Raul Omar Villarreal

Case overview

Raul Omar Villarreal was 17 years of age when he participated in the gang rape and murder of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, in Harris County, Texas on June 24, 1993.

Villarreal was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death on September 22, 1994. His execution date was set for June 24, 2004, the eleventh anniversary of the crimes, by State District Judge Mike Anderson. Anderson stated: "I am setting that date for your execution. That may give you some idea how they feel about that date."

The offence

On the evening of June 24, 1993, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, left a friend’s apartment and were taking a shortcut home through the woods when they encountered Villarreal and other members of the so-called “Black and White” gang. All six gang members were engaged in a gang initiation rite for Villarreal. The gang had spent the evening drinking and “jumping in” Villarreal, requiring him to fight all of the other members until he lost consciousness.

At trial it was shown that Villarreal had fought three members before losing consciousness briefly. After stumbling across the Black and White gang, each girl was repeatedly raped by the gang for the next hour. The girls were then strangled, beaten, and kicked to death.

The girls were last seen by friends about 11:15 at night, when they left a friend's apartment to head home to beat summer curfew at 11:30. They knew they would be late if they took the normal path home down W. 34th Street to T.C. Jester. They also knew they would have to pass a sexually-oriented business on that route and so decided to take a well-known shortcut down a railroad track and through a city park to Elizabeth's neighborhood.

While Jennifer and Elizabeth were alive, their last few hours included the initiation of a new member. Peter Cantu, Efrain Perez, Derrick Sean O'Brien, Joe Medellin, and Joe’s 14 year old brother were initiating a new member, Raul Villareal, into their gang, known as the Black and Whites. Raul was an acquaintance of Efrain and was not known to the other gang members.

The group spent the evening drinking beer and then “jumping in” Raul, meaning the new member was required to fight every member of the gang until he passed out and then he would be accepted as a member. Testimony showed that Raul lasted through three of the members before briefly losing consciousness. The gang continued drinking and “shooting the breeze” for some time and then decided to leave. Two brothers who had been with them but testified that they were not in the gang left first and passed Jennifer and Elizabeth, who were unknowingly walking towards their deaths.

When Peter Cantu saw Jennifer and Elizabeth, he thought it was a man and a woman and told the other gang members that he wanted to jump him and beat him up. He was frustrated that he had been the one who was unable to fight Raul. The gang members ran and grabbed Elizabeth and pulled her down the incline, off of the tracks. Testimony showed that Jennifer had gotten free and could have run away but returned to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to help her.

For the next hour or so, the girls were subjected to gang rapes. The confessions of the gang members used at trial indicated that there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour. One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." Another boy boasted of having “virgin blood” on him.

The 14-year-old juvenile later testified that he had gone back and forth between his brother and Peter Cantu since they were the only ones there that he really knew and kept urging them to leave. He said he was told repeatedly by Peter Cantu to "get some". He raped Jennifer and was later sentenced to 40 years for aggravated sexual assault, which was the maximum sentence for a juvenile.

After the rapes ended, the gang members took Jennifer and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was “too little to watch”.

Jennifer was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of the belt was left at the murder scene, and the rest was found in O'Brien's home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish the killing. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn’t die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun".

Elizabeth was also strangled with her shoelaces. She had cried out and begged the gang members not to kill them, bargaining by offering to give them her phone number so they could get together again.

The medical examiner testified that Elizabeth's two front teeth were knocked out before she died and that two of Jennifer's ribs were broken after she had died. Testimony showed that the girls' bodies were kicked and their necks were stomped on after the strangulations to "make sure that they were really dead."

Investigation and location of the bodies

After the girls disappeared, the next morning their parents began to look for them, paging them on their pagers and calling their friends to see if they knew where they were. The families filed missing persons reports with the Houston Police Department and continued to look for the girls on their own.

The Ertmans and Penas gathered friends and neighbors to help them pass out a large stack of fliers with the girls' pictures all over the Houston area, including giving them to newspaper vendors on the roadside.

Four days after the girls disappeared, a person identifying himself as 'Gonzalez' called the Crimestoppers Tips number. He told the call taker that the missing girls' bodies could be found near T.C. Jester Park at White Oak bayou. Police were sent to the scene and searched the park without finding anything. A police helicopter was flying over the park and, according to the account, this prompted 'Gonzalez' to make a 911 call directing the search to move to the other side of the bayou. When police followed this suggestion, they found the badly decaying bodies of Jenny and Elizabeth.

The bodies were badly decomposed even for four days in Houston's summer heat and humidity, particularly in the head, neck and genital areas. The medical examiner later testified that this supported the brutality of the rapes, beatings and murders.

Who was found guilty and sentenced

Raul Villareal was one of the five gang members charged with capital murder in the case. His co-defendants were Peter Cantu, Joe Medellin, Sean O’Brien, and Efrain Perez. All were sentenced to death for the murders of Ertman and Pena.

After the murders, the other prosecution described that Medellin’s brother, Venancio, who was a juvenile, was also prosecuted and received a 40-year sentence.

In addition, the account described a 14-year-old juvenile who later testified and was sentenced to 40 years for aggravated sexual assault, the maximum sentence for a juvenile.

Trial

After the completion of the first two trials—Peter Cantu in January and Sean O’Brien in March 1994—the decision was made to try the remaining three defendants concurrently to save time and money.

Assistant District Attorney Don Smyth believed the trials were Harris County’s first simultaneous trials of three defendants. The three trials were held in separate courtrooms before separate judges and juries. They all started at various times on Monday, September 12, 1994.

Separate juries found Perez, Villareal, and Medellin, guilty of capital murder and sentenced them to death for the girls’ rapes and murders. There was intense media coverage surrounding all three trials.

Sean O’Brien’s lawyer stated that there was “just a little too much publicity for him to get a fair trial,” and that during jury selection more than 150 of about 180 potential jurors who were questioned had heard of the case.

Sentencing and current status

Villarreal was sentenced to death on September 22, 1994.

An execution date was set for June 24, 2004. State District Judge Mike Anderson set this date because the crime had made the girls' families and friends "dread the coming of June 24". When setting the date, Judge Anderson said: "I am setting that date for your execution.

Efrain Perez, a co-defendant and juvenile at the time of the crime, also received an execution date of June 23, 2004, one day before Raul Villareal. State District Judge Jim Wallace said: "I wanted to put the two days together so the families, if they are there, would not have to make two separate trips".

Harris County prosecutors asked judges to cancel Villarreal's execution date pending Simmons.

Aftermath

The account described changes in Texas criminal justice procedures as a result of the case. After the trial of Peter Cantu, Judge Bill Harmon allowed the family members to address the convicted, describing that this had not previously been done in Texas courts and that it was then done as a matter of routine.

The account also described that the Texas Department of Corrections instituted a policy allowing victims' families the choice and right to view the execution of their perpetrators.

Other details

Raul Villareal was described as a Latino male.

The victims attended Waltrip High School in Houston, Texas.

Two VERY important things in the criminal justice system were described as having changed after the murders: the allowance for family members to address the convicted, and the policy allowing victims' families the choice to view the execution of their perpetrators.

Charlene Hall was associated with MurderVictims.com in the account.