2019 Howell Machete Slaying: Lakewood Uncle, Nephew Sentenced

FREEHOLD – An uncle and his nephew who admitted to the 2019 machete killing of an Ocean County man in Howell have been sentenced, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Thursday.

Omar Rivera-Rojas, 33, and his nephew, Alberto Rojas-Hernandez, 21, both of Lakewood, were sentenced to 22 and 20 years in state prison, respectively.

The victim was Domingo Merino-Rafael, 33, also of Lakewood.

The two relatives both pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaugher on Sept. 23, before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Marc C. LeMieux.

Each man must serve at least 85 percent of their terms before the possibility of parole under the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA), in accordance with the terms set down during a Tuesday sentencing hearing before LeMieux.

The prosecutor's office said the three men were driving through Howell on Oct. 18, 2019, when they got into an argument and the two men hit Merino-Rafael with a machete to the back of his head.

The prosecutor's office recounted some details of the incident:

Members of the Howell Township Police Department responded to a 911 call shortly after 3:45 a.m. on Oct. 18, 2019, following up on a report of an unconscious male lying prone in Hurley Pond Road, just east of County Route 547 in Howell.

Upon their arrival, a man later identified as Domingo Merino-Rafael of Lakewood was found at the scene, unresponsive and obviously deceased, the prosecutor's office said.

Initially suspected to be a hit-and-run event, investigators from the Serious Collison Analysis Response Team (SCART) responded, but determined that the victim’s injuries were inconsistent with a motor-vehicle collision and were the result of a homicide.

The post-mortem examination confirmed the manner of death to be homicide and the cause of death identified as multiple chop wounds, the prosecutor's office said.

A joint investigation by members of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Howell Township Police Department determined that Rivera-Rojas, Rojas-Hernandez, and Merino-Rafael had traveled from Lakewood to Middlesex County on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.

The men were returning to Lakewood early the next morning when they got into an argument that ended with the uncle and nephew killing Merino-Rafael, the prosecutor's office said.

Rivera-Rojas was arrested on Oct. 22, 2019 and placed in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold. Two and a half weeks later, Rojas-Hernandez was taken into custody and brought to the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center because he was 17 at the time. Rojas-Hernandez was subsequently waived to adult court to face prosecution alongside his uncle.

During a plea hearing taking place in September 2022, both men admitted that they each took a turn striking the victim in the back of the head with a machete, pleading guilty to single counts of first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Howell Township Police Department credit the Lakewood Police Department and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for their assistance during this investigation. The case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutors Stephanie Dugan and Tara Wilson.

Rojas-Hernandez was represented by Joseph Champagne of Toms River, while Rivera-Rojas was represented at sentencing by Michel R. Rosas of East Brunswick.