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Texas True Crime Pure Evil Full Documentary · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Pena and Jennifer Erdman were out together Thursday night,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and that's the last time anyone remembers seeing them.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: She just told me she was going to go home,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: and she never got home. And it's just been a
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: search ever since.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: They've been passing these posters out everywhere.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: The last thing is, you know, I love you, and,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we both told her that we both love her,
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: and that we would see her, but we never got
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: to see her again.
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: The search for two people missing for three days has
• 0:37
  Speaker 5: apparently ended in tragedy this evening. This afternoon, authorities found
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: the nude bodies of two teenage girls in Northeastern.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Even in a city where a case of homicide no
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: longer has a numbing effect on those who hear about it,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: this case is a real gut-wrencher with so many questions.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Not the least of which is, what killed those children?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Who could have done such a terrible thing?
• 0:56
  Speaker 6: Was Peter a follower or a leader?
• 0:58
  Speaker 7: I don't think he was a leader.
• 1:01
  Speaker 8: Have you ever watched.
• 1:03
  Speaker 9: like a show like on National Geographic. It's similar to
• 1:08
  Speaker 9: what lions do to gazelles.
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: Police have filed capital murder charges against teenage boys.
• 1:14
  Speaker 9: Jenny and Elizabeth were the gazelles, and I'll just leave
• 1:16
  Speaker 9: it like that.
• 1:19
  Speaker 10: In positivity, the wrong place at the wrong time.
• 1:21
  Speaker 8: This is horrible. Absolutely horrible.
• 1:23
  Speaker 9: You can't script. a president of the United States intervening.
• 1:28
  Speaker 9: You can't script that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• 1:31
  Speaker 9: would use this case to decide whether the lethal injection
• 1:36
  Speaker 9: constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. You can't script the Supreme
• 1:40
  Speaker 9: Court would decide 17-year-olds don't know that you shouldn't kill somebody.
• 1:45
  Speaker 9: You can't script the impact that these two families have
• 1:49
  Speaker 9: had on victims' rights.
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: Why can't they put a belt around their neck? Why
• 1:53
  Speaker 6: can't they stomp them down with their feet like that,
• 1:55
  Speaker 6: stomp them down on the ground until they're dead? And
• 1:58
  Speaker 6: why not lay them later for an hour and let
• 1:59
  Speaker 6: them die?
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: I can still remember that day. It just took so
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: much for me.
• 2:05
  Speaker 11: Introduce yourself and how you're related to this case.
• 2:10
  Speaker 12: My name is Benanson Medin Jr. I was the 14-year-old
• 2:17
  Speaker 12: kid that was involved in this case.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: It just broke my heart. and a piece of me
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: is not here anymore. Part of me is still with
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: my daughter.
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: It's just still hard to believe that happened and it's
• 2:34
  Speaker 7: been that long.
• 2:51
  Speaker 13: Houston's T.C.
• 2:52
  Speaker 11: Jester Park in daylight, a haven for runners and cyclists.
• 2:57
  Speaker 11: 30 years ago, it was a shortcut for two innocent
• 3:00
  Speaker 11: teenage girls. And what happened next, not far from here,
• 3:04
  Speaker 11: was unspeakable. This is the story of Jennifer Ertman and
• 3:08
  Speaker 11: Elizabeth Pena. On June 24th, 1993, they crossed paths with
• 3:13
  Speaker 11: what those involved in these cases have called pure evil.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so this was at Waltrip in the gym.
• 3:36
  Speaker 13: I'm wearing my gym shirt.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: She is not, but. And this was right before the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: end of our freshman year.
• 3:44
  Speaker 11: May 1993, 14 year old Jennifer Ertman and 15 year
• 3:48
  Speaker 11: old Christina Almaraz were finishing up their first year at
• 3:52
  Speaker 11: Waltrip High School.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: We were just hanging out in gym.
• 3:55
  Speaker 11: They were best friends who lived close to each other.
• 3:58
  Speaker 11: and their friendship went back years.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: She was funny, fun to be around, super sweet. She
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: was obsessed with new kids on the block, of course,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: like we all were, so her room was full of posters.
• 4:13
  Speaker 11: That freshman year, the two welcomed Elizabeth Pena into their group.
• 4:17
  Speaker 11: She was a little older, but in the same grade,
• 4:20
  Speaker 11: and had attended a different middle school. They all soon clicked.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Super sweet, yeah, very nice. Always happy, always smiling.
• 4:28
  Speaker 11: They were typical teenaged girls. Christina remembers Jennifer, a rule follower,
• 4:34
  Speaker 11: a good student. Elizabeth, always with a big smile. She
• 4:38
  Speaker 11: was Melissa and Adolph Pena's oldest child.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Pretty much carefree. She loved life and her friends and
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: liked going to the beach, getting her nails done, all
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: things little teenage girls like to do. Talk on the phone.
• 5:01
  Speaker 11: The Peñas were happy the girls had found each other.
• 5:04
  Speaker 11: Jennifer was a good influence. She was an only child.
• 5:07
  Speaker 11: And her parents were strict, but they trusted her. On
• 5:11
  Speaker 11: June 24, 1993, the girls were invited to hang out
• 5:15
  Speaker 11: with friends at an apartment complex in the neighborhood. By
• 5:18
  Speaker 11: this time, Christina and her family had moved farther away.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: According to my mom, I was supposed to go. They
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: wanted me to go, but she didn't let me go.
• 5:29
  Speaker 11: Jennifer and Elizabeth did go. They had an 11.30 p.m. curfew.
• 5:33
  Speaker 11: Elizabeth's parents dropped them off.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Well, the last thing is, you know, I love you, and,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we both told her that we both love her
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: and that we would see her, but we never got
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: to see her again.
• 5:54
  Speaker 11: On June 24, 1993, 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth
• 6:01
  Speaker 11: Pena were enjoying some summer freedom. It was a hot
• 6:05
  Speaker 11: Thursday night. They were getting together with friends at a
• 6:08
  Speaker 11: nearby apartment. Elizabeth's parents drove them there.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: I remember her and I dropped her off. And for
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: some odd reason, she didn't call us to come pick
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: her up. It was about midnight, I guess, close to.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: And she decided to walk home. That was the worst
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: mistake she ever made.
• 6:33
  Speaker 11: Trying to beat an 11.30 p.m. curfew, the girls took
• 6:36
  Speaker 11: a shortcut through T.C. Jester Park. It was late and
• 6:40
  Speaker 11: mostly deserted. They needed to get to the train trestle
• 6:43
  Speaker 11: over White Oak Bayou. It would save some time.
• 6:47
  Speaker 9: And they took what they thought was a shortcut. And
• 6:51
  Speaker 9: that shortcut was a shortcut into what I would call
• 6:54
  Speaker 9: a modern-day Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• 6:59
  Speaker 11: 18-year-old Peter Cantu was running the initiation of 17-year-old Raul
• 7:02
  Speaker 11: Villarreal into what was called the Black and White Gang.
