Sterling Heights

Co-defendant, victims testify in murder-for-hire case

By Cortney Casey
C & G Staff Writer

STERLING HEIGHTS — A co-conspirator and two intended targets of an alleged murder for hire plot took the stand May 22 in the ongoing trial of Zoran Vezirovic and Kevin Hill.

Vezirovic, 46, is accused of hiring Hill, 20, and Mario Reed, 24, to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new live-in boyfriend at their Sterling Heights home last August.

According to police, the boyfriend disarmed Hill after he jumped out of a closet, wielding a knife and a baseball bat. Reed allegedly was waiting outside the home in a getaway car.

Vezirovic faces two counts each of solicitation of murder and conspiracy to assault with intent to murder, while Hill is charged with first-degree home invasion, assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy, though attorneys hinted that those charges may be amended.

Reed pleaded guilty Jan. 23 to lesser charges — one count of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder and third-degree home invasion — in return for the dismissal of first-degree home invasion, conspiracy and assault with intent to murder charges. His sentencing is scheduled for June 3.

In opening statements May 16, Assistant Prosecutor Jurij Fedorak claimed that the attack was the culmination of a bitter custody feud between Vezirovic and his ex-girlfriend, who share a young daughter.

Vezirovic so hated the situation, Fedorak argued, that he hired Hill and Reed to murder the boyfriend and maim or kill the ex-girlfriend.

Defense attorney Joseph Kosmala said Vezirovic was aware of the size and strength of the boyfriend, a Bosnian war veteran, and will testify that he “wouldn’t send a 130-pound soaking wet guy” — referring to the diminutive Hill — to kill him.

He also dismissed Reed’s value as a witness, citing the reduced sentence he’ll receive through the plea bargain.

“That, folks, would buy a lot of testimony,” he said. “I would argue that testimony is tainted.”

Appearing composed, Reed testified May 22 that he met Vezirovic through Hill, and the trio met up at Vezirovic’s Bosnian social club near 15 Mile and Harper to formulate a plan.

In broken English, using hand gestures, Vezirovic — who speaks Bosnian and has had an interpreter throughout the court proceedings — told Hill and Reed what he wanted done, and promised them $15,000, said Reed.

“Mr. Vezirovic wanted the male occupant of that home on Monaco that night killed, his throat slashed, and the woman occupant’s legs broken,” he said.

According to Reed, he and Hill went to the victims’ home on Monaco Aug. 16, 2007, in Reed’s silver Impala. Hill had a knife, the handle wrapped in duct tape, stashed up his sleeve, and Vezirovic had given them a Louisville Slugger.

But Reed claimed that, after boosting Hill through a window, he decided he couldn’t go through with the attack.

During cross-examination, Kosmala suggested that Reed backed out after observing the size of the male victim, who arrived home from work while the suspects waited outside. He also hinted that Reed and Hill independently concocted a plan to rob the house after surmising from conversations with Vezirovic that the ex-girlfriend and boyfriend had money.

Meanwhile, Hill’s attorney, Louis Zaidan, made allusions to Hill’s supposed diminished mental capacity.

“Did you ever notice with Kevin that he was slower than the average person?” he asked Reed. “Did you ever notice that he would do almost anything someone told him to do?”

Speaking through a Bosnian interpreter, the female and male witnesses also took the stand May 22.

The female victim said she and Vezirovic separated in July 2007 after eight years of dating and were embroiled in a battle over their 6-year-old daughter. Prior to the attack on Monaco, Vezirovic had threatened to kill her, her boyfriend, the daughter and himself, she said.

“It wasn’t only about (the daughter); he wanted to get me back,” she said. “He wanted me back, but I didn’t want to live with him anymore.”

The male victim recalled an altercation a few days prior to the Monaco incident, when he accompanied his girlfriend as she attempted to retrieve her daughter from Vezirovic’s Hamtramck home.

“(Vezirovic) told me he was going to kill me and my children before Saturday,” he said.

Using a highlighter as a faux knife, the male victim imitated how he said Hill emerged from the closet and held a blade to his throat, threatening to kill the victim.

In earlier testimony, police described arriving to find the boyfriend holding Hill down near the house’s front door and Reed waiting outside in the Impala.

Fedorak noted the presence of a slip of yellow paper, marked with the victims’ address, in Reed’s vehicle. Tracee McIntosh, a fingerprint examiner with the Michigan State Police’s Sterling Heights crime lab, indicated that Reed, Hill and Vezirovic’s fingerprints were on it.

Kosmala argued that Vezirovic only wrote his ex-girlfriend’s address down to assist him in filing for a PPO against her, then lost track of the paper.

The 17-year-old son of the female victim testified that he saw Vezirovic — whom he calls “father,” though Vezirovic is not his biological father — meet with Hill and Reed outside the Bosnian club.

He also confirmed that the baseball bat in the aborted attack was once his and said he last saw it a few months prior to the incident in Vezirovic’s Envoy.

The son’s 17-year-old girlfriend said Hill claimed to have hurt his leg, then dashed down the hall, punching the female victim in the face as he scrambled toward the front door.

She said Hill hit his head on the front door hinge as he attempted to flee, but the male victim held him down until police arrived.

The male victim’s 16-year-old daughter testified that she heard Hill beg her father not to call police.

“He said … ‘I’m here for a guy with a black car; he lives next door. I got the wrong house,’” she recalled.

The female victim also testified that she heard Hill say he was in the wrong house, after he told the male victim that he planned to kill him.

At press time, the trial was ongoing.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Cortney Casey at ccasey@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1046.