Elizabeth Peña and Jennifer Ertman: Defendants, Executions, and Legacy

The Elizabeth Peña and Jennifer Ertman murders were the June 1993 gang-rape and killing of two Houston teenagers, 16-year-old Elizabeth Peña and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman, by six members of the Black and Whites street gang in T.C. Jester Park. All six were convicted. Three were executed by Texas between 2006 and 2010, two had their death sentences commuted to life in prison after a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barred the execution of juvenile offenders, and one, who was 14 at the time, received a 40-year prison sentence and remains incarcerated.

The Night of June 24, 1993

Members of the Black and Whites gathered at T.C. Jester Park in northwest Houston that evening for an initiation ceremony. The group included Peter Anthony Cantu (18), José Medellín (18), Derrick Sean O’Brien (18), Efrain Perez (17), Raul Omar Villarreal (17), and Medellín’s 14-year-old brother Venancio.¹

Around 11:30 p.m., Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña were cutting across nearby railroad tracks on their way home. José Medellín grabbed Elizabeth and dragged her down a hill. Jennifer ran back to help her friend and was seized as well. The gang members sexually assaulted both girls over the course of more than an hour. Cantu then told the others they would have to kill the victims to eliminate witnesses. The girls were taken into nearby woods and strangled. Cantu kicked Elizabeth in the face, knocking out several teeth, and stepped on Jennifer’s neck. Gang members took turns stomping on both girls’ necks to be sure they were dead.²

The bodies lay in the park for four days. When they were found on June 28, decomposition was so advanced that dental records were needed for identification. An autopsy attributed both deaths to neck trauma consistent with strangulation. Jennifer had three fractured ribs.¹

How the Killers Were Caught

The case broke through Peter Cantu’s own family. After the murders, Cantu and other gang members returned to his house and bragged about the killings to his brother Joe Cantu and Joe’s wife, Christina, while dividing up jewelry taken from the victims.² Christina pressed her husband to call the police. Joe Cantu phoned Crime Stoppers anonymously on June 28 with the location of the bodies. When officers initially searched the wrong area, he called back, and investigators traced the call to him.³

On June 29, law enforcement carried out simultaneous arrests at the suspects’ homes so none could warn the others. O’Brien tried to run out the back door of his apartment and was caught by waiting officers. Told he was under arrest for capital murder, he replied that he knew it was “about the two girls who were killed.” Police also recovered a torn red belt at his home that matched a partial belt found at the crime scene.¹

The Six Defendants and Their Sentences

All six participants were convicted in separate proceedings. Sentences turned on each defendant’s age and role.

Peter Anthony Cantu, identified as the ringleader, was convicted of capital murder in the 178th District Court in Harris County on February 3, 1994, and sentenced to death six days later. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and death sentence in January 1997.⁴

Derrick Sean O’Brien was convicted of capital murder in April 1994 and sentenced to death. He had admitted raping both girls and helping strangle one victim with a belt. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed in May 1996.⁵

José Medellín was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. His case later produced a major international-law fight over consular rights.

Efrain Perez and Raul Omar Villarreal, both 17 at the time of the crime, were also convicted and sentenced to death. Their sentences were later reduced to life in prison.⁴

Venancio Medellín, the youngest of the group at 14, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 40 years in prison.⁴

The Three Executions

Derrick Sean O’Brien was the first to die, executed by lethal injection on July 11, 2006, and pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. In his final statement he said, “I am sorry. I have always been sorry. It is the worst mistake that I ever made in my whole life.”⁶

José Medellín was executed on August 5, 2008, at 9:48 p.m., roughly five months after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his international-law claims.⁷

Peter Cantu was executed last, on August 17, 2010, and pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. at the Walls Unit in Huntsville after 17 years on death row. He made no final statement, and no one attended on his behalf. The families of both victims were present.⁸ A final petition for certiorari had been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2010, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his clemency petition earlier that August.⁴

Why Two Death Sentences Became Life

Efrain Perez and Raul Omar Villarreal had their death sentences commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons, which barred the execution of offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes. Both had been 17 in June 1993.⁴

