HOUSTON - (Covering Katy News) - A Katy area man received 45 years in prison on Friday for his role in the 2019 murder of a former high school classmate.
Jose Varela, 24, pleaded guilty to murdering 22-year-old Zuhyr Hamza Kaleem on April 27, 2019. Prior to his sentencing, Varela lived in a neighborhood near the intersection of North Fry Road and West Little York in unincorporated Katy, Harris County.
“This was a premeditated murder that left a family questioning what happened to their loved one for more than a year,” District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “With help from the victim’s family, and great police work, we were able to get justice in this horrible case.”
Varela and Kaleem had been classmates at Cypress Lakes High School and had agreed to meet at Varela’s home to make a marijuana deal. When Kaleem arrived, Varela and another man, Eric Aguilar, closed the garage door to make the deal. That was when Aguilar shot Kaleem and stole his money.
Varela and Aguilar took Kaleem’s body to Grimes County and burned his remains. Varela then dumped Kaleem’s car in Mexico, according to court testimony.
Courtesy Harris County District Attorney's Office
Zuhyr Hamza Kaleem
Kaleem’s family filed a missing person’s report and did everything possible to find their loved one.
Using their expertise as software engineers, Kaleem’s brothers were able to identify Varela as the last person to have contact with Kaleem.
Detective Demetrius Lewis with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office continued to investigate, resulting in the arrest of Varela, Aguilar, and a third man, whose case is still pending.
Aguilar was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in November.
Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Dupree, a Division Chief in the DA’s office, prosecuted the case with ADA Jason Sanchez, who is assigned to the DA’s Organized Crime section.
“These defendants thought they had gotten away with murder and had moved on with their lives, but they had not counted on the victim’s brothers and law enforcement relentlessly pursuing Kaleem’s whereabouts,” Dupree said. “This family went an entire year, pining away, praying for their loved one to come home only to find that his remains had been burned because of some marijuana and a couple of hundred bucks.”