CHELSEA LANG and ASHLEY JOHNSON/ Cousins (2010) - Baytown TX

Investigators are sorting out details after the bodies of two teen
girls were found in a burned out home Sunday morning. It happened around
7 a.m. in the 700 block of Lloyd Street in Baytown.“It’s horrible,” said one of the
believed victim’s friends, Chad Promise. “I mean nobody should have to
go out that way, nobody.”
Police are not yet releasing the victims’ names.
They do believe they are teens and likely cousins.
One of the teens lives at the home with her mother and brother.
The mother was away from the home running errands when the incident occurred.
Her daughter and niece were the victims. The son was away for the weekend with his father.
Neighbors in the Glen Arbor subdivision woke up to the sounds of sirens and the smell of smoke.
”It scares me, it frightens me, it really does,” said neighbor Doris Singletary.
At first Singletary didn’t realize what happened next door was more than just a fire.
“That’s what I thought, that it was just a fire, and then I realized there were bodies in there and it was
pretty scary,” said Singletary.
Baytown police said the bodies of the
young victims were discovered in the home after it was extinguished. It
is unknown if the girls were killed before the fire or perished in the
fire. Investigators said the fire appears to have been intentionally set.
“I’m sure everyone is going to be crying tomorrow because she is not there,”
said classmate Amanda Baggett.
Baggett and many other people rushed to the home seeking answers,
but all that led to were more questions and plenty of tears.
“It’s going to be different now because when I’m going into Miss Calicon’s class, she’s not going to be
there, she’s not going to be in any of our shows, we’re never going to
see her anymore,” said Baggett and she talked about one of the believed victims.
Police say they don’t have any suspects at this time.
If you have information that could help in this case you are asked to call Baytown Crime Stoppers.

Baytown police have identified two teenage cousins found slain when
firefighters responded to a house blaze.
Police Lt. Eric Freed says the case is being treated as a double
homicide.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the home Monday to remember
Chelsey Lang and Ashley Johnson. They attended different high schools in
Baytown, where counselors are being made available.
Autopsy results are pending on the girls, whose bodies were
discovered Sunday as emergency personnel answered a call about a fire at
Lang's home. A passer-by noticed the smoke.
Freed says there was evidence of a struggle at the scene.
Evidence will be checked for DNA.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the girls had been
killed before the fire was started.
Baytown is 20 miles east of Houston.

A man is facing capital murder charges in the brutal slayings of two
Baytown teenagers.
Police said Joseph Francois Jean confessed to killing 17-year-old
Chelsea Lang and her cousin, 16-year-old Ashley Johnson, in Lang’s
Baytown home before lighting the structure on fire.
Firefighters found the girls’ bodies in the charred home, located in
the 700 block of Lloyd, around 7 a.m. Sunday after a neighbor called
reporting the blaze.
Lang lived in the home with her 15-year-old brother and her mother,
Victoria Wiley. Neither Wiley nor her son was home at the time of the
slayings.
Police said Jean is Wiley’s ex-boyfriend.
Details of the slayings were revealed in Jean’s initial court
appearance early Thursday morning.
According to court records, investigators were called to the scene
after the bodies were found Sunday morning and determined the fire to be
suspicious.
Police said both bodies were found to have suffered severe head
trauma, and a gas can nozzle was discovered on the kitchen counter of
the home.
In the hours after the fire, police said a bloody aluminum bat and a
gas can were located down the street from the crime scene.
During interviews with family, Wiley’s son told police he’d seen an
aluminum bat in the back of Jean’s car in the past.
Police said they showed the teen the bat found in the bushes, and he
confirmed that it was the same one he’d seen in Jean’s car.
Investigators said they also learned that Wiley and Jean had recently
had a confrontation in which Jean was escorted out of a nightclub and
told not to return.
Police said they interviewed Jean late Sunday night, but he denied
any wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, officers took Jean into custody on a parole violation.
Police said Jean was on parole for assaulting Wiley and was not supposed
to have any contact with her.
As their investigation continued, police said they were approached by
a friend of Jean’s who said the suspect had confessed to the crime and
had become emotional when talking about the victims.
When police interviewed Jean a second time on Wednesday, they said he
confessed.
Jean told police he walked up to the house with a can full of gas
Sunday morning and entered through an unsecured window in the master
bedroom.
Police said Jean admitted to pouring gas in the closet, and then
making a gas trail through the bedroom and down the hall into the living
room.
As he was pouring the gas, Jean told police he was interrupted by one
of the victims as she came out of a bathroom.
Jean admitted to being scared, and told investigators when the girl
said his name, he punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground.
After that, Jean said he blacked out, but he believed he grabbed the
bat from the garage, where he’d placed it in the past.
He could not remember if he struck the second victim, but he said he
thought she saw him and tried to get away, police said.
According to the Harris County Medical Examiner, Lang’s cause of
death was blunt force trauma to the head and smoke inhalation. Johnson’s
cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
Jean was being held Thursday on no bond. He is slated to appear in
court again Friday morning.