The commutations remain a source of open anger for the victims’ families. Speaking publicly for the first time in more than two decades in 2023, Elizabeth’s father, Adolph Peña, said, “All six of them were supposed to get executed, but that didn’t happen. The Supreme Court changed that for us, which I’m still pissed about.”⁹

The Vienna Convention Fight Over José Medellín

José Medellín was a Mexican national who had lived in the United States since he was a small child. When Texas authorities arrested him in 1993, they never informed him of his right under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to contact the Mexican consulate.¹⁰

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled in Avena that the United States had violated the consular rights of 51 Mexican nationals on U.S. death rows, Medellín among them, and ordered American courts to review their convictions and sentences. President George W. Bush issued a February 2005 memorandum directing state courts to give effect to the ICJ ruling. Texas courts refused, citing state procedural rules.¹⁰

On March 25, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Texas in a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice Roberts. The Court held that the ICJ’s Avena ruling was not automatically enforceable as domestic law because the underlying treaties were not “self-executing,” and that the President could not unilaterally force state courts to comply.¹¹ Justices Breyer, Souter, and Ginsburg dissented. Texas executed Medellín less than five months later.⁷

Lasting Changes to Texas Victims’ Rights

The case reshaped two practices in Texas criminal proceedings.

During Peter Cantu’s 1994 sentencing, State District Judge Bill Harmon allowed Jennifer’s father, Randy Ertman, to address Cantu directly in open court. Ertman shouted at him, “You’re not even an animal.” The moment became a precedent for allowing crime victims’ families to confront offenders during sentencing.¹²

The families also successfully pushed the Texas Board of Criminal Justice to change its policy on execution witnesses. Randy Ertman, the Peña family, victims’ advocate Andy Kahan, and the organization Justice for All lobbied for the change, and the board adopted it. Relatives of both girls attended each of the three executions.¹³ Adolph Peña later said of watching the executions, “It was probably the happiest days of my life to see those individuals that killed my daughter be executed for what they did.”⁹

Where the Surviving Defendants Stand Now

Venancio Medellín, who received the 40-year sentence, has been denied parole five times. His most recent denial followed an October 2025 parole review, at which Andy Kahan appeared before the board on behalf of the families. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed the denial.¹⁴ Kahan has said he plans to request five-year set-offs between future reviews.¹⁵

Efrain Perez and Raul Omar Villarreal, serving life sentences after their post-Roper commutations, are expected to become eligible for parole consideration in 2029.¹⁶ Randy Ertman died of lung cancer on August 18, 2014, at 61. Before his death he authorized Kahan to represent the family at all future parole hearings for the surviving defendants.¹³ Memorial benches still stand at T.C. Jester Park, near the tracks the girls were crossing that night.¹⁷

1
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. O’Brien v. Dretke, No. 05-70006
2
Justia. Cantu v. State, 939 S.W.2d 627
3
Oxygen. 1993 Rape and Murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena
4
Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Peter Anthony Cantu
5
Texas Executions. Derrick O’Brien
6
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Derrick O’Brien Last Statement
7
Prison Legal News. Jose Medellin Executed; Vienna Convention Controversy Lives On
8
CBS News. Peter Anthony Cantu Executed for Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena Murders
9
Fox 26 Houston. Parents Speak Publicly for First Time in Over 20 Years Following Horrific Murders of 2 Teens
10
Justia. Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491
11
Library of Congress. Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491
12
Houston Chronicle. Father of Brutally Murdered Teen — Victims’ Rights
13
Houston Chronicle. Randy Ertman, Father of Slain Teen, Has Died
14
The Leader News. Man Involved in 1993 Murders of Teenage Girls Denied Parole
15
ABC 13. Victims Advocate Urges Parole Board to Deny Release of Man Involved in 1993 Ertman-Peña Murders
16
ABC 13. Teen Involved in 1993 Murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña Up for Parole Review
17
KHOU. Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena Murders