PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - It took less than two days for two Oakland County juries to be seated in the case of two men charged with killing a man inside his Rochester Hills home after authorities said the suspects posed as DTE workers.
On Tuesday, opening statements began in the trial of Carlos Hernandez, the first of two defendants charged with killing Hussein Murray inside his home on Oct. 11, 2024.
A second suspect, Joshua Zuazo, will be in court on Wednesday for opening remarks in his case. Both men will be tried in the same courtroom at the same time but will face different juries.
WATCH THE TRIAL LIVE ABOVE. Warning: The trial may contain graphic evidence that some may find disturbing.
During Tuesday's opening remarks, the Oakland County Prosecutor John Pietrofesa laid out its plans to tie the murder of Gonzalez, saying that the Murrays were suspicious when they got a knock on the door late on October 11.
"They knocked on their door at 10 p.m.," the attorney said. "The defendant and his codefendant are posing as DTE workers and they start trying to get into the house. The defendant, Hernandez, is doing the talking – he's also the closest one to the door. Zoazo is behind him. You'll see this because it's captured on ring camera and he's saying, we're in the neighborhood, there's a gas leak, and Linda's at the top of the stairs because she was in the bedroom and she's looking down and she says she can see them at the door frame, and she can also see him because the ring camera bounces to her phone. So she can also see what's going on through the Ring camera, and she yells down to her husband, it's kind of late for gas meter check, and they start trying to get in."
With her husband at the door, Linda Murray called down to her husband, known as Sam, to see if he had his weapon.
"Linda is suspicious and she yells down, Sam, do you have your gun? Because Sam was known to carry his gun on his right hip, he would carry a Glock, part of the business of pawnshop owning down in Hamtramck. Part of the business, a jewelry store. Owning it can be dangerous. He was armed. Sam isn't going to let him in the house at 10:00. So he tells him you're not coming in at that point, Hernandez says, well, we'll come back tomorrow," Pietrofesa said.
Authorities said they did come back the next day. But the prosecutor claims Hernandez had planned this for more than just one day.
"Before October 10th, Defendant Hernandez had been putting this in the works. You're going to hear that a year earlier. And in fact, we have the receipts as the investigation progressed, that, in fact, Hernandez had been to that jewelry pawn shop, that he had pawned items at that store," the prosecutor said.
Additionally, Hernandez returned to pick up his items and specifically asked about the manager. In the year between pawning his items and the murder, Hernandez bought DTE signs and put them on a stolen truck – part of his plan to pose as an agent.
The defense attorney, however, said that she wouldn't insult the jury's intelligence and try to claim that Hernandez did not pose as an agent or gain access to the home. She said that murder was never the intention.
"The unfortunate death of Mr. Murray was never part of the plan, never even part of the discussion between Mr. Hernandez and the other individual. It will be clear to you that Mr. Hernandez did not take part in the beating of Mr. Murray," she said.
The Hernandez jury heard both opening arguments before being sent home for the day.
The Zazo jury will be in court at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and we'll be streaming it live on this page when it starts.
The backstory:
In previous court hearings, Hussein's wife, Linda, said the suspects first came to the couple's home on Newcastle Drive in Rochester Hills the night of Oct. 10, 2024. The men said they worked for DTE, and told the victim that they had already visited some of his neighbor's homes.
Linda Murray said the men told Hussein that they would return the next day. When they did, she testified that the couple allowed both men into the home and they followed Hussein into the basement.
She said she didn't hear anything after that but that Zuazo came up from the basement with blood on him. Linda said Hernandez then asked where she kept her cash and jewelry and when she asked him where Hussein was, he hit her in the face and then duct-taped her wrists and ankles.
The two men then dug through their garage before leaving the home.
Hussein's death was ruled to be caused by blunt force trauma and the medical examiner said it appeared he had also been strangled.
The next day, Hernandez was arrested in Louisiana. Zuazo was arrested in Plymouth Township a few days later.