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Prosecutors alleged that Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was
carrying out a planned attack when he grabbed Rachel Morin off
the trail, bashed her head against nearby rocks, raped her and
concealed her body in a drainage culvert. Their case hinged on
DNA evidence connecting him to the crime.
A jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder
and first-degree rape, among other offenses, according to
Randolph Rice, an attorney representing Morin’s relatives.
“The Morin family is incredibly relieved that justice was served
today,” Rice said in a statement.
Martinez-Hernandez was accused of entering the United States
illegally after allegedly killing another woman in his home
country. Authorities also linked him to a 2023 home invasion in
Los Angeles.
Morin was killed in August 2023. The act of violence sent shock
waves through Bel Air, a suburban community northeast of
Baltimore. It also became a political flashpoint during the 2024
presidential election campaign as Donald Trump called for
increased border security and mass deportations of immigrants
living in the U.S. illegally.
Trump posted on social media about the verdict Monday night,
saying Morin’s “life was taken at the hands of a monster who
should have NEVER been here in the first place” and blaming the
Biden administration for failing to properly secure the border.
Martinez-Hernandez was arrested last summer in Oklahoma. He had
been living in Bel Air around the time of Morin’s death,
prosecutors said. They said Morin went walking or running along
the same route almost every day, usually in the evenings.
Defense attorneys challenged prosecutors' assertion that the
crime was a random attack and said police simply got the wrong
guy. They also asked jurors to pay close attention to unanswered
questions during the trial, including questions of motive.
Detectives collected DNA from several places on Morin’s body and
developed Martinez-Hernandez as a suspect, according to
prosecutors. After interviewing some of his relatives,
detectives matched DNA from the scene with DNA collected from
socks that Martinez-Hernandez left behind when he fled Maryland.
Morin, 37, left behind five children. Her 14-year-old daughter
was the first witness to testify last week, fighting back tears
as she described the immediate aftermath of her mom’s
disappearance.
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