Latest news with #Martinez-Hernandez
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Illegal migrant who killed Rachel Morin sat emotionless as family members remembered mom at sentencing
The Salvadorian illegal migrant who viciously raped and killed Rachel Morin was emotionless as her grieving children remembered their 'kind' and 'determined' mom at his sentencing Monday — where he was given life without the possibility of parole. Harford County Circuit Court Judge Yolanda Curtin threw the book at Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, after an hours-long hearing Monday where Morin's family members, including four of her five children, delivered emotional victim impact statements. Morin's eldest daughter described her mom, who has the 'best laugh,' as 'kind, strong, honest, determined and funny,' in a heartbreaking written statement she asked the prosecutor to read to the court, WBAL-TV reported. 'I had to relive the worst two days of my life in order to write this,' the statement from the 20-year-old read. Her three youngest children delivered their statements via audio recordings. 'She was a good mom,' her son could be heard saying in one recording. 'Every time I see a picture of her I think about the life I had with her and my four sisters. I miss her.' Morin's children range in age from 9 to 20. 3 The killer of Maryland mother-of-five Rachel Morin was sentenced Monday. Facebook/Rachel Morin 'You took a life that was not yours to take,' the judge told Martinez-Hernandez, according to WBAL-TV. 'Your acts not only brutalized a young woman but also terrorized a community. 'You are not a candidate for rehabilitation. There is simply no hope to rehabilitate you.' A jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty in April of murdering Morin, 37, as she was exercising on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 5, 2023. He strangled her and then bashed her head against rocks before hiding her partially naked body in a drainage culvert on the trail that is about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore. Morin's younger brother, John Morin, said through tears Monday that he's experienced a 'tidal wave of grief' since his sister's slaying, according to a post on X by ABC 2 reporter Blair Sabol. Martinez-Hernandez remained stony-faced and emotionless as the family members told the judge about the toll that Morin's murder had taken on the family. After, through a Spanish translator, Martinez-Hernandez addressed the judge, thanking her 'for the opportunity to speak' but that he would 'not be giving any testimony.' Morin's mother, Patty Morin, told the court she has suffered nightmares, panic attacks, and insomnia since her daughter's death. 'The depths of grief are equivalent to the depths of love felt,' Patty said. 'This will impact generations to come.' Ahead of the sentencing, the heartbroken mom told Fox News' 'Fox & Friends' that she didn't know if she wanted to hear from her daughter's murderer at the sentencing, because she would never really know if an apology was simply a bid for a lighter penalty. 'To be honest, I don't know, because even if he spoke, would I believe what he said?' Patty said. 'If he said he was sorry, could I believe that he actually is or if he's just saying that to you know, to hope for a lesser sentence.' 3 Illegal immigrant Victor Martinez-Hernandez was convicted in April of the brutal rape and killing of Morin. Tulsa Police Department The killer wasn't captured until nearly a year later in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 2024, after investigators were able to match the DNA taken from his sock to the DNA found at the crime scene. He was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping and faced up to life in prison. He didn't face the death penalty as the Free State doesn't allow capitol punishment. Martinez-Hernandez entered the country illegally after allegedly slaying another woman in his home country of El Salvador. 3 Martinez-Hernandez was an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. X/BarrySimmsWBAL Morin's killing gained national notoriety as an example of former President Joe Biden's dangerous border policies. Patty was outspoken against Biden for his policies, which she blamed for the fact that Martinez-Hernandez was able to get into the country and kill her daughter. The murder of Laken Riley also made headlines as Jose Ibarra, a Tren de Aragua gang member, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for slaying the promising 22-year-old nursing student on Feb. 22, 2024, in Georgia.
