Yuni looked back over to his brother, who was still raping Elizabeth. Neither girl was crying; however, Yuni could tell that they were not enjoying themselves in any way. Instead, the girls kept begging for the boys to stop and to let them go.
The boys, on the other hand, were enjoying themselves. They were not about to let these girls go.
Joe Medellin looked up and saw that his brother was not happy. He smiled at Yuni and said, “What’s the matter, bro? Don’t you want some of this good pussy?” He laughed at his brother.
Joe Medellin continued to laugh as he looked at Elizabeth. He smiled and said, “What’s your name, baby?”
Elizabeth began to cry softly. She lied and said, “Melissa,” giving her mother’s name.
“What’s your phone number?” Joe Medellin asked, and cracked himself up in the process.
Elizabeth gave him a bogus phone number in an effort to keep him happy. Maybe they would leave her alone if she gave them what they wanted.
Yuni turned away from his brother, only to see O’Brien on top of the white girl. O’Brien began to rape Jennifer for at least five more minutes; then he suddenly dismounted.
“Dude, switch,” he hollered over to Joe Medellin. O’Brien got up off Jennifer and casually strolled over to where Elizabeth lay. Joe Medellin did the same and went to Jennifer. The two boys grinned at one another as they passed by and gave each other “five” with a slap of their hands.
Elizabeth, humiliated from the rape she endured from Joe Medellin, was unable to get up. Suddenly she was pinned down by O’Brien. He fell on top of her and began to rape her as well. Joe Medellin began to rape Jennifer.
Yuni Medellin watched as Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal stepped in and took turns raping the girls. Perez walked over to Jennifer and forced her to perform oral sex. Now a member of the group, Villarreal walked over to Elizabeth and pulled his pants down past his buttocks. He then forced himself into Elizabeth’s unwilling mouth.
After several minutes, O’Brien hopped off Elizabeth and made his way back over to Jennifer. When he got there, the girl was being forced to suck on Cantu’s penis. O’Brien jumped in and assaulted the young girl again. He then went back to Elizabeth for more forced oral sex. Apparently, O’Brien was starting to have stage fright and could not maintain an erection. After a few minutes of Elizabeth’s sucking, he pulled out and zipped his pants back up. An eager Perez stepped in to take his place.
O’Brien walked back over to Jennifer and saw that Cantu was again forcing her to perform oral sex. Cantu smiled at his buddy and said, “This is some good stuff, man.” Cantu pulled his penis out of the young teenager’s mouth and turned toward O’Brien. “Get in there, man. Get you some more. That’s some good stuff,” he repeated. O’Brien unzipped his pants and pulled them back down. He stuck his flaccid penis in front of a humiliated Jennifer. The young girl was becoming exhausted.
O’Brien watched Cantu head back over to Elizabeth and resume raping her. As he looked down and saw Jennifer struggle with his penis, he noticed Villarreal moved back over to the white girl and began raping her again. O’Brien pulled his penis out of the girl’s mouth and stepped away for a moment. He was quickly replaced with Villarreal, who dislodged himself from Jennifer’s vagina and replaced his penis where O’Brien’s had just been.
Cantu stood in front of Elizabeth, and orally raped her. He looked over at Yuni Medellin and began to egg him on.
“C’mon, dude. Get some,” Cantu urged Yuni.
The younger Medellin brother simply stared and shook his head. “No, man. I don’t think I can do that.”
“C’mon, man. Don’t be such a pussy,” Cantu teased him. “Get in there and get you some.”
Yuni Medellin was not sure what to do. The one thing he was afraid of was not appearing cool in front of his brother and his brother’s friends. He figured to be a part of this group he needed to be doing what everyone else was doing—so he stepped toward Jennifer and unzipped his pants. By this time, the young girl was crying. She held tough for a long time, but the assault was beginning to take its toll. Yuni Medellin apparently was not too turned off by the situation, as he was able to achieve an erection despite the gruesome scene before him. Fourteen-year-old Yuni mounted fourteen-year-old Jennifer and began raping her.
O’Brien watched as Yuni raped Jennifer. O’Brien laughed as the young teen thrust into her. After about five minutes of Yuni assaulting Jennifer, O’Brien had had enough.