• 7:06
  Speaker 11: They were also in T.C. Jester Park drinking and fighting.
• 7:10
  Speaker 11: As part of the initiation, Villarreal was to take on
• 7:13
  Speaker 11: several gang members. Derek Sean O'Brien, Jose Medin, his younger brother,
• 7:19
  Speaker 11: Venancio Medin, and Efren Perez were also there. Less than
• 7:23
  Speaker 11: an hour later, the girls crossed their path, and what
• 7:27
  Speaker 11: would follow was horrific.
• 7:29
  Speaker 9: If you ever watched a show like a National Geographic,
• 7:34
  Speaker 9: it's similar to what lions do to gazelles. And Jenny
• 7:39
  Speaker 9: and Elizabeth were the gazelles, and I'll just leave it
• 7:43
  Speaker 9: like that.
• 7:46
  Speaker 11: Elizabeth was the first to be attacked. Later testimony revealed
• 7:50
  Speaker 11: Jose Medina grabbed her and threw her to the ground.
• 7:54
  Speaker 11: Jennifer could have gotten away, but instead ran to help
• 7:58
  Speaker 11: her friend.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: It was so hard when I found that out and
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: when I read that because, of course, I was like,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: that's so her, but why? You know, why didn't you
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: go and get help and maybe you could both still
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: be here, but, you know.
• 8:14
  Speaker 11: The girls were raped for more than an hour, but
• 8:16
  Speaker 11: the horrific sexual assault wasn't enough. Peter Cantu decided they
• 8:22
  Speaker 11: had to die.
• 8:22
  Speaker 14: And then you got to take them back there and
• 8:25
  Speaker 14: kill them.
• 8:26
  Speaker 15: And they had to work hard to do that.
• 8:28
  Speaker 14: You know, strangling, strangulation wasn't good enough.
• 8:33
  Speaker 15: It didn't work to make sure.
• 8:35
  Speaker 14: Then they stomped on them, you know, stomped on their throats,
• 8:38
  Speaker 14: put their shoes on their throats.
• 8:41
  Speaker 15: From Peter, I know his What he did best.
• 8:43
  Speaker 14: Because I heard it so many times, but I mean,
• 8:46
  Speaker 14: you know, kicking Elizabeth Pena in the face and the
• 8:51
  Speaker 14: jaw with his steel-toed boots and then stomping on Jennifer
• 8:56
  Speaker 14: Irvin's neck to make sure they were dead.
• 8:59
  Speaker 11: The teen boys then went back to Cantu's house and
• 9:02
  Speaker 11: divided up the spoils, money and jewelry. Jose Medellin took
• 9:06
  Speaker 11: Jennifer's ring with the initial E to give to his girlfriend, Esther,
• 9:10
  Speaker 11: and they bragged to Cantu's older brother and his wife
• 9:14
  Speaker 11: about what they did.
• 9:15
  Speaker 9: And they were listening to this horrific story, what they
• 9:19
  Speaker 9: did to these you-know-what, and I got them, I got this,
• 9:23
  Speaker 9: I got that, and we had to take them out.
• 9:26
  Speaker 9: We didn't need any witnesses. They even took trophies, a
• 9:28
  Speaker 9: little Mickey Mouse watch, you know, showing what they did,
• 9:32
  Speaker 9: you know, we're going to be on the news, and
• 9:36
  Speaker 9: And luckily, they had a conscience.
• 9:42
  Speaker 11: Jennifer and Elizabeth's parents couldn't find them, and that was unusual.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: It was like, you know, okay, if they're spending the night,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: you know, they should have called. And then, you know,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: no word.
• 9:56
  Speaker 11: After reporting the missing to police, Jennifer's father, Randy Urquhart,
• 10:00
  Speaker 11: made missing persons flyers. The Ertmans and Peñas had an
• 10:04
  Speaker 11: army of the girls' friends to pass them out. Their
• 10:07
  Speaker 11: search was desperate, and every hour that passed took away
• 10:12
  Speaker 11: any remaining hope.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: She just told me she was going to go home,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: and she never got home. I don't know. I guess
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: we all knew it was going to be something bad.
• 10:20
  Speaker 11: By the third day, prodded by his wife, Peter Cantu's
• 10:23
  Speaker 11: brother called Crime Stoppers of Houston to anonymously report the
• 10:27
  Speaker 11: location of the girls' bodies. His wife later testified she
• 10:31
  Speaker 11: was afraid of Peter Cantu, and she and her husband
• 10:34
  Speaker 11: had watched the news coverage on the searches and wanted
• 10:37
  Speaker 11: to give the parents peace. Four days after Jennifer and
• 10:41
  Speaker 11: Elizabeth's brutal killings, their tortured, decomposing bodies were found by
• 10:46
  Speaker 11: patrol officers in in a secluded, wooded area.
• 10:50
  Speaker 7: I didn't even think there were bodies.
• 10:52
  Speaker 11: Houston Police Homicide Detective Ray Zaragoza was called to the park.
• 10:57
  Speaker 7: Well, we were up north on a case, and then
• 11:02
  Speaker 7: it was around noontime, and I received a call, and
• 11:08
  Speaker 7: it was at T.C.
• 11:09
  Speaker 8: Jester Park.
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: And so, and I remember it was hot that day,
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: really hot. And so... My partner and I, we drove
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: over there and then we see this crowd, large crowd, helicopters.
• 11:22
  Speaker 11: As word spread, people started gathering. This was the news
• 11:26
  Speaker 11: the community feared would come. They were scared and shocked
• 11:30
  Speaker 11: that two teen girls could just vanish. Soon they would
• 11:34
  Speaker 11: see a father's pain on full display, raw and angry.
• 11:39
  Speaker 11: The city would also see it captured by television news cameras.
• 11:44
  Speaker 9: And I don't think anybody in Houston will ever forget
• 11:48
  Speaker 9: Randy barreling down there and screaming and HPD officers having
• 11:53
  Speaker 9: to hold him back. I don't think anybody will forget that.
• 11:56
  Speaker 7: It seemed like he was wanting to go somewhere. And
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: then finally he wanted to go see if that was
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: his daughter over there. And so I came in behind
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: him because that's the way I came at the time,
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: and I tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around,
• 12:12
  Speaker 7: and I thought he was going to hit me. He
• 12:13
  Speaker 7: put his fist up. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: And then we talked a little bit, calmed him down
• 12:16
  Speaker 7: a little bit, and told him what he needed to do.
• 12:19
  Speaker 11: The detective diffused the situation. The parents' suffering was just beginning.
