A suspect in a 35-year-old murder case has been ordered to stand trial for the killing of a drug runner.

In 1982, Wilfredo Roberto Matos Osorio traveled from Oklahoma City to Miami to pick up drugs before returning to the Oklahoma City home of a couple from whom he borrowed a car for the journey. Upon returning, he fell asleep on the couple's couch.

According to a preliminary hearing last week, reported cocaine dealer Raul Sierra, acting under the belief that Osorio had raped or attempted to rape two women, decided to kill the man as he slept.

John Walters, who lived at the home with his wife, testified that Sierra told him to turn up the music to muffle the sound of a shotgun blast, and to go into another room with his wife.

Another witness, Michael Huffman, testified that Sierra was determined to kill the sleeping man, saying, "There was no stopping it." He testified that he saw Sierra with the shotgun, but could not remember if he actually saw the man fire it. He also told the court that another man, "C.L." shot Osorio in the chest with a pistol. C.L. has since been identified as Claude Luther Allen, now deceased.

After Osorio was killed, his body was dumped at a bridge embankment in Pottawatomie County. Although investigators collected evidence from the Waters's home, it was insufficient to develop many leads, and the case went cold.

However, DNA testing in subsequent years connected blood stains on the ceiling of the Waters's home to Osorio. In December, police in New Orleans arrested Sierra in connection with the 1982 murder of Wilfredo Osorio.

At the conclusion of last week's preliminary hearing, Oklahoma County Special Judge Mark McCormick determined there was sufficient evidence to bind over Raul Sierra for trial.

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