PONTIAC — Nearly a year after the brutal killing of Arab American jeweler Hussein “Sam” Murray in his Rochester Hills home, two men — Carlos Hernandez, 38, and Joshua Zuazo, 40 — were convicted by separate Oakland County juries of first-degree murder and unlawful imprisonment for beating Murray to death and restraining his wife, Linda Murray, during a home invasion on October 11, 2024.

Authorities said Hernandez and Zuazo posed as DTE Energy workers to gain entry to the couple’s home under the pretext of checking for a gas leak in the basement of their house on the 3700 block of Newcastle Street.

Murray, 72, owned and operated a jewelry and pawn shop in Hamtramck and investigators believe the assailants had been monitoring and following him as part of their plan. Hernandez had reportedly visited the store multiple times before the attack.

According to Linda Murray’s testimony, after her husband led the men downstairs to inspect the supposed leak, they returned upstairs without him. She recalled that the men then demanded to know where the safe, money and jewelry were kept. She told them there was no home safe, explaining that their jewelry was secured in a bank deposit box and that she only had around $300 in her purse.

When she noticed bloodstains on Zuazo’s clothes, she screamed, asking what had happened to her husband “Abou Abdu.” Hernandez then struck her in the face, forced her to sit at the kitchen table, removed her Apple Watch and took her cell phone. Zuazo told her that her husband was “sleeping.”

Hernandez then bound her wrists and ankles with duct tape while Zuazo ransacked the house, stealing valuables before the pair fled.

Linda Murray confirms during the trial that she recognized one of the defendants accused of killing her husband.

After partially freeing herself, Linda Murray managed to call 911 to report a robbery, unaware that her husband had already been killed.

When deputies arrived, they discovered Murray’s lifeless body in the basement, bound with duct tape and plastic ties around his wrists, ankles and mouth, in what one officer described as a scene with “a lot of blood” on the walls and stairs.”

The medical examiner determined that Murray died from severe neck compression, in addition to blunt-force trauma to the head, scalp lacerations and multiple jaw fractures.

Investigators identified the suspects through home surveillance footage, which showed a heavyset, short-haired man wearing a reflective vest and medical mask at the front door, saying, “We’re from DTE, checking for gas leaks.”

The men had affixed a DTE logo to their van to avoid suspicion. The vehicle was later found burned in an alley in Detroit.

Hernandez was arrested in Louisiana the following day after being identified from the door-camera footage. Police found stolen property from the Murray home in his car.

Zuazo was arrested three days later during a traffic stop in Plymouth Township, west of Detroit, without resistance.

Judge Yasmine Isshak Poles set December 9 as the sentencing date for both men, who each face life imprisonment under Michigan’s criminal code.

Hussein and Linda Murray had been married for 54 years and shared three children and 11 grandchildren.
As the guilty verdicts were read last week, “Um Abdu” covered her face with a handkerchief while family and friends wept and embraced inside the Pontiac courtroom.

“The timing may be right because it will help us begin to heal, but there will always be a void that we can never fill,” Abdu Murray, the victim’s son, reflecting on the verdict, told the Detroit Free Press.