“Get off her, man,” O’Brien ordered.
Yuni did not hear him at first and continued to rape the sophomore-to-be.
“Dude, get off her,” O’Brien stated more sternly. He grabbed Yuni’s shoulder and pulled him off the young girl. His gestures were not chivalrous. Instead, O’Brien masturbated himself back to an erect state and once again penetrated Jennifer against her will.
Yuni Medellin stepped back with his penis hanging out of his pants, stunned. He was not quite sure what had happened, other than he had just raped a teenage girl and his penis was hanging out of his pants in public in front of five other boys.
Once again, Yuni looked up to see what his brother was up to. By this time, Joe Medellin had returned to raping Elizabeth, and now Perez was squatting down on her neck and had his penis shoved into her mouth.
Cantu yelled over to Joe, “Hurry up. It’s my turn.”
“I’m gonna take my time,” Joe replied. He was having way too much fun to stop what he was doing to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, however, was still not ready to give in completely. She tried to fight off the two boys by squirming and kicking her legs at Joe Medellin. Her protestations only excited the two molesters. They managed to restrain her mainly with Perez having her trapped by his crotch.
Elizabeth, exhausted, looked over at her best friend, Jennifer, who lay twenty feet away. She began to weep as she saw O’Brien and Villarreal both assaulting Jennifer. O’Brien was forcing her to suck his penis, while Villarreal raped her anally. She looked up and, at a disjointed angle, saw Cantu laughing, smiling, and cheering the other guys on.
“Dude, go get some more of that.” Cantu nodded toward Elizabeth.
The next thing she knew, Cantu had pounced on her and began ripping her insides apart with his penis.
O’Brien got off Jennifer and made his way back over to Elizabeth, who was on all fours, being orally raped by Villarreal. O’Brien mounted Elizabeth from behind and proceeded to rape her doggy-style.
Just a few minutes later, Cantu barked out a command in Spanish. Suddenly everyone stopped raping the girls.
It only took a minute before they resumed the assault. By now, Joe Medellin had gone back over to Jennifer and stuck his penis in her mouth. A worn-out Jennifer began to piss Joe Medellin off as she allegedly nicked his penis with her teeth.
“Yo, bitch! You better stop biting me,” he snapped at her. “You bite me again and I’m gonna kick your ass,” he threatened her.
Whether it was an intentional ploy to defend herself is unknown, but Jennifer bit down on Joe Medellin’s penis again. He was furious. He instantly punched Jennifer in the face so hard that she started to bleed from her nose.
“You bitch!” he screamed at her. “I told you not to bite me, you cunt!”
The rapes lasted more than an hour. Each boy, except Yuni Medellin, had nonconsensual sex with both girls at least four times. According to Yuni, “they raped them in every conceivable way.” Orally, anally, two-on-one, double penetration.
Yuni Medellin stood dumbfounded between the two groups of people. Suddenly Cantu sauntered up to Yuni and whispered to him, “We’re gonna have to kill them.”
“What do you mean?” a frightened Yuni responded.
“They’ve seen our faces. We can’t leave behind any witnesses. We’ve got to kill them.”
Chapter 19
“We gotta kill ’em. They know what we look like,” Peter Cantu repeated. It seemed as important to him as cleaning the cat box. Just something that had to be done, no matter
how unpleasant it may get. Cantu turned away from Yuni and grabbed Elizabeth Pena. Joe Medellin and Efrain Perez walked up to Cantu and the exhausted Elizabeth. Cantu grabbed her by the arms while the other boys grabbed her long legs. She barely struggled.
The three boys ambled down the not-so-steep hill and headed toward the nearby woods just north of the bayou. A footpath had been beaten down toward a large copse of towering pine trees. They looked like a bunch of delivery men schlepping a large dog-food-sized bag filled with wet cotton. Elizabeth’s body put up minimal resistance. She just undulated in an awkward motion as they carried her to the woods.
