BEL AIR, Md. — A fugitive from El Salvador used to be convicted Monday within the 2023 slaying of a Maryland lady who used to be attacked whilst exercising on a well-liked mountaineering path northeast of Baltimore.
Prosecutors alleged that Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, used to be wearing out a deliberate assault when he grabbed Rachel Morin off the path, bashed her head towards close by rocks, raped her and hid her frame in a drainage culvert. Their case hinged on DNA proof connecting him to the crime.
A jury discovered Martinez-Hernandez to blame of first-degree homicide and first-degree rape, amongst different offenses, in step with Randolph Rice, an lawyer representing Morin’s relations.
“The Morin circle of relatives is amazingly relieved that justice used to be served these days,” Rice mentioned in a observation.
Martinez-Hernandez used to be accused of getting into america illegally after allegedly killing every other lady in his house nation. Government additionally connected him to a 2023 house invasion in Los Angeles.
Morin used to be killed in August 2023. The act of violence despatched surprise waves thru Bel Air, a suburban group northeast of Baltimore. It additionally turned into a political flashpoint all over the 2024 presidential election marketing campaign as Donald Trump known as for greater border safety and mass deportations of immigrants dwelling within the U.S. illegally.
Trump posted on social media concerning the verdict Monday night time, announcing Morin’s “existence used to be taken by the hands of a monster who must have NEVER been right here within the first position” and blaming the Biden management for failing to correctly protected the border.
Martinez-Hernandez used to be arrested remaining summer time in Oklahoma. He have been dwelling in Bel Air across the time of Morin’s dying, prosecutors mentioned. They mentioned Morin went strolling or working alongside the similar course nearly each day, typically within the evenings.
Protection legal professionals challenged prosecutors’ statement that the crime used to be a random assault and mentioned police merely were given the mistaken man. In addition they requested jurors to pay shut consideration to unanswered questions all over the trial, together with questions of purpose.
Detectives accrued DNA from a number of puts on Morin’s frame and evolved Martinez-Hernandez as a suspect, in step with prosecutors. After interviewing a few of his relations, detectives matched DNA from the scene with DNA accrued from socks that Martinez-Hernandez left at the back of when he fled Maryland.
Morin, 37, left at the back of 5 youngsters. Her 14-year-old daughter used to be the primary witness to testify remaining week, combating again tears as she described the instant aftermath of her mother’s disappearance.
