Rachel Morin case's verdict likely today. Here's what's happened so far.
BALTIMORE — A verdict in the trial for Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, the man charged with killing Rachel Morin on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in August 2023, is expected today after prosecutors rested their case last week.
The prosecution, Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healey and Deputy State's Attorney David Ryden, closed their eight-day argument Friday following testimony from a forensic scientist with the Maryland State Police who tested Martinez-Hernandez's DNA and linked him to the crime scene.
Martinez-Hernandez, a 24-year-old Salvadoran native, was arrested in June 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is charged with first-degree rape and first-degree murder and related charges in connection to Morin's death.
Morin's death and Martinez-Hernandez's arrest attracted national attention as the case grew to become a political talking point on the campaign trail for President Donald Trump on illegal immigration. Morin's family was invited to the Republican National Convention in July, and Morin's mother, Patricia Morin, has testified before Congress regarding illegal immigration numerous times.
Immigration status and prior allegations of Martinez-Hernandez allegedly killing a woman in El Salvador before entering the United States and allegedly assaulting a mother and daughter in Los Angeles have not been mentioned in the courtroom, despite the political climate surrounding the case. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have focused entirely on facts and evidence associated with Morin's death and objected to any questioning that has been irrelevant to the case.
The trial began April 1 with jury selection, which ran through April 2. Two jurors ended up being dismissed for unknown reasons. One was an elderly Black woman serving as an alternate juror who was dismissed the day of opening statements, and the other was a white man dismissed on the sixth day of trial.
The court took a break April 3 and began opening statements and testimony from Morin's two oldest daughters and her boyfriend the next day.
Prosecutors utilized the early days of the trial to build the scene for jurors by detailing witness testimony when Morin went missing, how she was found and what was discovered at the crime scene.
Images of Morin, the scene, evidence and her autopsy were utilized to emphasize the scale of the attack the Bel Air mother of five endured while she was on a run the evening of Aug. 5, 2023.
Each day, the gallery of the courtroom was filled with friends, family and members of the public interested in the case. Morin's mother and other family members sat behind the prosecution each day of the trail.
The testimonies were emotional and caused many in the courtroom to cry. Jurors often had perplexed looks on their faces while leaning in to observe exhibits and hear testimony.
One testimony described the moment a man and his girlfriend were walking their dog on the trail and noticed a 'sneaky' man in the woods wearing sunglasses and a sweatshirt with the hood up holding a walking stick that was later identified as a shovel.
The witness, Kyle Stacy, described the man in the woods as broad-shouldered, muscular, 6 feet tall and with a blond beard. Martinez-Hernandez is 5'9, according to court documents, with black facial hair and wide shoulders. Police recovered the shovel in the woods away from where Morin's body was found.
An evidentiary image of the shovel displayed in court showed an investigator swabbing the spade tip of the shovel. When asked what the hand holding the swab in the photo was doing to the shovel by prosecutors, a testifying detective said 'swabbing for DNA.' However, the DNA expert that linked Martinez-Hernandez to the crime scene said Friday that state police did not receive DNA from the spade tip from the Harford County Sheriff's Office and that the swabs she did receive had trace amount of male DNA but nothing conclusive.
Another testimony was from a woman who reported Morin's body to police after her friend located Morin in the tunnel. The 911 call audio was played in which the woman could be heard frantic, crying and telling dispatchers she was going to 'throw up' or 'pass out.'
Morin's friends and family had flushed faces and patted tears from their eyes as the audio played out.
Healey and Ryden outlined the investigative measures taken by law enforcement to gather DNA evidence and digital forensic evidence, including health data from Morin's phone and Apple Watch that showed the exact moments leading up to her attack, and security footage showing the last places she visited before her run that evening.
Friends, family and coworkers of Martinez-Hernandez testified through Spanish interpreters, confirming that he was in Bel Air at the time of the attack and that he worked at Barrett's On The Pike and the Bel Air Popeyes restaurants.
Martinez-Hernandez's Bel Air roommates testified that he had lived at more than one address in and around the downtown Bel Air area — less than a mile from the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail. He would often go to the Chili's in Bel Air to drink at the bar, they said.
The general manager of the Bel Air Popeyes, Ana Trejo, told jurors that when Martinez-Hernandez applied for a job, he provided her with the name 'Roberto Cantos.'
In December 2023, Martinez-Hernandez went to live with his cousin and aunt in Prince George's County. FBI agents came to the apartment there and questioned Martinez-Hernandez's cousin, Jose Hernandez, while Martinez-Hernandez stayed outside, avoiding them.
The agency had run the crime scene DNA through an investigative tool known as forensic genetic genealogy to create a family tree of a suspect's potential relatives to glean leads.
After issues arose between Martinez-Hernandez and his cousin over Martinez-Hernandez not paying rent, he unexpectedly left the home in May 2024, Hernandez testified. Hernandez said that Martinez-Hernandez contacted him after he'd left, asking if he would buy him a ticket to Texas under his cousin's name, which Hernandez said he declined.
Each person to testify who knew, lived with or worked with Martinez-Hernandez was accompanied by a court-certified Spanish interpreter. Martinez-Hernandez often looked at the ground and sank into his chair, avoiding eye contact with former co-workers, friends and family.
Expert witnesses briefly explained how Martinez-Hernandez was identified as a suspect using DNA and how his cellphone was pinged at Los Dos Amigos Sports Bar in Tulsa on June 14, 2024. Officers from the Tulsa Police Department outlined Martinez-Hernandez's arrest and said he gave them the name of Juan Carlos before police confirmed his identity because of gaps in his teeth.
Investigators recovered a bus ticket from Memphis, Tennessee, to Tulsa in a bookbag when they searched the home Martinez-Hernandez had been living in. Investigators also recovered the business card of the FBI agent who'd visited in Prince Georges County.
While in custody, Martinez-Hernandez told investigators he had not been to Maryland and never hurt anyone before because he 'served God' — despite his cellphone, home security footage, social media posts and witness testimony placing him in Bel Air.
He told police that he believed his DNA was planted at the scene and that he never knew Morin or had any idea who she was.
Socks recovered from a bag of dirty clothes at the home in Prince George's County matched DNA evidence to the profile investigators were calling 'Unknown Male 1' that was found on the front of Morin's neck, her left wrist, her breast and her smashed Apple Watch.
After Martinez-Hernandez was arrested, his DNA swabs matched the DNA on the socks. Authorities ultimately renamed the DNA profile of Unknown Male 1 to Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez.
Defense attorneys Sawyer Hicks, Marcus Jenkins and Tara LeCompte are expected to call witnesses today. The presiding judge in the case, Harford County Circuit Court Judge Yolanda Curtin, said closing arguments and jury deliberation is expected to take place later in the day.
Prosecutors are looking to sentence Martinez-Hernandez to life without parole.
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