Just ahead of the foursome were Derrick Sean O’Brien, Raul Villarreal, and Jennifer Ertman. They were leading the teenager on foot past the bald spot in the dirt where Villarreal’s initiation had taken place almost an hour earlier, past the open forty-ounce bottle of Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull that one of the boys had dropped during the scuffle. Jennifer, unlike Elizabeth, struggled. She resisted O’Brien and Villarreal, who were much larger, stronger, and faster, but it was to no avail. They forcefully pushed her into the copse.
O’Brien and Villarreal continued on the beaten path out into the opening in the woods. They stepped through. Jennifer kicked and tried to scream, but she was quickly silenced by Villarreal.
The threesome was followed by the foursome of Cantu, Jose Medellin, Perez, and Elizabeth. They also trudged past the fight club location, up the trail to the woods, and through the tree-shrouded hole of an entrance. Yuni followed about five to ten feet behind. He watched his brother and the others as they were enveloped by the green-by-day, pitch-black-by-night needles of the pine trees.
Not wanting to be the only one left out in the open, Yuni followed through the hole. After he entered the woods, he looked up and could barely see his brother. Eventually his eyes adjusted to the new darkness. Not only could he see his brother, he realized he was also standing next to O’Brien, who was standing next to Jennifer.
“Get down on your knees, bitch,” Villarreal barked at the young girl. She hesitated. “Now!” he screamed at her.
Jennifer collapsed, spent.
Instantly Villarreal wrapped a red nylon belt around her neck, crossed the belt over with his hand for a tight fit, and began pulling with all his might from behind. Jennifer’s hands instinctively thrust toward her throat as she grabbed the belt. Her elbows crooked as she attempted to pry it off her neck. Villarreal was strangling the life out of the vibrant teenage girl.
One problem for Villarreal: Jennifer was too strong. She would not give up and she continued to fight against the pressure around her throat.
O’Brien saw that the new guy wasn’t cutting it, so he moved in on the opposite side of Jennifer, grabbed one end of the belt (which belonged to him), and pulled as hard as he could, while Villarreal continued his exertions on the other end.
Yuni watched and listened as the murder unfolded.
He heard the girl begin to gasp as she was choking. He heard both Villarreal and O’Brien grunt as they gathered strength to strangle her.
Grunt—Grunt—Wheeze—Grunt—Grunt—Wheeze!
Yuni knew it did not sound good for the girl, but he did nothing.
O’Brien and Villarreal both stood behind Jennifer and pulled on the belt. Sweat began to pour down their faces. Their grunts were low and guttural.
Yuni stood transfixed at the scene for at least two minutes. Finally he could not take it anymore. He turned his back and scampered away out of the woods, back onto the open clearing, near the bald dirt patch. He could hear a gurgling sound. He did not want to see what happened to the poor young girl. Instead, he looked up into the dark moonlit sky. He spotted several stars and lost himself in the immensity of the night.
Grunt—Grunt—Wheeze!
Elizabeth had witnessed the entire nightmarish ordeal. Her friend being brutally raped and murdered before her very eyes.
Now she knew it was her turn.
Joe Medellin and Cantu grabbed one of Perez’s shoelaces. They looped it around Elizabeth’s neck and began to pull. Elizabeth tried to escape, but she was tackled by Cantu, who proceeded to kick her in the face with his steel-tipped boots. He kicked her so hard and so many times that he knocked out three of her front teeth. He also broke several of Elizabeth’s ribs with his boots. Bloodied and exhausted, she no longer resisted.
Joe Medellin and Cantu continued the slow strangulation until she could breathe no more.
Just as Elizabeth’s last gasp was sputtered, miraculously, Jennifer stirred. She was not dead.
The guys were stunned, and Villarreal, maybe still attempting to prove he was worthy, walked up to the young girl and proceeded to stand on her throat. “The bitch won’t die!” He laughed.
Finally he stepped off, and O’Brien followed suit.
At that same time, two of the other boys began to stomp on Elizabeth’s face and dead body. They stomped and stomped and stomped. O’Brien did the same to Jennifer’s body. All of the boys stomped on the girls’ bodies until they were unrecognizable masses of blood, bone, and dirt.
Yuni waited and waited. He could not escape from the horrible sounds.
More than fifteen minutes later, he looked up at the opening from the woods. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he could clearly see O’Brien, Villarreal, Perez, Cantu, and his brother, Joe, step out of the woods. They looked exhilarated and dirty.