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: I can still remember that day.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: It just took so much for me. It just broke
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: my heart, and a piece of me is not here anymore.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: It's wouldn't. Part of me is still with my daughter.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: I'll never ever forget that day. I'm sorry.
• 12:54
  Speaker 11: On a hot Houston night, Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena
• 12:58
  Speaker 11: never could have predicted the evil they'd happen upon.
• 13:03
  Speaker 7: To this day, it just bothers me. It's hard to believe.
• 13:07
  Speaker 7: It's hard to believe that humans, especially kids, could do that.
• 13:17
  Speaker 7: I guess that's the way it is. That's evil. That's evil.
• 13:24
  Speaker 11: As the girls were cutting through T.C. Jester Park in
• 13:26
  Speaker 11: order to make curfew, they were attacked by gang members,
• 13:30
  Speaker 11: raped and strangled. When a belt broke, they used shoelaces
• 13:34
  Speaker 11: to choke them to death. and then stomped and kicked
• 13:37
  Speaker 11: them with steel-toed boots. Four days later, police were led
• 13:41
  Speaker 11: to their mutilated bodies by a call to the Crimestoppers'
• 13:44
  Speaker 11: tip line. Further information led them to the gang members.
• 13:48
  Speaker 7: We hit them around 4 o'clock in the morning, 4.30
• 13:50
  Speaker 7: in the morning, all at the same time.
• 13:53
  Speaker 11: Detective Ray Zaragoza and his partner were given the arrest
• 13:56
  Speaker 11: warrant for 18-year-old Peter Cantu. He was considered the ringleader.
• 14:01
  Speaker 11: They found evidence from the crime in his room.
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: We go to his room, there he is on the bed,
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: you know, and we arrest him at the time. And then,
• 14:11
  Speaker 7: you know, we're looking around, and in plain sight, on
• 14:16
  Speaker 7: top of a dresser, we see all this jewelry and rings.
• 14:19
  Speaker 11: Jennifer's goofy watch that her parents had given her, her
• 14:22
  Speaker 11: necklaces and rings, and Cantu's steel-toed work boots were in
• 14:27
  Speaker 11: his room. 17-year-olds Efren Perez and Raul Villarreal, 18-year-old Jose
• 14:33
  Speaker 11: Medellin and his 14-year-old brother Venancio and 18-year-old Derek Sean
• 14:39
  Speaker 11: O'Brien were also arrested and coordinated operations that morning. Police
• 14:44
  Speaker 11: later learned O'Brien had returned to the crime scene.
• 14:48
  Speaker 7: I remember telling the crime scene unit at the time
• 14:51
  Speaker 7: because I'd watched TV and I'd watched the detective things
• 14:55
  Speaker 7: and I remember saying that Usually, the criminals are always
• 15:00
  Speaker 7: at the scene after something happens. And I remember that.
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: And I told the crime scene, hey, can you take
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: a picture of everybody that's on the railroad tracks, stuff
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: like that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 8: I said, okay.
• 15:14
  Speaker 7: Well, later on we found out O'Brien was up there.
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: And I said, wow, I guess it is true that
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: They hang around like that. So that's how we found
• 15:26
  Speaker 7: out about him. He was up there laughing.
• 15:27
  Speaker 11: O'Brien wasn't laughing when he and three of the six
• 15:30
  Speaker 11: suspects were walked back to jail after their initial arraignment.
• 15:35
  Speaker 11: He kept his head down. Peter Cantu, the alleged ringleader,
• 15:39
  Speaker 11: was not as measured. He lashed out at reporters and photographers,
• 15:44
  Speaker 11: an outburst that showed his age and his anger.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: I think he was proud of what he did. He
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: was such a... They were all such evil people is.
• 15:56
  Speaker 14: All I can say.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Who in their right mind would do anything like that?
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: You had to be evil.
• 16:09
  Speaker 11: Six teenage boys ranging in age from 18 to as
• 16:13
  Speaker 11: young as 14 were arrested a day after the remains
• 16:16
  Speaker 11: of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena were found. But justice
• 16:21
  Speaker 11: would not come easy. What seemed like a slam dunk
• 16:24
  Speaker 11: for convictions took many twists and turns. The murders struck
• 16:30
  Speaker 11: fear into the community.
• 16:32
  Speaker 8: This case is a real gut-wrencher.
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: They were just walking home, just walking home, not even
• 16:37
  Speaker 7: that far away.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: And somebody has to do.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: That to them.
• 16:40
  Speaker 9: Why, you know?
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Definitely didn't want to go out, didn't want to, you know,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: didn't feel safe.
• 16:48
  Speaker 11: And in a city numb to daily violence, the girls'
• 16:52
  Speaker 11: deaths hit differently.
• 16:54
  Speaker 9: You had visual images of the pain on the parents
• 16:58
  Speaker 9: and because they became everybody's daughter. And it just hit
• 17:05
  Speaker 9: home with everybody.
• 17:07
  Speaker 14: These are kids and you're thinking, how does this happen?
• 17:11
  Speaker 14: You know, we've had bad crimes in Houston. We had
• 17:14
  Speaker 14: a lot of bad crimes in Houston while I was there.
• 17:17
  Speaker 14: a prosecutor as well as a judge, but nothing.
• 17:21
  Speaker 15: Compared to this.
• 17:22
  Speaker 11: So offensive that even other inmates made their disapproval known
• 17:26
  Speaker 11: by marking the suspects' jail jumpsuits with slurs. Prosecutor Don
• 17:31
  Speaker 11: Smith would soon be strategizing for trial.
• 17:34
  Speaker 14: I was off at Boy Scout summer camp with my troop,
• 17:37
  Speaker 14: and I got a call from my investigator.
• 17:38
  Speaker 15: It says, you won't believe what happened, and it fell
• 17:43
  Speaker 15: in our division.
• 17:45
  Speaker 11: Out in the community, people gathered for vigils and at
• 17:48
  Speaker 11: memorials in honor of the two murdered girls. The Ertmans
• 17:52
  Speaker 11: and Peñas almost always attended. The outpouring of sympathy was comforting.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Oh my God, we got letters from all over the world.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: People with their condolences telling us that they were sorry
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: for what happened.
• 18:08
  Speaker 11: Hundreds of people paid their respects at the funerals. Jennifer
• 18:11
  Speaker 11: was laid to rest first, followed by Elizabeth the next day. Coincidentally,
• 18:16
  Speaker 11: they are buried at the same cemetery within sight of
• 18:19
  Speaker 11: each other. For Adolph Pena, some memories never fade.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: I remember the last time we took her to a beach,
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: we went to Florida. And for some odd reason, it
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: was not long after that she got killed. And for
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: some odd reason, I can still see her face. in
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: the backseat of that van when we were coming home.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: And I don't know why I'll always remember that. She
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: had such a good time at the beach with all
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: our friends. And I'll never forget that. In the rearview mirror,
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: the look on her face, she was just so happy.
