MSNBC host dismisses migrants' rape and murder of Texas girl in heated clash with conservative guest: 'You are weaponizing a horrific murder to smear 11 million people'

MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend accused a conservative guest of using the rape and murder of a Texas girl by two illegal migrants to 'smear 11 million people.' 

Sanders-Townsend was speaking with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on Saturday alongside co-anchors Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele about the killing of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and his roommate, Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, who both came illegally from Venezuela, are accused of raping and killing the preteen, and disposing of her body in a Houston bayou.  

Roberts was speaking about the crime anecdotally amid a larger discussion of what a Trump presidency would look like should he beat Joe Biden in November, which would include deporting millions of migrants.

Steele - a former RNC chair and anti-Trump Republican who has found a long-term home at liberal friendly MSNBC - took exception and asked: 'So what do these people do, what are they doing now? The folks, the 11 million, 20 million, whatever you want to deport?' 

Roberts answered: 'A lot of them are committing crimes like murdering the 12-year-old girl in Houston.'

'So that's one, that's one, out of 11 million,' Steele retorted. 

'We could take the remaining time of this segment and I could give you a lot of examples,' said Roberts.

Sanders-Townsend, a former press secretary for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, butted in and said illegal immigrants were less likely to be convicted of crimes. 

Roberts asked: 'Tell that to the survivors of these people... What do you tell the parents of those people, those young girls that were killed?' 

'What you're saying is because you have this instance of individuals behaving badly that that's a reflection of every individual in that community and that's just not the case,' said Steele, unsatisfied with Roberts' question. 

Eventually, Sanders-Townsend interjected: 'You are weaponizing a horrific murder to smear 11 million people.' 

Roberts was offended by the suggestion and responded that the real fault came at the hands of the current president. 

'That is a laughable assertion. What Joe Biden is doing is weaponizing the entire government against every American.' 

Ramos was the first of the two accused to appear in court Monday, as horrific new details about her death emerged. 

Prosecutors say that the two men, who lived in the same apartment complex as Nungaray, followed her to a nearby 7/11 shortly after she snuck out of her house on June 16, and asked her for directions.

While at the convenience store, Nungaray called her 13-year-old boyfriend - who later reported he heard her talking to two adults.

The suspects then allegedly lured Nungaray under a bridge, where they stripped her naked to the waist and sexually assaulted her for two hours, according to court documents obtained by Fox 26.  

Ramos and Martinez also allegedly bound Nungaray's hands behind her back during the assault, then strangled her and dumped her body in the bayou.

She would be found by a passerby hours later, with her feet also bound and her back covered in cuts, Click 2 Houston reports.

Ramos later confessed to police that he had kissed Jocelyn that night, but blamed other parts of the assault and her death on his roommate, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Megan Long said in court.

She and other prosecutors now claim Rangel grabbed Jocelyn around the neck, got on top of her and put his hands over her mouth in an apparent effort to stop her from screaming. 

Martinez allegedly shaved his beard to avoid detection in the aftermath, and just two days after Nungaray's body was found, police say Ramos cut off an ankle monitor he was fitted with when he crossed the border illegally at El Paso on May 28.

The discarded ankle monitor was found last Wednesday NewsNation reported.

He also allegedly asked his employer at a construction site for extra cash so he could skip town. 

But the boss instead contacted police, and Ramos was arrested, according to the Houston Chronicle. 

In court on Monday, Judge Josh Hill set Ramos' bond at $10 million - double what prosecutors recommended and 10 times the amount sought by the defense 

The judge declared that Ramos was an 'astronomical' flight risk, and the chances of him returning to court with a lower bond would be 'near zero.'

He noted that, as a new migrant to the area, Ramos had no ties to Houston.  

He was released into the country after telling border patrol officials he feared for his life if he was to be sent back to Venezuela, and claimed he was going to live with a cousin in Houston, sources told The Post.

Instead, Ramos became roommates with Martinez - who also entered the country illegally on March 14 and was fitted with an ankle monitor. His was removed in May, after Border Patrol determined he had no known criminal history.

Both men are now facing capital murder charges, and could be sentenced to the death penalty if the ongoing investigation reveals evidence that Nungaray was sexually assaulted or kidnapped, District Attorney Kim Ogg said.

Martinez is due to face his own bond hearing on Tuesday, and prosecutors are once again urging the judge to set his bail at $10 million as well, according to Local 21. 

Nungaray's mother, Alexis, has blasted the accused killers as 'monsters' who took away her daughter's future.

'She was amazing, I still see her face in the back of my head everyday, all day,' Alexis said of her child at a news conference following the bond hearing on Monday.

'I keep getting little signs about her throughout the day, and it's been a very, very hard time for me and my family.

'She had such a bright future ahead of her, and I knew she was gonna go very far, and those monsters took that opportunity from her, from our family,' she said.

Shockingly, both men were released into the country despite being intercepted by border agents. 

Ramos was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent after he crossed at El Paso in Texas on May 28, but he had cut it off by the time the pair were arrested for killing Jocelyn Nungaray.

Martinez was also released after being intercepted by border agents on March 14, little more than three months before Jocelyn's body was found floating in a creek near her Houston home.

Ramos told agents he planned to live with his cousin in Houston, but the tracker was only set to monitor his movements for 21 days, and he was sharing an apartment with Martinez when he was arrested.