Harris County prosecutors say that two teens accused of murdering a 15-year-old girl were motivated by a pact with the devil.
After going missing for several days, Corriann Cervantes was discovered beaten to death in a vacant Clear Lake apartment early Saturday. Police arrived at the horrific scene to find cult-like objects near the teenager's mutilated and partially-clothed body. The killers carved an upside down cross across her stomach.
In the following days, 17-year-old Jose Reyes and an unnamed 16-year-old juvenile were arrested charged with capital murder.
Police found cult-like objects near the teenager's mutilated and partially-clothed body.
According to Assistant Harris County Attorney John Jordan, investigators say Cervantes — who attended an alternative school in the Clear Creek ISD with the two suspects — had been tortured and sexually assaulted before the suspects beat her to death with a toilet tank lid on Feb. 5. Police believe the victim, who knew her alleged killers since middle school, entered the apartment willingly.
Speaking from county criminal court on Tuesday, Jordan called the crime "sadistic" and noted that Reyes drew his accomplice into the murder with talk of a satanic ritual.
"They discussed the fact that Mr. Reyes had sold his soul to the devil," the attorney said. "If they ended up killing this teenager, it would also allow the 16-year-old to also sell his soul to the devil."
Both suspects and their victims were "very good friends," according to a teenage girl friend who told the Chronicle she drifted away from the trio when they began experimenting with marijuana. "They used to be the sweetest people you could ever meet," she said about the suspects.
In the wake of Cervantes' death, KHOU Ch. 11 reports that another teenage girl has come forward with allegations that she was drugged and raped by Reyes and three of his friends in February 2013.
Reyes and an accomplice claim they tortured and killed their victim as part of a pact with the devil.