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Slain Rachel Morin's mom not sure she'd believe apology from illegal migrant killer as he faces sentencing
The mom of slain Maryland woman Rachel Morin said she isn't even sure if she'd believe the illegal migrant convicted of killing her daughter if he chose to apologize during his sentencing hearing Monday. Victor Martinez-Hernandez, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador, is set to be sentenced Monday morning after he was found guilty of raping and killing the mom-of-five while she was jogging in Baltimore in 2023. Ahead of the hearing, Morin's mother, Patty Morin, suggested to Fox News' 'Fox & Friends' that she was torn on whether she wanted to hear from the illegal immigrant. 3 Patty Morin also said that the family has been told to not address Martinez-Hernandez directly. Fox News 'To be honest, I don't know, because even if he spoke, would I believe what he said? If he said he was sorry, could I believe that he actually is or if he's just saying that to you know, to hope for a lesser sentence,' Patty said when asked if she wanted an apology. She added that the family had been urged not to address the brute directly when they delivered their emotional victim impact statements to the court. 3 Martinez-Hernandez is set to be sentenced Monday morning for the 2023 murder. Tulsa Police Department 'They have some protocols that they request that you follow. The two that I know of that they've requested is that we don't address them directly, that we make our address to the judge, and that we don't tell the judge what to sentence him,' she said. 'So I'm going to ask that the judge would honor Rachel's life and preserve her dignity by giving her the justice that she deserves — and in doing that protecting other lives.' Martinez-Hernandez, who was accused of entering the US illegally after allegedly killing another woman in his native country, was found guilty of snatching Morin off the running trail, bashing her head against nearby rocks, raping her and then hiding her body in a drainage culvert. 3 Rachel Morin was killed by Martinez-Hernandez while she was jogging in Baltimore. Facebook/Rachel Morin He is facing life in prison over the grim slaying that sent shock waves across the country and became a political flashpoint during the 2024 presidential election. Morin left behind five children. It wasn't immediately clear how many of her kids would address the sentencing hearing.
Fox News
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump administration excoriates CNN, MSNBC for not airing Patty Morin's appeal to journalists at White House
White House officials are shaming CNN and MSNBC for not airing Patty Morin's appeal to journalists live at the White House on Wednesday. "SHAMEFUL that @CNN and @MSNBC refuses to take Angel Mom Patty Morin as she recounts the terrible tragedy of how an illegal killed her sweet daughter, Rachel," Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications, posted on X Wednesday. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk replied to Cheung's post on X with a "100" emoji. In another post on X quoting Cheung's post, Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security advisor, said, "CNN's and MSNBC's contempt for the victims of migrant crime is reprehensible." Patty Morin joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a Wednesday White House press briefing to talk about her daughter Rachel Morin's August 2023 murder by Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez. CNN and MSNBC did not carry the briefing with Morin live. CNN did play a clip of Patty Morin from the briefing on Thursday afternoon. According to a Grabien Media search, CNN mentioned Rachel Morin on the air each day this week, while MSNBC hasn't mentioned her at all, including on flagship morning show "Morning Joe." Rachel, a Maryland mother of five children, was jogging when Martinez-Hernandez beat, raped and strangled her to death. On Monday, a Maryland jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty on all counts of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sexual offense and kidnapping. Patty Morin begged journalists in tears to "tell the truth, tell how violent it really is," and said the conversation about immigration "is about protecting our children. It's more than just politics or votes or just anything. It's about national security, protecting Americans, protecting our kids." She also called out Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday "to show solidarity" with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member who lived in Maryland before the administration deported him to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center. Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, went so far as to say that "Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular 'Maryland man.' When the truth comes out, they ignore it." MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, a Comcast subsidiary, and CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Carr added that "Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn't cut it." According to a study published Wednesday by the Media Research Center, ABC, CBS, and NBC spent zero seconds on the Martinez-Hernandez trial, but 64 minutes were spent on Abrego Garcia between April 1 and 15. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment as well as CNN and MSNBC, but did not immediately receive a response.
