HOUSTON - State officials have denied parole for Venancio Medellin, the youngest of six gang members convicted of the vicious rapes and murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena in 1993,
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg made the announcement on Saturday, Nov. 14.
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“Venancio Medellin was spared from a death sentence because of his age when he helped five other gang members rape, strangle and stomp Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peńa to death on a hot summer night in Houston in 1993, but he should spend every day of the rest of his sentence locked up for everyone’s sake,” Ogg said.
He was sentenced under juvenile guidelines because he was 14 at the time of the crime. He is now 41 and has served 27 years of his 40-year sentence.
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Ogg personally signed a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole protesting any possible release earlier this year. Medellin has been denied parole five times now.
He was the youngest of six members of the so-called Black and White gang when they brutally raped and killed Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, in June 1993.
Five others were convicted of capital murder in the case.
Peter Cantu, Derrick Sean O’Brien, and Medellin's older brother Jose Medellin were sentenced to death and executed.
Raul Villareal and Efrain Perez were also sentenced to death but saw their punishment commuted to a life sentence because they were both 17 when the crime was committed.