Rachel Morin’s trial: a local flashpoint amid an immigration crackdown
- La Voz Latina
- May 1
- 3 min read
By: Carlos Sanchez
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense and kidnapping on April 14 for the killing of Rachel Morin, 37, in Bel Air, Maryland.
A 10-month nationwide manhunt ensued in 2023 until Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in June 2024 at Los Dos Amigos Sports Bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Martinez-Hernandez repeatedly told police he was Juan Carlos but was detained after eventually relenting.
About 60 miles away from College Park, nobody would have anticipated such a senseless crime in a town that’s full of character, consisting of a lively downtown with pubs, restaurants, local businesses, and parks.
Not only has this case shaken this small town, but it has also garnered national and international attention, from the Times of India to The Independent in the UK covering the murder.
Martinez-Hernandez entered the country as an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador after unsuccessfully trying to enter three times in 2023. Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said Martinez-Hernandez crossed the border into the U.S. in Feb. 2023, as he was being sought for the murder of a woman in El Salvador.
Upon his arrival in Bel Air, he worked at Popeyes and Barrett’s On The Pike and lived at a home on George Street near Plumtree Park, about a mile from the trail where the murder took place.
The Trump administration, in trying to build support for increasingly harsh immigration policy, invited Patty Morin, mother of Rachel Morin, to the White House for a special appearance at their press conference, a day after Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty.
April 16 marked the end of a ten-day trial that featured a 12-member jury and an impassioned testimony to the events that took place.
Rachel Morin was first reported missing on Aug. 5, 2023, after being last seen around 6 p.m. Her car was found near the footpath of the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Hartford County, which led officers to begin a search. Her body was found raped and murdered the next day.
Law enforcement believes that Martinez-Hernandez hid in a drainage hole and attacked Morin as she was jogging on the.
In the courtroom, words were not minced when describing the case. Randolph Rice, the Morin family attorney, said in an interview that the individuals who housed Martinez-Hernandez in Maryland believed him to be taking advantage of them, as he would hardly contribute to rent, frequently couch-surfed, and often sat at the bar drinking.
Attorneys described a horrifying scene where Morin was murdered. According to WBAL-TV 11, the presented evidence included “pictures of a 150-foot blood trail through thorn bushes, bloody rocks used to bash Morin’s head, and a bloody outline of the victim’s body on the wall of a culvert.”
According to Dr. Zabiullah Ali, a retired forensic pathologist with the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Morin suffered a minimum of 15-20 blows to her head and face, leaving a six-inch cut on the back of her head so deep that her skull could be seen.
A timeline of events was formulated from the heart rate monitor and other data received from Morin’s cellphone, AirPods, and Apple Watch.
The Harford County Sheriff’s office requested assistance from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on Aug. 17, 2023. Later that day, authorities announced a DNA connection between Rachel Morin’s suspected killer and a man who assaulted a girl and her mother during a home invasion in Los Angeles.
Amid another high-profile case in Maryland involving the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump has tried to connect Morin’s case to that of Abrego Garcia’s. One key distinction, however, is the context behind the two cases.
The Trump administration admitted it was a mistake to deport Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, and in an unsigned opinion with no recorded dissents, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the U.S. must facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. Despite this, several Trump officials have said that Abrego Garcia would not be coming back to the U.S., in complete defiance of the order.
According to a report by The Baltimore Banner, the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice found in a 2024 study that undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes. Abrego Garcia was deported based on a 2019 accusation from Maryland police that he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia has denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime.
Full of emotional testimony and graphic details, Rachel Morin’s case took the work of various law enforcement agencies and a months-long investigation to finally conclude. Now, the guilty verdict for Martinez-Hernandez brings a sense of closure to the Morin family, and it serves justice to Harford County.
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