The first person to break the silence was O’Brien. “Damn man, where’s my belt?” he asked. He began to look around the grass for the weapon he and Villarreal used to kill Jennifer. He patted down the sun-beaten grass, but did not find it. He glanced around, but gave up after less than a minute’s time.
Cantu looked up at Joe Medellin, Yuni Medellin, and Raul Villarreal. He told them to take off down the tracks. He pointed them in the direction over the trestle toward T. C. Jester Boulevard. “Why don’t y’all take off over that way and wait for us on Jester?” Cantu suggested. The three boys headed down the train tracks. They crossed the bayou, crossed T. C. Jester Boulevard, and waited next to some older homes.
O’Brien walked back to his apartment with Perez and Cantu, who picked up their vehicles. O’Brien went inside and the other two took off.
Several minutes later, Cantu pulled up in his red Ford pickup truck. “C’mon, let’s go.” They all hopped into the truck and headed out.
The drive was short, but painfully silent. No one said a word to each other. No one looked at each other. Cantu broke the silence when he turned to Yuni and said, “Here. Take this watch.” He handed him a wristwatch with Goofy adorning the center. “Take it. I don’t want it.”
Yuni took the watch and clasped it in his hands. He did not say anything.
Nothing more was said. Cantu drove on and eventually ended up at his house less than four miles from the murder scene.
Chapter 20
Friday, June 25, 1993—12:30 A.M.
Cantu residence
Ashland Street
Houston, Texas
Joe Medellin, Raul Villarreal, and Efrain Perez walked up to Peter Cantu’s house, which was very crowded. Cantu lived with his parents, his sister, his brother Joe, and Joe’s new bride, sixteen-year-old Christina.
Joe Cantu had been trying to make the best for himself. Although he dropped out of Reagan High School his senior year without a diploma, he earned a degree from a technical institute, which allowed him to become a medical assistant. Indeed, he had recently begun working for a local blood donation center as a phlebotomist, someone who draws blood from patients.
Joe met a young girl named Christina, who was a member of a mixed-gender gang that claimed the Heights as their turf. They were mainly known for stealing cars and fencing the parts for cash. Joe wanted to be with Christina, but he couldn’t stand that she was a member of a gang. He asked her to quit or he would no longer see her. She agreed, and six months later, they were married.
Christina and Joe heard a knock on the door. Joe was too
tired to get up and answer it, so she got up instead. Christina unlocked the door and pulled it wide open. She was shocked to see Joe Medellin standing in front of her with blood on his clothes. She expected her brother-in-law Peter to show up, not Joe Medellin, and definitely not in such a state of disarray. She caught a glimpse of a large red scratch on his neck. His hair was mussed, he had scrapes on his knees, and he seemed a bit wild-eyed. Next to Joe Medellin stood Efrain Perez, who also wasn’t looking so hot. He had blood on the lower portion of his white wife-beater undershirt near his crotch area. It looked as if he had smeared it down his shirt and into his pants. A third boy, Raul Villarreal, whom Christina did not know, stood beside Joe and Perez. He also looked worse for wear. He had dried blood caked on his right eyebrow and blood on his pants.
Christina stepped back away from the door. “What’s up?” she asked.
The boys nodded toward Christina, but they did not say anything. Instead, they made a beeline for the living room like it was their own house. They seemed hopped up on adrenaline.
Joe Cantu was still in the bedroom, pulling on his jeans. Christina followed the boys into the living room.
“What happened to you guys?” Christina asked as she looked toward Joe Medellin and Perez.
Joe Medellin looked at Perez, who, in turn, looked up at Villarreal. All three of the boys began to smile as Joe responded, “Let’s just say we had a lot of fun.” His grin stretched from ear to ear.
Perez and Villarreal began to laugh. Indeed, all three boys were giggling. Joe Medellin joined in with loud peals of laughter.
Christina was not sure what to make of Peter’s buddies. They looked as if they had been in a fight; however, they were all cracking up like they had just heard the funniest joke known to man. Of course, Christina thought, a fight was just the sort of entertainment these guys would find amusing.
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