A man who secretly lived in a closet at the home of his married girlfriend for a month was charged Tuesday with beating her husband to death after the man discovered him sleeping in the storage area.
Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Rafael DeJesus Rocha-Perez of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was charged with criminal homicide in the beating death of Jeffrey A. Freeman, 44, and ordered held on $500,000 bail.
"From time to time, you come across a case with very unique — even bizarre — circumstances," Aaron said. "This one probably rates right up there with them."
Detectives said Martha Freeman allowed Rocha-Perez to live in a closet of her four-bedroom home for about a month without her husband's knowledge.
Jeffrey Freeman discovered Rocha-Perez late Sunday night when he came home and heard him snoring, police said.
Freeman told his wife he was taking a walk and instructed her to get rid of Rocha-Perez before he returned, the Nashville Tennessean reported. Instead, when he returned Rocha-Perez ordered him into a bathroom at gunpoint and beat him about the head, the newspaper said.