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Joshua Zuazo and Carlos Hernandez (Screenshot from WXYZ video)
Two men who posed as DTE workers to gain entry into a Rochester Hills home last year to murder and rob 72-year-old jeweler Hussein Murray were sentenced Tuesday in Oakland County Circuit Court to life without parole.
"It’s a cowardly act because that’s exactly what you are," Judge Yasmine Poles said while sentencing Jose Hernandez, 38, in remarks captured in a video posted by WXYZ. "It is pathetic. Your actions are absolutely pathetic."
"His life meant nothing to you," she added.
His partner in crime, Joshua Zuazo, 40, also received a life sentence without parole for the murder of Murray, who owned a jewelry store in Hamtramck.
Zuazo, 40, and 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 for the fatal crime at the Rochester Hills home in the 3700 block of Newcastle.
The men, posing as DTE workers, finagled their way into the home on Oct. 11, 2024, and killed Murray 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.
