Robbery suspect now accused in 2008 murder

HOUSTON

A Crime Stoppers tip about several robberies in 2010 led detectives to 33-year-old Marcus Earl Lockett, according to a Houston Police Department statement. Police arrested him on charges related to those robberies, but when his DNA was entered into the police department's database, it matched DNA evidence recovered during a 2008 murder investigation.

Detectives say they now believe that Lockett was the robber who shot 31-year-old Jorge Hernandez several times on June 8, 2008. Hernandez was delivering fuel to a gas station in the 9000 block of North Freeway when he was approached by a man who tried to rob him. The two got into a fight, and the man shot Hernandez before fleeing in a vehicle driven by an unidentified second suspect.

Detectives say Lockett was the positively identified as the suspect in this case, and investigators were able to recover the murder weapon used in this incident.

He was already being held in the Harris County Jail when the capital murder charge was filed against him.