CHANNELVIEW, Texas – A Channelview High student was raped behind the school football stadium while her boyfriend was held at gunpoint in an armed robbery and kidnapping on October 3, court documents state.
Four teenagers – including former Channelview student Jerricho Prince and current Channelview student Mercedez Jones – have been charged in the crimes.
According to the probable cause document, Prince, Jones and two juvenile suspects approached a Channelview High student as he walked on Woodforest Blvd. The student was en route to the football stadium and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone at the time.
Harris County investigators said Prince displayed a firearm and robbed the student.
Prince then ordered the student to call his girlfriend and have her meet them at the stadium.
Investigators said the student initially refused, but Prince threatened him at gunpoint.
"And they eventually take the phone from him and say you better come here or we’re going to kill your friend," said prosecutor Tina Ansari.
Court documents state that once the girlfriend arrived at the stadium, Prince and one of the juvenile suspects told her to remove her clothes. Harris County investigators said the suspects threatened to shoot her boyfriend if she didn’t comply.
The suspects then took the girlfriend behind a building and sexually assaulted her. During the assault, investigators said Jones watched the male victim, who was being held at gunpoint by the second juvenile suspect.
After the assault, the suspects then made the two victims walk nearly three miles to a Valero convenience store on Woodforest. Prosecutors said the female victim was held at gunpoint behind the store while the male victim was forced to go across the street to an ATM at a Kroger and withdraw all the money he could get.
He only had $80.
Once he handed over the cash, the suspects let the victims go.
The victims reported the crimes that same night, and the next day investigators visited officials at Channelview High School.
Court documents state that when the administrators were shown surveillance images of the suspects from both the Valero and the Kroger, they positively identified Prince as a former student and Jones as a current student.
"There’s surveillance videos showing all of the people involved leaving … there’s an abundance of evidence in this case at this point," said Ansari.
Jones and Prince were arrested on October 5 and charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and aggravated kidnapping. They were being held in the Harris County Jail on $90,000 bond each.
The two juvenile suspects, whose names were not released, were not in custody Thursday.
Channelview ISD released a statement Thursday afternoon regarding the investigation.
"This is truly a sad and unfortunate incident of a very sensitive nature. We will continue to work closely with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office during the course of this ongoing investigation," the statement read.