• 18:58
  Speaker 8: Peter Cantu charged.
• 19:00
  Speaker 11: With- Within seven months, the case against Peter Cantu was
• 19:02
  Speaker 11: going to trial and the others weren't far behind. It
• 19:06
  Speaker 11: was unprecedented. Venancio confessed and agreed to testify against all
• 19:11
  Speaker 11: the defendants except his brother. He was not charged in
• 19:14
  Speaker 11: connection with Elizabeth's rape and was given a 40-year sentence
• 19:18
  Speaker 11: for sexually assaulting Jennifer. The maximum sentence allowed for a
• 19:22
  Speaker 11: juvenile in Texas. But there was a catch that didn't
• 19:26
  Speaker 11: sit well with Jennifer's parents. Just before he turned 18,
• 19:29
  Speaker 11: a judge could transfer him to adult prison or release
• 19:33
  Speaker 11: him on parole. He remains in prison today. He was
• 19:37
  Speaker 11: the state's key witness.
• 19:42
  Speaker 14: He told the story to me and gave the written
• 19:45
  Speaker 14: confession because he was genuinely remorseful for what happened. And
• 19:51
  Speaker 14: he was important to our case because he's the only
• 19:54
  Speaker 14: one that, as far as I.
• 19:56
  Speaker 15: Know, that Peter Cantu said, look, you know, Vinnie, you
• 20:01
  Speaker 15: can't go with us back into the woods. We're going
• 20:04
  Speaker 15: to have to kill him. You stay out here. You're
• 20:07
  Speaker 15: too young to see.
• 20:08
  Speaker 11: Benancio Medellin testified against everyone except his older brother, Jose.
• 20:13
  Speaker 11: With their star witness secured, the state needed more background
• 20:17
  Speaker 11: on Peter Cantu. He was the first defendant to go
• 20:21
  Speaker 11: to trial.
• 20:22
  Speaker 14: So we had to go back and dig it all.
• 20:23
  Speaker 14: So you go through everything and, you know, start finding
• 20:28
  Speaker 14: juvenile records, go.
• 20:29
  Speaker 15: To their schools, talk to the principals, school teachers, anybody that,
• 20:33
  Speaker 15: you know, any follow-up, anything you don't.
• 20:37
  Speaker 14: What kind of person, has he been a danger to
• 20:40
  Speaker 14: the community all his life or not?
• 20:43
  Speaker 13: And what did you find about Peter Cantu?
• 20:45
  Speaker 14: Oh, we found, you know, Peter's life of crime began
• 20:48
  Speaker 14: back in elementary school.
• 20:51
  Speaker 11: According to testimony, Cantu assaulted a female teacher and then
• 20:54
  Speaker 11: bullied her. He had been kicked out of school, he
• 20:57
  Speaker 11: was already on probation for assault, and he had his
• 21:00
  Speaker 11: parents fooled.
• 21:01
  Speaker 13: Was Peter a follower or a leader?
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: I don't think he was a leader.
• 21:07
  Speaker 15: He was, no doubt in my mind, he was a ringleader.
• 21:10
  Speaker 14: You know, he was kind of a dominating personality with them.
• 21:15
  Speaker 11: It all came to a head on that hot summer
• 21:17
  Speaker 11: night in the park. Smith knew what his final argument
• 21:21
  Speaker 11: would be well before a jury was ever seated.
• 21:24
  Speaker 14: The girls, you know, they never got to graduate from
• 21:29
  Speaker 14: high school, senior prom, go off to, if they were
• 21:33
  Speaker 14: going to go to college, go to college and try
• 21:34
  Speaker 14: to be what they were going to be, get married.
• 21:37
  Speaker 15: Have a wedding, you know, raise children, have their own child,
• 21:44
  Speaker 15: give their parents a grandchild. They never had a chance
• 21:48
  Speaker 15: to do any of that.
• 21:50
  Speaker 11: Most days the courtroom was packed, the hallway overflowing. There
• 21:54
  Speaker 11: were the Ertmans and Peñas, their supporters, and even the
• 21:57
  Speaker 11: girls' friends and teachers from Waltrip High School.
• 22:01
  Speaker 9: What you're seeing is a death of young girls, but
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: what you're seeing is a death of a family.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: As well.
• 22:06
  Speaker 9: It's gut-wrenching for the Ertmans and the Peñas to sit
• 22:11
  Speaker 9: through this.
• 22:12
  Speaker 11: The testimony was grueling. The two fathers, Randy Ertman and
• 22:15
  Speaker 11: Adolph Peña, often sought comfort in each other. Gut-wrenching details
• 22:20
  Speaker 11: of how Jennifer and Elizabeth suffered were just too much
• 22:23
  Speaker 11: to bear. The crime scene photos were worse.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: I never looked at any of the photos, even just
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: hearing the testimony. That was bad enough.
• 22:34
  Speaker 11: State District Judge Bill Harmon presided.
• 22:36
  Speaker 13: And what was your impression of Peter Cantu?
• 22:42
  Speaker 8: He was a very, very violent individual.
• 22:47
  Speaker 11: Harmon denied a defense request for a change of venue,
• 22:50
  Speaker 11: reasoning even with all the pretrial publicity, potential jurors only
• 22:54
  Speaker 11: knew the victims' names and faces.
• 22:57
  Speaker 16: There were five adult defendants. and one juvenile defendant, so
• 23:01
  Speaker 16: they didn't really know those names.
• 23:03
  Speaker 11: Cantu would break a smile as he entered the courtroom
• 23:06
  Speaker 11: and would often scribble in a notebook. His defense team
• 23:09
  Speaker 11: had to manage him.
• 23:11
  Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean, we're worried about him behaving during trial.
• 23:13
  Speaker 17: You know, here's that famous incident where he kicks at
• 23:17
  Speaker 17: the cameraman, you know, when he's being led in and
• 23:19
  Speaker 17: out of a jail. And we always sort of use
• 23:21
  Speaker 17: that as an example of what not to do. I
• 23:23
  Speaker 17: don't care what anybody says to you or how you
• 23:26
  Speaker 17: feel about the testimony. All you can do is just
• 23:29
  Speaker 17: be neutral, be calm, and not give them a reason
• 23:32
  Speaker 17: to be mad at you in the courtroom. So yeah,
• 23:35
  Speaker 17: we had that as a constant concern.
• 23:37
  Speaker 11: The defense didn't call a single witness. The evidence against
• 23:40
  Speaker 11: Cantu was overwhelming and even included testimony from his own
• 23:44
  Speaker 11: brother describing how Cantu and the others bragged about the
• 23:49
  Speaker 11: girls' murders.
