried to flee the Houston area after the killing.
The two men are Venezuelan nationals who entered the United States illegally in March, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. U.S. Border Patrol near El Paso, Texas, arrested Martinez-
Rangel on March 14 and Peña on March 28. Both were released with orders to appear in court at a later date.
Immigration is a top concern for voters, with many saying President Joe Biden hasn’t been doing enough to secure the country’s borders. Earlier this month, Biden unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Both Peña and Martinez-Rangel are now under immigration holds by federal authorities, meaning they would remain in custody even if they could post bond. Martinez-Rangel is set to appear in court to review his bond status on Tuesday.
Nungaray’s body was found June 17 in a shallow creek after police said she sneaked out of her nearby home the night before. She was strangled to death, according to the medical examiner.
The suspects allegedly lured Nungaray under a bridge and remained with her there for more than two hours, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege the men took off her pants, tied her up and killed her before throwing her body in the bayou. It doesn’t appear that the two men knew the 12-year-old, said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
“Make no mistake, this is a horrific crime,” Ogg said during a news conference following Peña’s court hearing.
Lisa Andrews, a court-appointed attorney for Peña, did not immediately reply to a call and email seeking comment.
The victim’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, remembered her daughter on Monday as someone who was quirky and “definitely made people laugh.”
“I’m always going to remember those memories because she had such a bright future ahead of her and I knew she was going to go very far,” she said. “These monsters took that opportunity from her, from her family.”
Police arrested Martinez-Rangel and Peña, who investigators said were roommates, on Thursday. Authorities said surveillance video showed two men approaching Jocelyn Nungaray before walking to a Houston convenience store with her. The three then walked together to a bridge, where the girl was killed, police said.
Kelvin Alvarenga, Jocelyn Nungaray’s grandfather, said Monday that his granddaughter’s death could have been prevented if the country’s immigration system had been “redone.”
“I don’t believe that everyone who crosses the border is bad. But within them, there are some who are,” he said. “Why not take some more time and investigate these people who come here?”
Ogg said the capital murder charges Peña and Martinez-Rangel face are not death penalty eligible. But if additional DNA testing or other evidence shows the victim was sexually assaulted or kidnapped, the death penalty would be possible, she said.
Washington
States fail to track abuses in foster care facilities housing thousands of children, U.S. says
WASHINGTON (AP) —Many states are failing to track how frequently children in foster care facilities are abused, sexually assaulted or improperly restrained, leaving them vulnerable to mistreatment, the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said in a report Wednesday.
The findings come as hotel heiress Paris Hilton heads to Congress to lobby in person on the problem. The report follows a Senate committee investigation that revealed children are subjected to abuse in foster care facilities around the country that are operated by a handful of large, for-profit companies and financed by taxpayers.
States that are responsible for the nearly 50,000 children in these facilities are not doing enough to piece together which facilities or companies are problematic, according to the latest federal report.
More than a dozen states don’t track when multiple abuses happen at a single facility or across facilities owned by the same company, the HHS OIG report found.
“We found that many states did not have the information they would need to identify patterns of maltreatment in residential facilities,” the report said.
States are also not consistently sharing information about abuse, even when it occurs at facilities owned by companies that operate across the country.
Federal taxpayers spend billions of dollars on foster care for thousands of children around the country. Some children are placed with families in homes or with their relatives. The most expensive care, which can cost hundreds of dollars a day or more, involves a residential treatment facility — essentially a group home for children. Those children sometimes have complex medical or behavioral needs.
In recent years, those facilities have come under scrutiny. Hilton planned to address the House Ways and Means Committee about the abuse she endured at one of those facilities as a child, during a hearing that will look at strengthening oversight of the facilities.
In 2020, for example, 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks died in a Michigan center after staffers physically restrained him for 12 minutes as punishment for throwing food. Michigan overhauled its care system, prohibiting the facilities from restraining children face down, like Fredericks was. A Philadelphia Inquirer investigation that same year uncovered more than 40 children who were abused at facilities across Pennsylvania.
Those public reports were detailed in the Senate Finance Committee’s investigation released earlier this month.
However, 32 states told the HHS Inspector General that they do not track the abuses that happen in facilities that are run in other states by companies they have contracts with.
HHS should help states track abuses at facilities, as well as ownership information, and create a location for states to share information about the problems occurring, the Inspector General recommended in its report.
“We found that many states lacked important information that could support enhanced oversight of residential facilities for children,” the report says.
HHS said it agreed with the recommendation, but it would not require states to gather such information.
