Jose Reyes Trial: Prosecutor Says Houston, Texas Teen Gouged Out Corriann Cervantes' Eye Before Murdering Her in Satanic Ritual
During a capital murder trial on Monday, a prosecutor accused a teenage girl of gouging out the victim's eye as she pleaded for her life in a satanic ritual.
Eighteen-year-old Jose Reyes from Houston, Texas, is on trial for the murder of 15-year-old Corriann Cervantes. Reyes and his 16-year-old accomplice reportedly lured Corriann to an empty flat southeast of Houston where they brutally raped her and beat her to death in February, the Daily Mail reports.
Although Reyes was 17 at the time of the crime, he is being tried as an adult and faces a life sentence if convicted of capital murder with the chance for parole after 40 years, reports the Houston Chronicle.
The younger teen is facing capital murder charges as a minor and is expected to stand trial at a later date.
According to prosecutors, the two teens killed their schoolmate in order to make a deal with the devil. They also disfigured her body and carved an upside down crucifix on her stomach.
"Whether or not the devil was involved, what happened in that apartment was sadistic and inhumane," Harris County Assistant District Attorney John Jordan told jurors during his opening statements, reports The Associated Press. "He said he had no regrets."
Jordan told jurors Cervantes and the alleged assailants went to the apartment to have sex after drinking and smoking marijuana at a friend's apartment. However, things descended from consensual sex to a brutal beating with the heavy porcelain lid of a toilet tank.
"There were pieces of porcelain embedded in her face," Jordan said.
Jordan said the teens also used a screwdriver to repeatedly stab Cervantes in the face and torso.
Reyes reportedly confessed to the horrific crime, admitting he killed Corriann so that his friend could "sell his soul to the devil," according to KTRK-TV.
"What happened in that vacant apartment was sadistic. What will eventually happen in the ... courtroom will be justice," Jordan said.
Corriann's body was found in the empty flat surrounded by religious items three days later.
"There were some signs of devil worship and things of that nature [at Reyes' home]," Jordan said.
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