No bail for man accused in Baytown girls' deaths
By CINDY HORSWELL and BRIAN ROGERS
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 16, 2010, 7:18PM


A Baytown man charged with capital murder in the deaths of two teenage girls whose bludgeoned bodies were found in a burning home last weekend will remain in jail without bail, a judge ruled Friday.
Joseph Francois Jean, 37, is charged with capital murder in the girls' deaths.

At Jean's arraignment Friday, state District Judge Belinda Hill appointed lawyer Terry Gaiser to Jean's case and listened to prosecutor Sunni Mitchell detail the events investigators say unfolded late Saturday.

Investigators say Jean used a baseball bat to bludgeon ex-girlfriend Victoria Wiley's, Chelsey Lang, 17, and her cousin, Ashley Johnson, 16, and then set fire to Wiley's house to conceal the crime. Firefighters found their bodies early Sunday after putting out the blaze.

Police say Jean sneaked into Wiley's home through an unsecured bedroom window and doused a hallway and bedroom closet with gasoline, Mitchell said.

Jean confessed to the slayings and expressed remorse, Baytown Police Lt. Eric Freed said.
Jean was convicted in 2008 of burglarizing Wiley's home in 2006 and hitting her for reporting the crime.

In court, Mitchell detailed several of Jean's convictions, including drug possession and assault.

Chronicle reporter Cindy Horswell contributed to this report.

brian.rogers@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6962175.html

Man sentenced to death for murder of Baytown teens



khou.com staff

Posted on June 17, 2011 at 4:39 PM


HOUSTON—A jury decided Friday that a man should die for the brutal slayings of two Baytown teenagers.

Joseph Francois Jean was convicted of capital murder Monday in the killing of 17-year-old Chelsea Lang and her cousin, 16-year-old Ashley Johnson.

Police said Joseph Francois Jean confessed to killing Chelsea and Ashley in Chelsea’s home in the 700 block of Lloyd in April 2010.
Lang lived in the home with her 15-year-old brother and her mother, Victoria Wiley. Neither Wiley nor her son was home at the time of the slayings. Police said Jean was Wiley’s ex-boyfriend.

Jean told police he walked up to the house with a can full of gas and entered through an unsecured window in the master bedroom. Police said Jean admitted to pouring gas in the closet, and then making a gas trail through the bedroom and down the hall into the living room. As he was pouring the gas, Jean told police he was interrupted by one of the victims as she came out of a bathroom.

Jean admitted to being scared, and told investigators when the girl said his name, he punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground. After that, Jean said he blacked out, but he believed he grabbed the bat from the garage, where he’d placed it in the past. He could not remember if he struck the second victim, but he said he thought she saw him and tried to get away, police said.

According to the Harris County Medical Examiner, Lang’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and smoke inhalation. Johnson’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
http://www.khou.com/news/Man-sentenced-to-death-for-murder-of-Baytown-teens--124103744.html