• 23:50
  Speaker 17: We didn't have an alibi. We didn't have self-defense. You know,
• 23:53
  Speaker 17: we didn't have some of the traditional defenses that you
• 23:56
  Speaker 17: might have, so we just had to put the state
• 23:58
  Speaker 17: to their proof. And in all honesty, the defendant's family
• 24:02
  Speaker 17: coming in to testify made it difficult.
• 24:05
  Speaker 8: So if what we.
• 24:07
  Speaker 17: Were really concerned about was trying to keep from getting
• 24:10
  Speaker 17: the death penalty, we couldn't lose our credibility in the
• 24:13
  Speaker 17: guilt innocence phase by taking some outlandish position.
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: Eyewitness News reporter Elma Barrera has been following every gripping
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: moment of the trial, and she's joining us live now
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: from the Harris County Courthouse with the verdict.
• 24:25
  Speaker 11: After four days of trial and less than 30 minutes
• 24:28
  Speaker 11: of deliberation, there was a verdict.
• 24:30
  Speaker 8: Randy Ertman sobbed. The drama was yet to come.
• 24:49
  Speaker 11: Five adult defendants charged with capital murder and one had
• 24:53
  Speaker 11: already been convicted less than a year after Jennifer Ertman
• 24:57
  Speaker 11: and Elizabeth Pena were raped, strangled, and stomped to death.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Who in their right mind would do anything like that?
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: You had to be evil.
• 25:06
  Speaker 11: The question was whether Peter Cantu would be sentenced to die.
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: My job is to administer justice.
• 25:12
  Speaker 13: And do you think it was done in the Peter
• 25:14
  Speaker 13: Cantu case?
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: Oh, absolutely.
• 25:17
  Speaker 10: Absolutely.
• 25:18
  Speaker 11: It took four hours for the jury to return a
• 25:20
  Speaker 11: death sentence.
• 25:22
  Speaker 17: I think he always knew that he was going to
• 25:23
  Speaker 17: get the death penalty.
• 25:24
  Speaker 11: But first, Judge Harmon made an unprecedented offer.
• 25:28
  Speaker 9: He goes, what do you think if when the jury
• 25:31
  Speaker 9: comes back with a decision, if I allow Mr. Ertman
• 25:34
  Speaker 9: to say a few words? And I just went, I
• 25:38
  Speaker 9: think he would be, he would love that.
• 25:41
  Speaker 16: I asked each one of them if they wanted to
• 25:43
  Speaker 16: have an opportunity to make a statement. Before I impose
• 25:48
  Speaker 16: a sentence and Randy Ertman said he did. And Adolph
• 25:52
  Speaker 16: Pena said he did not.
• 25:55
  Speaker 11: The weight and emotion of Randy Ertman took over the courtroom.
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: We didn't know what was going to happen.
• 26:01
  Speaker 11: In a booming voice, he berated Peter Cantu.
• 26:05
  Speaker 10: Yes, sir, I do.
• 26:08
  Speaker 11: You know, there's a lot of children back here, and
• 26:10
  Speaker 11: I'm going to put myself down a new level.
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: I'm not going to call you sir.
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: I'm not going to call you a fag.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: You can look at me if you want.
• 26:17
  Speaker 8: Look at me!
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: Look!
• 26:22
  Speaker 16: You're not even an animal.
• 26:23
  Speaker 10: You know, I have cats that kill animals.
• 26:26
  Speaker 16: They kill animals like you.
• 26:27
  Speaker 10: It's no worse than that.
• 26:28
  Speaker 7: You're a.
• 26:31
  Speaker 13: Fag.
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: Excuse me.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Look at me.
• 26:38
  Speaker 11: Those excruciating moments in the courtroom in 1994 made way
• 26:42
  Speaker 11: for future victim impact statements in Texas.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: You destroy the life, you destroy my life, you destroy
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: the wife's life, you destroy.
• 26:49
  Speaker 11: His, credited with being the first, the Peñas believed that
• 26:53
  Speaker 11: day Ertman said it all. Today, such statements are standard
• 26:57
  Speaker 11: procedure at the end of a trial.
• 26:59
  Speaker 10: You're worse than anything I've ever seen in my life.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: And I hope that God, and this is wrong too,
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: that you rot in hell. Do you understand that? Just
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: nod your head if you can even think.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: About talking, boy.
• 27:12
  Speaker 16: It was just the right thing to do at that
• 27:15
  Speaker 16: particular time and that particular case with that particular father.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: He was a force of his own.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: He was something else. Randy Artman was something else.
• 27:32
  Speaker 11: With Peter Cantu convicted and sentenced to die, Derek Sean O'Brien,
• 27:36
  Speaker 11: a ninth grade dropout with a criminal history, was next up.
• 27:41
  Speaker 11: But before the April 1994 trial began, Houston police said
• 27:45
  Speaker 11: they linked him to another brutal crime.
• 27:48
  Speaker 9: We found out that he was implicated in another murder
• 27:52
  Speaker 9: of Patricia Lopez.
• 27:54
  Speaker 11: Patricia Lopez was a 27-year-old mother of two children. Her
• 27:58
  Speaker 11: partially new body was found in another Houston park in
• 28:01
  Speaker 11: January of 1993, six months before Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth
• 28:06
  Speaker 11: Pena were murdered. Lopez had been stabbed and her throat slit.
• 28:11
  Speaker 11: According to police, they found a beer can with O'Brien's
• 28:14
  Speaker 11: fingerprints at the scene and later discovered, they say, that
• 28:18
  Speaker 11: Jose Medellin's DNA matched DNA found on Lopez's body. While
• 28:23
  Speaker 11: no one was charged with her murder, prosecutors presented those
• 28:27
  Speaker 11: details during sentencing in O'Brien and Medellin's trials for the
• 28:31
  Speaker 11: murders of Jennifer and Elizabeth. The autopsy indicated Lopez, small
• 28:37
  Speaker 11: in stature, tried to fight off her attackers.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: This was nothing new to them. They had done it before.
• 28:45
  Speaker 11: O'Brien, who is now 19, was found guilty of capital murders.
• 28:49
  Speaker 11: It took less than 30 minutes for the jury to
• 28:51
  Speaker 11: sentence him to death, the second of the six suspects
• 28:55
  Speaker 11: to be condemned. Elizabeth's parents thought it was too easy.
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: Why can't they put a belt around their neck?
• 29:02
  Speaker 8: Why can't they.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: Stomp them down with their feet like that, stomp them
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: down to the ground until they're dead? And why not
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: lay them later for an hour and.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Let them die?