USA Today
16-04-2025
- USA Today
Rachel Morin's mother recounts daughter's death: 'Rips out your heart'
Hear this story The mother of Rachel Morin, the Maryland woman who was fatally attacked on a popular hiking trail in a Baltimore suburb in 2023, was invited to the White House, a day after a Salvadoran man was found guilty in the case that became a flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign. Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense and kidnapping on April 14, according to the Harford County State's Attorney's Office. A Maryland jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning the guilty verdict, CBS Baltimore and The Baltimore Banner reported. Rachel Morin's mother, Patty Morin, was invited as a "special guest" at an April 16 White House briefing. She shared details about her daughter and how she was attacked, noting that the hiking trail had been a "safe place" for their family. "When she went on that trail that day, she was not planning on dying," she said. "She wasn't planning on walking to her death." Authorities accused Martinez-Hernandez of killing Rachel Morin, 37, a mother of five who vanished in August 2023 while walking on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, a town northeast of Baltimore. He was arrested in Oklahoma in June 2024 following a nationwide search. Authorities also accused Martinez-Hernandez of entering the U.S. without authorization in February 2023 after allegedly killing a different woman in his home country of El Salvador. He was then linked to an assault in Los Angeles during a March 2023 home invasion through DNA evidence. "This case shook our Harford County community and robbed a family of their daughter, sister, mother, and friend," Alison Healey, the Harford County State's Attorney, said in a statement. "It is my sincere hope that today's verdict brings some peace and closure to the entire Morin family." Martinez-Hernandez is being held at the Harford County Detention Center without bail, according to online inmate records. The Harford County State's Attorney's Office said it "intends to seek the maximum penalty allowable by law," which includes life without the possibility of parole on the murder charge, a life sentence on the rape charge and additional years on the remaining charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia case: Judge admonishes U.S. for failing to return Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador What happened to Rachel Morin? Rachel Morin's boyfriend reported her missing when she failed to return home from her walk on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail on Aug. 5, 2023, according to authorities. Morin was last seen on the trail at around 6 p.m., and her vehicle was found near the footpath. The next day, Harford County Sheriff's deputies discovered Rachel Morin's body in a wooded area near the trail and said she was a "victim of a violent homicide." Prosecutors alleged that Martinez-Hernandez had planned the attack and was waiting in the woods before attacking Rachel Morin shortly after she entered the trail. Health data on Rachel Morin's cell phone and Apple Watch showed that she was pulled about 150 feet from the main trail into the woods, prosecutors said. Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Martinez-Hernandez concealed Rachel Morin in drainage culverts just off the trail, where she was beaten, raped and killed, according to prosecutors. "(Morin) spent her day as she often did. Spending time with her children and boyfriend, working out at a local gym, running errands, and finally, taking a walk on the Ma & Pa trail," Healey said. "Witnesses testified that her time on the trail was 'her peace,' and she never could have predicted that on that day that she would never see or speak to her children again." Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said the Harford County Sheriff's Office requested assistance from its Baltimore office on Aug. 17, 2023, and relayed information that a person of interest in the investigation had been involved in a home invasion in Los Angeles. On that same day, authorities announced a DNA connection between Rachel Morin's suspected killer and a man who assaulted a girl and her mother during the home invasion. Prosecutors said DNA evidence that was recovered from parts of Rachel Morin's body also matched the DNA of the suspect. Who is Jocelyn Nungaray? Trump honors 12-year-old girl murdered at Texas bridge Attack leads to 10-month search for suspect Rachel Morin's death shocked the community of Bel Air and sparked a 10-month nationwide search for the suspect. On Sept. 7, 2023, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said in an update that investigators had "collected and watched hours of video footage" from the trail. Authorities later released a finalized sketch of the suspect on Feb. 12, 2024, but a name was not formally released. HSI said the Maryland State Police Crime Lab notified the Harford County Sheriff's Office on June 14, 2024, that it had matched DNA recovered from Martinez-Hernandez's clothing to DNA recovered at the scene of Rachel Morin's murder. Authorities were then able to track Martinez-Hernandez to a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and local police officers arrested him, according to HSI. He was booked into the Tulsa County Criminal Justice Center and later transferred to Maryland. Prosecutors alleged that Martinez-Hernandez claimed he had never been to Maryland. But