Teen Charged In Howell Murder Case Will Be Tried In Adult Court

HOWELL, NJ– A Lakewood teen charged in the October 2019 death of a man whose body was found lying on a Howell roadway will now face charges in adult court, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Alberto Rojas Hernandez, now 18, was recently moved from family court up to adult court and is facing charges of first degree conspiracy to commit murder, first degree murder, third degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth degree unlawful possession of a weapon, the Prosecutor's Office wrote in a statement.

Rojas Hernandez 's uncle, Juan Carlos Rivera Rojas (a.k.a. Omar Rivera Rojas), 29, was previously charged with first degree murder in connection with the incident. He was ordered detained pending trial in November.

On Oct. 18, 2019 at approximately 3:46 a.m., the Howell Township Police Department responded to a 9-1-1 call reporting an unconscious individual laying in Hurley Pond Road east of Route 547. While the incident was initially investigated as a fatal hit-and-run accident, it was quickly determined that the death was not the result of a hit-and-run, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

The man was later identified as Domingo Merino Rafael, 33, of Lakewood, and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was taken to the Middlesex County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office where an autopsy determined the cause of death to be a homicide.

A joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Howell Township Police Department determined Rojas Hernandez, Rivera Rojas and Merino Rafael traveled from Lakewood to Middlesex County in the early morning of Oct. 17. When the three returned to Lakewood on Oct. 18, they got into an argument that resulted in the murder of Merino Rafael.

Rojas Hernandez is currently being held in Middlesex County Youth Detention Center in North Brunswick pending an appearance and detention hearing set for Sept. 17. He has been held there since his arrest in October.

If convicted of murder, Rojas Hernandez faces a minimum sentence of 30 years in state prison without parole and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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