OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:28 PM – Monday, April 14, 2025
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was convicted by a Maryland jury on Monday of raping and killing Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old Bel Air resident, in August 2023.
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Martinez-Hernandez illegally entered the United States in early 2023.
According to authorities, Martinez-Hernandez attacked Morin by ambushing, strangling, and then beating her to death. However, it is unclear at what point he committed the sexual assault.
Morin was a 37-year-old mother of five, who had been running along the “Ma & Pa” Trail in Bel-Air, Maryland — a neighborhood northeast of Baltimore.
DNA evidence linked him to both the sexual assault and the homicide, and the case drew national attention due to the brutality of the crime and the fact that he had previously been wanted in connection with another murder in El Salvador.
Under the Biden administration, Martinez-Hernandez was still able to enter the U.S. illegally and make a life for himself.
According to FOX 45, the defense rested its case on Monday less than ten minutes before closing arguments were given, while the prosecution rested its case on Friday.
“This has been an emotionally grueling experience for Rachel’s family, but they remain steadfast in their pursuit of justice,” said Randolph Rice, the family’s attorney, in a Friday statement.
Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler has consistently maintained that the U.S. immigration system failed Morin’s family and the victim herself.
“The failure here, again, is the immigration system that allowed this person to enter our country illegally and remain in our country and commit crimes in Los Angeles and then here in Harford County,” Gahler stated.
It “adds another layer of pain and frustration to many of us in the community,” Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Mike McCarthy added.
“It raises questions that deserve to be taken seriously about how we protect our neighborhoods, about how we enforce our laws and how we prevent such tragedy in the future,” McCarthy stated.
According to the results of the Harford County autopsy, Morin died from a mix of blunt-force trauma and strangulation after suffering 15 to 20 strikes to the head.
When Morin was still missing, witnesses who were strolling along the Ma & Pa Trail reported that they came upon a path that looked like a deer trail that had been flattened by leaves. However, they soon came across blood-stained rocks close to the trail and followed the odd markings through two tunnels with overgrown brush near the trail.
In her opening remarks, Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey explained that’s where they discovered Morin’s nude body.
“I saw an unclothed human body on her back. At first, I truly thought it might have been a deer or something that had died in there,” Evan Knapp testified, who found Morin’s body. “So, I had to move a bit closer to confirm what I had seen, and it was a human. I feel like time froze for a second and I didn’t know what I was looking at.”
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