Peter Cantu

The rape and murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña, two teenage girls from Houston, Texas, aged 14 and 16, respectively, occurred on June 24, 1993. The murder of the two girls made headlines in Texas newspapers due to the nature of the crime and the new law resulting from the murder that allows families of the victims to view the execution of the murderers. The case was also notable in that the state of Texas rejected attempts by the International Court of Justice to halt the executions of several of the perpetrators.

On June 24, 1993, Jennifer Lee Ertman (1978 – 1993) and Elizabeth Christine Peña (1977 – 1993), Waltrip High School students, were attending the pool party of a friend who lived in the Spring Hill Apartments. When the pair realized that they were going to be late returning home, they decided to leave the party in order to meet an 11 p.m. curfew. Ertman and Peña decided to take a 10-minute shortcut to Peña's residence in Oak Forest by following the railroad tracks and then passing through T.C. Jester Park.

The girls were walking along the White Oak Bayou when they encountered "Black and White" gang members drinking beer after holding a gang initiation. The gang captured Peña, and Ertman had initially escaped but was captured after she ran back to help her friend when she screamed. Six gang members raped the girls repeatedly. After realizing that the girls might identify them, Peter Anthony Cantu, a leader of the gang, ordered the members to kill the girls, so the members strangled them to death. Derrick Sean O'Brien and Raul Omar Villarreal strangled Ertman with a red nylon belt before the belt broke; then the gang members used shoelaces. Cantu, José Medellín, and Efrain Perez strangled Peña with shoelaces. The members then stomped on the girls' throats to ensure their deaths.

Cantu, Medellín, Perez, and Villareal then congregated at Cantu's residence, where he lived with his brother, Joe Cantu, and sister-in-law, Christina Cantu. Christina Cantu questioned why Villareal was bleeding and Perez had a bloody shirt. This prompted Medellín to say the gang "had fun," and that details would appear on the news. He then elaborated that he had raped both girls. Peter Cantu then returned, and divided valuables that had been stolen from the girls. José Medellín got a ring with an "E", so he could give it to his girlfriend, Esther. Medellín reported that he had killed a girl, and noted that he would have found it easier with a gun. O'Brien was videotaped smiling at the scene of the crime. After the gang left, Christina Cantu convinced Joe Cantu to report the crime to police.

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