DA’s office announces charges in West Hazleton homicide

The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday it has filed homicide charges against a man they say beat an acquaintance to death in West Hazleton in late June.

Giovanni Morales, 24, of Brooklyn, New York, has not yet been taken into custody, and a statement from the DA’s office indicates that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Morales is accused in the June 26 death of Jonathan Hernandez.

Police say Morales came to Luzerne County on June 24 to stay with Hernandez, and the two worked at various construction sites in the Luzerne County area over the next two days. The two were seen together at various locations around West Hazleton, surveillance footage from June 26 shows, including footage that shows them returning to Hernandez’s Winters Avenue home.

On Saturday, June 27, neither Morales nor Hernandez answered phone calls from their boss who had come to pick them up to transport them to that day’s work site.

At around 1 p.m. that day, Hernandez’s boss returned to the Winters Avenue home Hernandez lived in, and entered the home. He found Hernandez lying on the floor, unresponsive, with signs of trauma to his face.

Police say they observed blood on the man’s hands and clothes, also being splattered around the apartment. Hernandez’s cell phone was missing, and investigators say there was no sign of forced entry. Investigators determined Morales was the last known person to see Hernandez alive.

Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy performed by forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross determined he died as a result of multiple blunt force trauma, with the manner of death being ruled a homicide.

Investigators believe Morales fled to the New York City metropolitan area, and they are asking anyone with information to contact the Pennsylvania State Police Troop N Hazleton Criminal Investigation Unity at 570-459-3890, or the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office at 570-825-1674.