The nation was shaken in 2024 by Rachel Morin’s tragic story. A 37-year-old mother of five from Maryland, she was raped and murdered in August 2023 by Salvadoran illegal Victor Martinez-Hernandez, who had a criminal history. Almost two years later, Martinez-Hernandez has been convicted of first degree murder, rape, sexual offense, and kidnapping.
A jury in Bel Air, Maryland swiftly reached a guilty verdict on all charges against Martinez-Hernandez in less than an hour on Monday. His defense team presented a brief ten-minute closing argument before the verdict was delivered, as confirmed by media witnesses in the courtroom.
BREAKING | after only an hour of deliberations, the jury finds Victor Martinez-Hernandez guilty on all counts:
-1st degree murder
-1st degree rape
-1st degree sexual offense
-kidnapping
— Rebecca Pryor (@RebeccaPryorTV) April 14, 2025
Initially, local media had played down Morin’s murder, focusing on her boyfriend and considering the possibility of a local homeless person being responsible. It was nearly a year before Martinez-Hernandez was linked to the crime. The turning point came when his family turned in some of his clothing to law enforcement, leading to a DNA match with evidence from the crime scene on Morin’s body.
A manhunt began in earnest after Martinez-Hernandez’s DNA also linked him to a March 2023 home invasion in the Los Angeles area where a woman and her 9-year-old daughter were assaulted. He was eventually arrested while “casually sitting” in a bar in Oklahoma, and it later came to light that he had illegally crossed the southern border at least three times over the course of two months in early 2023, eventually becoming a “gotaway” who successfully evaded federal law enforcement officials.
