Two teenagers from Clear Lake, Tex. are in custody after allegedly murdering a 15-year-old girl in what prosecutors described as a satanic ritual.
Jose Reyes, 17, and an unnamed 16-year-old accomplice lured Corriann Cervantes, 15, to a vacant apartment last Wednesday where they allegedly sexually assaulted her and beat her death, reports a local NBC affiliate. Authorities said Reyes and his accomplice carved an inverted cross on her stomach. A local prosecutor claimed Reyes admitted that he had “sold his soul to the devil.”
Cervantes was beaten with an ashtray and a toilet lid and was apparently strangled, prosecutors said. Her body was found by a passerby early Saturday in the abandoned apartment.
Neither suspect is eligible for the death penalty because of their ages. Reyes could face a lifetime prison sentence, and his alleged accomplice, whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile, could face up to 40 years in prison.
[NBC]