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Joshua Zuazo, 40, and Carlos Hernandez, 38
Two men who posed as DTE workers were convicted Friday in Oakland County Circuit Court of brutally murdering Hamtramck jeweler Hussein “Sam” Murray nearly a year ago in his Rochester Hills home in the 3700 block of Newcastle.
Joshua Zuazo, 40, and Carlos Hernandez, 38, were tried in the same courtroom with two separate juries. Both juries found them guilty of first-degree felony murder and two counts of unlawful imprisonment.
“The timing is perhaps even providential because it will help with healing. There’s a hole we will never fill,” Abdu Murray, one of Murray’s sons, said, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The men, posing as DTE workers, finagled their way into the Rochester Hills home on Oct. 11, 2024, and killed Murray, 72, before tying up his wife in the kitchen.
A snippet of home security footage released by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office shortly after the murder showed a large man with short-cropped hair, wearing a reflective vest and medical mask, standing at the front door and saying, “We’re DTE. We’re checking for gas leaks.” The men had a DTE placard on the side of their vehicle.
Murray let them in and went to the basement with the men, where he was bound with duct tape and zip ties and murdered. The fake DTE workers then went upstairs and tied up his wife.
