The mother of Maryland of five Rachel Morin was brutally raped and murdered while in 2023 jogging by an undocumented migrant who had killed before, a court heard.
Prosecutors described Morin’s death by suspect Victor Martinez-Hernandez during the opening statements in his murder trial on Friday morning. Martinez-Hernandez is facing charges of murder and rape of the first degree, and can be sentenced to life without parole if convicted.
A jury was told that Morin left her home on the evening of August 5, 2023 for a jog on August 5, 2023, and never returned. The 37-year-old’s body was discovered the next day just along the mother & father route in Bel Air, Maryland.
After a nationwide search of ten months, Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in June 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, using investigative genetic genealogy to locate family members and later suit his DNA to the crime scene.
The case attracted national attention because of the undocumented status of Martinez-Hernandez, of El Salvador, and his connection with previous violent crimes.
His trial is expected to last until April 16.
“A mother’s worst nightmare”
During opening statements on Friday, Harford County attorney Alison Healey ran the jury through the tragic case she described as “a mother’s worst nightmare”.
She said Morin went to the mother and father route on August 5, 2023 and was never seen again.
“That place she loved so much eventually became the place that she lost her life under the defendant,” Healey told the court.
She further said that the office of the Harford County Sheriff received more than 1,000 tips, which led them to an apartment in Temple Hills, Maryland, where the family members of Martinez-Hernandez provided a photo, Facebook profile and phone number, The Baltimore Banner reported from the courtroom.
DNA collected from his possessions corresponds to those found on Morin, the prosecution said.
Martinez-Hernandez was later arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When investigators analyzed his cellphone, they found Martinez-Hernandez to ‘call’, ‘Air’, ‘Rachel’ and a wrong spelling of Morin, Healey said.
Castrued images and YouTube videos on Morin and the investigation were also found, Healey added.
Defense claims that Rachel Morin ‘drew male attention’
Defense Attorneys for Martinez-Hernandez argued that he was not the man who committed the crime so far went to claim that Morin “caught male attention”.
“Rachel Morin was brutally murdered. It was a horrible tragedy,” said Sawyer Hicks, assistant-public defender Sawyer Hicks, one of Martinez-Hernandez attorneys, said in his opening statement.
“But Mr. Martinez-Hernandez is not the man who committed this offense. ‘
The defense also questioned the motive and said there were many unanswered questions.
“It wasn’t a crime committed by a stranger,” Hicks said. “This is someone who had a grievance. Someone who wanted to humiliate Rachel Morin to the greatest extent possible. ‘
Who is Victor Martinez-Hernandez?
According to police, Martinez-Hernandez, from El Salvador, has lived illegally in the US since February 2023.
He is believed to have killed a woman in El Salvador in January 2023 before moving to the US and attacking a nine -year -old girl and her mother during a home invasion of Los Angeles in March 2023, said Sheriff of Harford County, Jeffrey Gahler.
The suspect has connections in the Washington, DC area, in both Virginia and Prince George’s County, Maryland, and has ties with well -known gangs, Gahler added.
“Victor Hernandez did not come here to make a better life for himself or his family,” Gahler said at the time of the arrest. “He came here to escape the crime he committed in El Salvador. He came here and killed Rachel and, God wants, no one else. ‘
Who was Rachel Morin?
Rachel Morin, a mother of five, who lived in Harford County, was looking for a jog when she was dragged, raped and killed.
A community in mourning gathered to honor her memory after her death. According to a program distributed during the memorial, Morin was a fitness enthusiast who lifted weights and participated in marathons. She loved fashion and enjoyed traveling.
And she was a dedicated mother of five children, eight to 18 years old. According to Joseph Murta, a lawyer representing Morin’s family, the children are cared for by their fathers and other family members.
Her mother, Patty Morin, said she owned a cleaning business and worked hard to support her family. She also loved to practice and spent a lot of time on the mother and father heritage route.
“We actually lived a block from the route for more than ten years when they were younger,” Patty Morin said. “And as a family we would go there every day … I always told Rachel to never go on the route alone. Even if it’s safe, just don’t. ‘
Michael Morin, Morin’s brother, delivered an emotional speech in July 2024 during the Republican National Convention, where he condemned the murder of his sister.
“Rachel, a joyous, capable athlete and mother of five, was raped and killed by a suspected illegal immigrant,” Morin told the RNC participants. “The death of my sister was preventable.”