• 29:09
  Speaker 11: 14-year-old Venancio Medin pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of
• 29:14
  Speaker 11: Jennifer Ertmann. He testified against everyone except his brother, and
• 29:19
  Speaker 11: as a juvenile, was sentenced to 40 years in prison
• 29:22
  Speaker 11: with the possibility of parole when he turned 18. 18-year-old
• 29:26
  Speaker 11: Peter Cantu, the ringleader, was convicted of capital murder and
• 29:30
  Speaker 11: sentenced to die, as was Derek Sean O'Brien. It was
• 29:35
  Speaker 11: then decided for convenience that Jose Medellin, Efren Perez, and
• 29:39
  Speaker 11: Raul Villarreal would be tried at the same time in
• 29:42
  Speaker 11: the same courthouse, but in different courtrooms with different judges
• 29:46
  Speaker 11: and juries. This so that witnesses wouldn't have to keep
• 29:50
  Speaker 11: coming back.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: The last three, they ran simultaneously, and so we were
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: all split up in different courtrooms. I went to Medellin,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: I think you were in Villarreal. And then Randy and
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Sandy were in Perez. And the whole scheme of things
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: to get it done in one week, it made it
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: easier on probably us as victims and the prosecutors and
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: just all the people that had testified to have them
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: there and just go from one courtroom to another to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: another and just get it all done.
• 30:29
  Speaker 11: While the gristly details were confined to the courtroom.
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: The tension spilled over into the courthouse hallways.
• 30:35
  Speaker 8: You belong in hell.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: We live for the day that you die.
• 31:03
  Speaker 11: Medina, Pettis and Villarreal were all convicted. That was the given,
• 31:07
  Speaker 11: according to courthouse observers.
• 31:09
  Speaker 8: Hope you rot in hell.
• 31:10
  Speaker 11: Whether they would get the death penalty was the real question.
• 31:13
  Speaker 11: The five who were eligible did.
• 31:16
  Speaker 9: And in modern day crime history, that is the most
• 31:21
  Speaker 9: death penalties ever in a singular criminal incident still to
• 31:27
  Speaker 9: this day.
• 31:28
  Speaker 11: The sentences were victories, but they wouldn't stand forever.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: We had that sentence, and then it's like, nope, took
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: it away.
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: That was terrible.
• 31:44
  Speaker 11: Six teenagers, five adults under Texas law, and one juvenile.
• 31:49
  Speaker 11: By October of 1994, they were on their way to prison.
• 31:53
  Speaker 11: The five adults with death sentences, the juvenile with a
• 31:57
  Speaker 11: 40-year term. In just 16 months, justice for Jennifer Ertman
• 32:02
  Speaker 11: and Elizabeth Pena, two sweet and beautiful teens who suffered
• 32:06
  Speaker 11: in their last moments, had been served and their parents
• 32:10
  Speaker 11: thought the courthouse was behind them. Andy Kahn is a
• 32:13
  Speaker 11: longtime crime victims advocate who worked for the city of
• 32:16
  Speaker 11: Houston at the time. He befriended and often spoke for
• 32:21
  Speaker 11: the girls' families.
• 32:23
  Speaker 9: I still cringe to this day. It's still the worst
• 32:25
  Speaker 9: case I've ever, ever dealt with, read, or had privy
• 32:30
  Speaker 9: to be on the inside to still to this day.
• 32:33
  Speaker 8: We think that these girls happened along.
• 32:35
  Speaker 10: And that they were in positively the wrong place at
• 32:38
  Speaker 10: the wrong time.
• 32:39
  Speaker 11: The murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena shook Houston.
• 32:43
  Speaker 11: The winding road to justice was frustrating. With convictions, Jennifer's father,
• 32:48
  Speaker 11: Randy Ertman, turned his attention to when the sentences would
• 32:53
  Speaker 11: be carried out.
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: And he goes, hey, you know, I'd really like to
• 32:58
  Speaker 9: be there when they execute these guys. Can I do that?
• 33:02
  Speaker 9: And I say, and I pause and I say, trust me, uh,
• 33:05
  Speaker 9: He didn't say it so nicely or politely, and I
• 33:09
  Speaker 9: probably cleaned up that entire sentence for him. But I stopped,
• 33:15
  Speaker 9: I said, you know, that's a really good question.
• 33:18
  Speaker 15: I said, let me look, let me find out.
• 33:21
  Speaker 9: So I go back and I look, and I find
• 33:24
  Speaker 9: out that victims' families were specifically prohibited by policy. They,
• 33:31
  Speaker 9: along with other inmates, were the only categories of people
• 33:37
  Speaker 9: not allowed to witness an execution.
• 33:39
  Speaker 11: The Ertmans, Peñas, and Kahn were determined to change that.
• 33:44
  Speaker 11: They found a sponsor for a bill, and the next
• 33:46
  Speaker 11: year they testified at a criminal justice committee hearing at
• 33:49
  Speaker 11: the state capitol in Austin. But politics being as they are,
• 33:54
  Speaker 11: the bill died due to behind-the-scenes infighting. Instead, Kahn found
• 33:59
  Speaker 11: another way.
• 34:00
  Speaker 9: So I went into plan B mode. all right, you
• 34:05
  Speaker 9: wouldn't pass the dang law. I'm going to get the
• 34:07
  Speaker 9: policy changed. I called the chairman of the Board of
• 34:10
  Speaker 9: Criminal Justice at that time, Alan Polonsky, whom Desiree Una
• 34:14
  Speaker 9: is now named after. I said, Alan, here's the situation.
• 34:18
  Speaker 9: Here's the deal. He listened to me. He said, all right,
• 34:21
  Speaker 9: I'm going to put you on the next Board of
• 34:22
  Speaker 9: Criminal Justice meeting. You come down, and he did. The Ehrmans,
• 34:27
  Speaker 9: the Peñas, and myself drove down to Corpus Christi, testified
• 34:32
  Speaker 9: in front of the nine-person board, They voted unanimously to
• 34:35
  Speaker 9: change the policy.
• 34:37
  Speaker 11: But it would be years before the Ertmans and Peñas
• 34:39
  Speaker 11: would witness anything. And in legal blows to the victims' families,
• 34:44
  Speaker 11: the executions of Efren Perez and Raul Villarreal would never come.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: I just don't think they deserve to be alive. I
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: really don't.
• 34:53
  Speaker 8: For what they did to my Elizabeth.
• 34:55
  Speaker 11: In 2005, more than 11 years after Jennifer Ertman and
• 34:59
  Speaker 11: Elizabeth Peña were murdered, The Supreme Court in another case,
• 35:03
  Speaker 11: Roper v. Simmons, ruled that executing a person under 18
• 35:07
  Speaker 11: at the time he or she committed a murder would
• 35:10
  Speaker 11: be a violation of the defendant's constitutional rights. The decision
• 35:14
  Speaker 11: applied to all 17-year-olds who had been convicted of murder,
• 35:18
  Speaker 11: so the sentences for Perez and Villarreal were commuted from
• 35:21
  Speaker 11: death to life with the possibility of parole. Life without
• 35:26
  Speaker 11: parole did not become an option in Texas until later
• 35:30
  Speaker 11: that year. Perez and Villarreal are eligible for parole in
• 35:34
  Speaker 11: the year 2029.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Totally against, you know, them being released early. You know,
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: they were sentenced and they need to do their sentence. And,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: you know, in full.
