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The men from Lakewood are charged with aggravated manslaughter in the slaying that took place in Howell Township in 2019, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey.
Howell police responded to a 911 call at about 3:46 a.m. on Oct. 18, 2019, reporting an unconscious male lying in Hurley Pond Road just east of Route 547.
A man was located lying face down in the roadway. The incident was initially investigated as a fatal hit-and-run motor vehicle incident. However, upon the arrival of SCART investigators, it was quickly determined that his death was not the result of a hit and run event.
The man, identified as Domingo Merino-Rafael, 33, also of Lakewood, was unresponsive and obviously dead, Linskey said.
Rafael was taken to the Middlesex County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office where a post-mortem examination performed by Medical Examiner Allison Mautone, M.D. and the staff of the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death was a homicide.
Both men admitted that they each struck the victim in the back of the head with a machete, the prosecutor said. The cause of death was multiple chop wounds to the head, she said.
Sentencing for both Rivera-Rojas, 32, and Rojas-Hernandez, 20, is scheduled for March 3, 2023.
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