The State of Texas has executed Peter Anthony Cantu, the 36-year-old gang leader who orchestrated the brutal 1993 murders of teenage girls Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña. Cantu was pronounced dead at 6:17 p. m
at the Huntsville Unit, more than 17 years after he was sentenced to death. He declined to make a final statement, dying in silence as the families of his victims watched through the glass.
Cantu was the last of three men executed for the killings that shook Houston to its core. Two other gang members, Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison after the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling against executing juveniles. A fourth participant, Venancio Medellin, who was 14 at the time, remains in prison after five parole denials.
The crime unfolded on the night of June 24, 1993, when Jennifer, 14, and Elizabeth, 16, took a shortcut through T. C. Jester Park to make curfew.
They stumbled upon a gang initiation ceremony being conducted by Cantu’s crew, the Black and White. Cantu, then 18, ordered his followers to attack, rape, and strangle both girls using belts and shoelaces. Afterward, he stripped jewelry from Jennifer’s body and handed her Tweety Bird watch to a younger gang member.
Cantu’s execution followed a tortured legal path. He was convicted in 1994 and sat on death row for 16 years while appeals exhausted. His lawyers offered an apology letter to the victims’ families just weeks ago, but Randy Ertman, Jennifer’s father, refused it, stating it was too late.
Ertman had long advocated for Cantu’s death, calling for public hangings in the months before the execution.
Derek O’Brien was executed in 2006, apologizing as he died. Jose Medellin followed in 2008 after a dramatic international battle involving the International Court of Justice, President George W. Bush, and the Supreme Court.
Texas Governor Rick Perry rejected the ICJ’s stay, and the execution proceeded. Medellin’s last words urged forgiveness, but Adolf Pena, Elizabeth’s father, pressed his hand against the glass and walked away.
Cantu’s death completes a cycle of vengeance that has taken 17 years. But two men remain alive in Texas prisons: Perez and Villarreal, now in their 40s, both eligible for parole in 2029. The families have vowed to fight every hearing.
Venancio Medellin, now 46, could be released as early as 2033 if parole denies him again.
The case fundamentally changed Texas law. Randy Ertman and Adolf Pena successfully lobbied for the right of victims’ families to witness executions, a right that now applies statewide. Both men attended every execution, including Cantu’s, sitting in the witness room as justice was delivered.
For the families, the pain has never faded. Adolf Pena, now elderly, still speaks at every parole hearing. “She can’t defend herself anymore,” he said.
“I’m the only one who can do that. And as long as I live, I’m always going to do that.” Randy Ertman died of lung cancer in 2014, but his promise was passed to victims’ advocate Andy Kahan, who continues to appear before the board.
Cantu’s execution closes a dark chapter, but it leaves a lingering question about fairness. The teenagers who turned 18 before the crime died. Those who were 17 or younger live on.
The Ertman and Pena families have never wavered in their belief that all five should have faced the same fate. As Cantu’s body was taken to the state’s cemetery, where executed inmates are buried alongside O’Brien and Medellin, the debate over justice and mercy continues without resolution.
