The national attention surrounding the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray has led a judge to consider limiting dissemination of information to protect the integrity of the case. 

On Sept. 11, Judge Josh Hill asked for parties involved to comply with rules regarding professional ethics when speaking about the capital murder case of Nungaray, a 12-year-old killed in Houston in June allegedly by two Venezuelan nationals, Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26. 

He stopped short of issuing a formal gag order against Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, employees of her office and law enforcement. 

Ogg has blamed the broken immigration system for Jocelyn’s death and called the suspects monsters.

In August, lawyers for defendant Peña Ramos, Lisa K. Andrews, Daniel J. Werlinger, and Cary H. Higginbotham, requested a gag order to prevent Ogg, her office and law enforcement agencies from commenting on the case. 

In arguments Wednesday, they accused Ogg of politicizing immigration. They argued the gag order would ensure the right to a fair trial. 

Hill said that his authority was limited to restrict parties from speaking about the case. He said he would not limit media access to the case or prevent the family from speaking out.

He did not grant the defense’s request for a gag order. Rather, he said he was drafting an order to require parties to comply with pre-established rules for professional conduct when speaking about the case. The official order from the judge was not yet published at the time of publication.

“My only request, and not order, would be that everybody’s aware that any public dissemination of information can potentially have an impact on the criminal prosecution and the sanctity of the proceedings that we have here.

“I’m not going to tell someone that they’re not allowed to share their pain,” Hill continued.

Mario Madrid, one of the defense lawyers for Martinez Rangel, told the media after the proceedings that he wanted his client to face a fair trial. 

“We don’t want this process to be politicized,” Madrid said. “We want a fair jury, and we can’t get that with people discussing the case when they don’t have any facts or evidence about it.”

Nungaray’s family, including her mother Alexis Nungaray, attended the hearing on Wednesday wearing shirts with her picture. “Look at her face,” one shouted to the defendants as they left the courtroom. 

The family did not address the media after the judge’s ruling. Ogg’s office declined to comment on the case after the ruling. 

Alexis Nungaray previously spoke at a Trump campaign rally, advocating for stricter immigration detention policies that she believes could have saved her daughter’s life. 

Joe Vinas, lawyer and president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said it will be difficult to find a fair jury, and officials like Ogg should not make it harder by speaking of the suspects as if they are already guilty. 

“The time for convincing people that these two individuals are guilty of the crimes they’re accused of comes when they’re in court and when they’re on trial. Not now,” Vinas said. 

A date for the trial has not yet been set. 

The immigration status of the suspects has launched the case into the national spotlight during an election year where immigration has taken center stage. Immigrant crime also became a key topic during the presidential debate Sept. 10. Trump claimed crime was up and that immigrants have “destroyed the fabric of our country.” FBI data shows that crime has decreased under the Biden administration.

Because of a strained diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela, it’s unclear if the defendants had a criminal record in their home country.

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