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(NewsNation) — A Maryland jury has found Victor Martinez-Hernandez guilty on all four counts in the murder and rape of Rachel Morin, a mother of five who went missing after going out for a run in 2023.
Martinez-Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sexual offense and kidnapping.
The decision comes after prosecutors presented DNA evidence linking the man to Morin’s killing. The jury deliberated for less than an hour after a nine-day trial where the defense called just one witness and presented for only 10 minutes.
Rachel Morin disappears in 2023
Morin went missing on Aug. 5, 2023, after her boyfriend reported that she didn’t return home from a run at the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland.
After a day of searching, Morin’s body was found on Aug. 6, 2023, off the trail. Police had declared her death a homicide and believed she was attacked while on the trail. They then said she had been dragged through the woods where she was raped and killed.
DNA was taken from the crime scene and analyzed through the CODIS database. It was linked to an unidentified suspect in a Los Angeles home invasion, according to authorities in Harford County. The sheriff’s office then released security footage from the Los Angeles crime scene showing the suspect.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez is arrested in June 2024
It took almost a year after Morin’s death to arrest Martinez-Hernandez in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Salvadorian national, who was 22 years old at the time of the mother’s death, was accused of entering the United States illegally multiple times.
He had also been accused of crimes in his home country, authorities said.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez facing life without parole
The 37-year-old mother was last seen at the popular Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, in August of 2023. Morin was later found dead near the trail.
Martinez-Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally multiple times from his native El Salvador, where he was accused of murdering a woman in December of 2022. He was expelled each time he crossed the border in early 2023.
He later appeared in Los Angeles after a successful attempt to get into the country, where he was linked to the assault of a woman and her 9-year-old daughter.
Martinez-Hernandez faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Rachel Morin family attorney: Guilty verdict brings ‘partial closure’
The attorney representing Morin’s family said Monday’s guilty verdict against her killer brings “partial closure” to her family.
“It certainly gives them some partial closure,” attorney Randolph Rice told NewsNation. “Now that they know this man has been convicted, that he won’t ever be probably released from prison, he can’t hurt anybody else, which means there won’t be another Rachel Morin at his hands.”
Rachel Morin’s family preparing victim impact statements
Rice described the state’s case as “airtight,” noting that DNA evidence was “the crux of this entire case.”
“That’s why the state left it till the end of the trial to put it all together, where they found so much DNA at the crime scene on Rachel’s body and ultimately linking it back to this suspect and this now convicted killer,” Rice said.
Rice expects that Martinez-Hernandez will receive life without parole when sentenced and will likely remain in a Maryland prison despite having an immigration detainer.
“I think the judge in this case has heard all these gruesome facts. She saw the same photos that the jury saw, the brutal nature of this crime. I have no doubt she will be giving this defendant life without parole,” Rice said.
The family is now preparing victim impact statements for the sentencing phase. The case gained national attention partly due to the immigration status of Martinez-Hernandez.
NewsNation’s Kim Anderson contributed to the report.