• 35:47
  Speaker 11: The next month, the victims' families were confronted with another obstacle.
• 35:51
  Speaker 11: Jose Medellin claimed since he was a Mexican national, He
• 35:55
  Speaker 11: should have had a representative from the Mexican consulate by
• 35:57
  Speaker 11: his side after his arrest. The Supreme Court agreed to
• 36:01
  Speaker 11: hear his case, only to dismiss it two months later.
• 36:05
  Speaker 11: His execution seemed on track until President George W. Bush,
• 36:09
  Speaker 11: the former governor of Texas, intervened and ordered hearings for
• 36:14
  Speaker 11: all 51 Mexican nationals on death row, including Medellin. Later,
• 36:19
  Speaker 11: the Supreme Court said the president overstepped his authority.
• 36:23
  Speaker 9: I mean, when you think about it, this was not
• 36:25
  Speaker 9: some ordinary appeal. This went all the way up to
• 36:28
  Speaker 9: the president. of the United States who is now intervening
• 36:33
  Speaker 9: in a death penalty case. That doesn't happen. To my knowledge,
• 36:38
  Speaker 9: it's never happened. It'll happen in a federal case, maybe,
• 36:41
  Speaker 9: but this is a state case.
• 36:44
  Speaker 11: In 2006, Derek Shawn O'Brien was the first to be executed.
• 36:48
  Speaker 11: The Ertmans and Peñas, who pushed for the right to
• 36:50
  Speaker 11: be witnesses, were there, along with Sergeant Zaragoza.
• 36:54
  Speaker 7: And, you know, what everybody says about.
• 36:59
  Speaker 7: How wrong it is and stuff like that, and how
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: animalistic it is. It's not like that.
• 37:11
  Speaker 9: They just go to sleep.
• 37:12
  Speaker 13: And how do you think that is compared to what
• 37:14
  Speaker 13: happened to the girls?
• 37:15
  Speaker 7: Oh, they got it out easy on that one. But
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: girls had to suffer. And I mean suffer, too.
• 37:22
  Speaker 11: But O'Brien was the only one who gave what Adolph
• 37:24
  Speaker 11: Peña thought at the time was a heartfelt apology. And
• 37:27
  Speaker 11: that same year, Peter Cantu got his execution date from
• 37:31
  Speaker 11: trial judge Bill Harmon.
• 37:33
  Speaker 8: He was brought before me in the 178th.
• 37:35
  Speaker 16: I obviously hadn't seen Cantu since 1994. This was 12
• 37:41
  Speaker 16: years later. In my opinion, he was just as deserving
• 37:46
  Speaker 16: of the death penalty in 2006 as he was deserving
• 37:49
  Speaker 16: in 1994. And so I set his execution date.
• 37:53
  Speaker 8: And he was executed.
• 37:55
  Speaker 11: In 2010, 17 years after the crimes, Cantu, the angry
• 38:00
  Speaker 11: ringleader who decided the girls would have to die, was executed.
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: It just made you feel a little bit at ease,
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: you know, that somebody that killed your daughter is no
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: longer alive. That just relieves me.
• 38:17
  Speaker 11: His trial attorney believes Cantu was misunderstood. His actions, the
• 38:21
  Speaker 11: product of his age and environment, as federal judge Keith
• 38:25
  Speaker 11: Ellison alluded to, Morrow points out, in deciding his habeas petition,
• 38:30
  Speaker 11: which was denied.
• 38:31
  Speaker 17: You know, he had time to grow and become a
• 38:33
  Speaker 17: man and reflect on what he'd done, and I think
• 38:35
  Speaker 17: he was very remorseful.
• 38:37
  Speaker 11: In the end, he had only one last word.
• 38:40
  Speaker 9: And I asked Cantu, do you have any last words,
• 38:43
  Speaker 9: anything you'd like to say?
• 38:45
  Speaker 8: I will never forget.
• 38:47
  Speaker 9: He looks up to the ceiling like, I'm doing that,
• 38:50
  Speaker 9: and he goes, nah.
• 38:52
  Speaker 8: Just like that, nah.
• 38:54
  Speaker 11: Cantu's the last of the executions. Two years earlier, and
• 38:58
  Speaker 11: after his last-minute appeals were rejected, Medellin was executed. The
• 39:03
  Speaker 11: Peñas and Ertmans had made three trips to the Texas
• 39:06
  Speaker 11: death chamber. The Ertmans did not stop for interviews afterward.
• 39:11
  Speaker 15: On a personal level, it's frustrating as a family member
• 39:13
  Speaker 15: to know that this young man, this man has lived
• 39:16
  Speaker 15: 15 years behind bars, almost as long as my cousin
• 39:19
  Speaker 15: was alive before he ended her life.
• 39:20
  Speaker 8: That's frustrating, yes.
• 39:23
  Speaker 11: O'Brien, Medeen and Cantu are buried in Captain Joe Bird
• 39:26
  Speaker 11: Cemetery in Huntsville, the largest prison cemetery. in the state
• 39:30
  Speaker 11: of Texas, and for prisoners whose families won't claim them.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: They were bad, and they weren't going to get any better.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, you never forget, but you have to move on.
• 39:47
  Speaker 11: For 30 years, Melissa and Adolph Pena have learned to
• 39:50
  Speaker 11: live without their oldest daughter, Elizabeth.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: She's still part of our life, even if she's not here.
• 39:57
  Speaker 11: Their two younger children kept them going.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: We still had things we had to do. Got to
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: get up and take the kids to school. There's after-school activities,
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: there's this and there's that.
• 40:10
  Speaker 11: But for Sandra and Randy Ertman, Jennifer was all they had.
• 40:13
  Speaker 14: The Ertmans had worked so hard to have a child.
• 40:17
  Speaker 14: And they had a child, a beautiful young girl, 14
• 40:20
  Speaker 14: years old.
• 40:22
  Speaker 15: And that was the end of the line. I mean,
• 40:25
  Speaker 15: that branch on that tree doesn't go any further.
• 40:29
  Speaker 11: They never hid their pain. Instead, they and the Peñas
• 40:32
  Speaker 11: harnessed it for change.
• 40:34
  Speaker 9: Two things, positive things, you know, spurred on from the
• 40:40
  Speaker 9: Ertman Peña case. And that's victim impact statements and, you know,
• 40:44
  Speaker 9: the ability to witness executions. They're responsible for.
• 40:48
  Speaker 15: That, and that.
• 40:50
  Speaker 9: Will be here about a time way before I'm gone
• 40:54
  Speaker 9: and whatever. That will always be here. And they did it.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: It was time, you know, that victims' families were just
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: not ignored and, you know, that we have a say-so
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: in things now. You know, it helps to have a voice.
• 41:12
  Speaker 11: No other case has given victims war rights in Texas.
• 41:37
  Speaker 10: My name is Benance Medin, Jr.
• 41:42
  Speaker 12: I was the 14-year-old kid that was involved in this case,
• 41:46
  Speaker 12: you know, 30 years ago.
• 41:48
  Speaker 13: So you're 44 now. Yes, ma'am. It's a long time.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 41:52
  Speaker 11: Venancio Medellin has spent three decades in prison and for
• 41:55
  Speaker 11: the first time agreed to an interview.
• 41:58
  Speaker 12: Maybe people can see that, you know, I'm not the
• 42:01
  Speaker 12: 14-year-old kid that I was back then, that at some
• 42:03
  Speaker 12: point I turned into a man and I grew up.
• 42:06
  Speaker 11: He said that fateful night in June was the first
• 42:08
  Speaker 11: time he had ever hung out with his brother, Jose Medellin,
• 42:11
  Speaker 11: and his friends.
• 42:13
  Speaker 10: I mean, we're all guilty.
• 42:14
  Speaker 11: He confessed to aggravated sexual assault of Jennifer Ertman and
• 42:19
  Speaker 11: testified against everyone except his brother.
• 42:22
  Speaker 13: Why didn't you leave? Why didn't you stop it? Why
• 42:25
  Speaker 13: didn't you try to get help?
• 42:27
  Speaker 10: We were pretty much in a secluded area. So I
• 42:33
  Speaker 10: didn't really become assertive with it, with.
• 42:38
  Speaker 12: The idea of leaving, because at the same time, even
• 42:42
  Speaker 12: though I wanted to be accepted, by my brother and
• 42:44
  Speaker 12: his friends, I also was intimidated.
• 42:48
  Speaker 10: I was afraid that they might turn on me.
• 42:51
  Speaker 12: I remember when, like Raul, Sean, they put a belt
• 42:57
  Speaker 12: around one of the girls, like her neck, and I
• 43:00
  Speaker 12: started seeing that. And one of the other girls was
• 43:05
  Speaker 12: taken further back into the woods, so I couldn't see them.
• 43:09
  Speaker 10: But I do remember seeing, you know, that part.
• 43:14
  Speaker 13: And at the time, what was your reaction?
• 43:20
  Speaker 10: I was frozen.
• 43:21
  Speaker 12: I was stuck. You know, I couldn't do nothing. You know,
• 43:26
  Speaker 12: I wasn't going to step in then because then for
• 43:28
  Speaker 12: surely I thought they would.
• 43:29
  Speaker 10: Return on me.
• 43:29
  Speaker 13: I mean, Jennifer was your same age.
• 43:33
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 43:34
  Speaker 10: Yes, she was. And, you know, I understand that.
• 43:42
  Speaker 12: It's hard to to express sometimes because anything that I
• 43:48
  Speaker 12: say that I feel that might be a sad feeling
• 43:53
  Speaker 12: or a negative feeling or a negative thought, you know,
• 43:56
  Speaker 12: is dwarfed by what Jennifer and Elizabeth went through. So
• 44:02
  Speaker 12: it's almost like what I felt or thought, it's nothing,
• 44:05
  Speaker 12: you know, because they felt the pain, they felt the
• 44:07
  Speaker 12: hurt and the loneliness of that night and everything.
• 44:12
  Speaker 10: It's amplified. compared to what I feel or feel currently.
• 44:17
  Speaker 10: But still, I would want.
• 44:19
  Speaker 12: To express that I'm sorry for what happened.
• 44:26
  Speaker 10: But I can't take it back. I wish that I could,
• 44:28
  Speaker 10: but I cannot.
• 44:30
  Speaker 11: Medin brought his certificates for a GED and an associate's degree.
• 44:34
  Speaker 11: He is an artist at the prison and is proud
• 44:37
  Speaker 11: of his airbrushing skills. This mural is in the visitation room.
• 44:42
  Speaker 11: He said he stayed away from gangs and prison tattoos
• 44:45
  Speaker 11: because out of all of those involved, he is the
• 44:48
  Speaker 11: only one who has an end date on his sentence.
• 44:51
  Speaker 12: If I didn't see that light at the end of
• 44:53
  Speaker 12: the tunnel, even though that light was so far ahead,
• 44:55
  Speaker 12: so far away that it was just a tiny little speck,
• 44:59
  Speaker 12: I knew that there was hope somewhere at some point.
• 45:05
  Speaker 12: I didn't know when it was going to be. I
• 45:07
  Speaker 12: still don't know when it's going to be, but the
• 45:08
  Speaker 12: light is getting closer. And that's always kept me, you know,
• 45:14
  Speaker 12: level-headed and always trying to do the right thing.
• 45:18
  Speaker 11: Venancio Medellin is housed at the same unit as Texas'
• 45:21
  Speaker 11: death row. He was last denied parole in October of 2020.
• 45:26
  Speaker 11: He will complete his full sentence in 2033. The Peñas
• 45:31
  Speaker 11: are skeptical he can reintegrate and plan to fight any release.
• 45:36
  Speaker 11: Efren Perez and Raul Villarreal, both 17 when they became killers,
• 45:41
  Speaker 11: are now nearing 50 years old. They are eligible for
• 45:45
  Speaker 11: parole in the year 2029.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: What have they done that they deserve to be released early?
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I don't care if they're a model prisoner. They sure
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: as hell weren't model citizens.
• 46:18
  Speaker 11: For 30 years, family and friends have lived with the
• 46:21
  Speaker 11: memories of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena, and they have
• 46:26
  Speaker 11: honored them in their own ways.
• 46:30
  Speaker 13: Why did you want to name Elizabeth? Your daughter after Jennifer?
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: To keep her memory alive. To make sure that her
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: parents knew that I was never going to, you know,
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: forget about her.
• 46:46
  Speaker 11: Randy Ertman died in 2014 from lung cancer.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: We bonded because we knew what the other was going through.
• 46:56
  Speaker 11: He was a protective father, fierce ally, and friend.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: He was a force of his own.
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: He was something else. Randy Artman was something else. He
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: contributed so much to this case.
• 47:11
  Speaker 11: The horror that happened in the dark woods at a
• 47:13
  Speaker 11: Houston park was unimaginable. The murders of Jennifer Artman and
• 47:18
  Speaker 11: Elizabeth Pena, one of the most notorious crimes in Texas history.
• 47:23
  Speaker 11: Their innocent faces, unforgettable.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: I hope that.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: They'll always remember the two girls because they were innocent.
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: They didn't deserve this. And I hope to God that
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: people will always remember the two girls, Elizabeth and Jennifer.