multiple witnesses and business records said he had been living and working in Bel Air at the time of the murder. Following his arrest in Oklahoma, prosecutors said Martinez-Hernandez's phone was seized and authorities discovered photos and screenshots of Rachel Morin. Patty Morin on her daughter's death: 'Rips out your heart' Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced Patty Morin on April 16 after defending the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an unrelated case in which a Maryland man was wrongly removed from the country in March. "If you're a mother here in the room, can you imagine standing there alive, you're alive, someone comes and puts their hands into your chest and rips out your heart," Patty Morin said of her daughter's death. "That's what it feels like." A month after Martinez-Hernandez's arrest, Rachel Morin's family took the podium at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin to talk about losing their loved one, one in a series of speakers who shared their personal experiences with crime or substance abuse in the past four years. "Joe Biden and his designated border czar, Kamala Harris, opened our borders to him and others like him, empowering him to victimize the innocent. Yet, to this day, we have not heard from Joe Biden or Kamala Harris," Michael Morin, a brother of Rachel Morin, told the crowd in Milwaukee in July 2024. "But when Rachel was killed, President Trump called my family to offer his condolences." President Donald Trump, who came into office in January, has promised to reform U.S. immigration policy. He met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on April 14, a leader praised by the administration for opening his country's prison system to alleged gang members and detainees that Trump wants out of the United States. "I think he's doing a fantastic job, and he's taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn't be able to take care of from a cost standpoint," Trump told reporters about Bukele, referring to the cost of imprisoning the detainees in El Salvador. Contributing: Jonathan Limehouse and JJ Hensley, USA TODAY; Reuters (This story was updated to add new information.)
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
Rachel Morin case: Sentencing expected after psychological evaluation and investigation
BALTIMORE — Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, the man found guilty of raping and killing Rachel Morin on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in August 2023, will undergo a psychosexual evaluation and a background investigation before his sentencing, as required by state law and a request by the Harford County State's Attorney's Office. A jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense and kidnapping relating to Morin's death in less than an hour of deliberation, Monday. The maximum penalty for each of his charges are: —First-degree premeditated murder – life without possibility of parole —First-degree rape – life —Third-degree sex offense – 10 years —Kidnapping – 30 years However, the Maryland State Sentencing Guidelines for each offense are recommendations, Healey said. The presiding judge in the case, Harford County Circuit Court Judge Yolanda Curtin, can give Martinez-Hernandez a higher or lower sentence for each of the charges at her discretion. Since the maximum penalty for first-degree premeditated murder is life without the possibility of parole, state law requires Martinez-Hernandez to be subject to a pre-sentencing investigation so the state can learn of his upbringing, mental health issues, prior offenses and other background information for Curtin to consider during sentencing. Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healey, the lead prosecutor in the case, said she will request that Martinez-Hernandez be given the maximum penalty for each of the charges. Since Martinez-Hernandez was also found guilty of first-degree rape and third-degree sex offense, Healey requested that Martinez-Hernandez undergo a psychosexual evaluation. The evaluation serves as a risk assessment tool for the state to gauge Martinez-Hernandez's sexual interests, behaviors and attitudes to gauge if he might reoffend. 'It is just another tool in serious sex offense cases I generally always ask for,' Healey said. 'It can give us additional information to potentially use during sentencing.' A sentencing date for Martinez-Hernandez has yet to be scheduled due to the 60 to 90 day time period required for the psychosexual evaluation and pre-sentencing investigation to be completed. Monday's verdict brought the nine-day jury trial to a close and prevented Martinez-Hernandez, who entered the United States illegally in 2023, from being deported back to El Salvador, as he is expected to serve his sentence in the United States. Martinez-Hernandez, like all defendants, has the right to file a motion for a new trial. The basis for a new trial is very limited and likely not possible for Martinez-Hernandez, Healey said. 'There would have to be some new information, newly discovered evidence or something to that effect,' Healey said. 'The chances are slim to none. There is not going to be anything new to my knowledge.' The three public defenders who served as Martinez-Hernandez's legal council said they are considering their legal options and are now focused on the trial's punishment phase. 'We are disappointed in the verdict, which will be reviewed by our team,' they said in a joint statement. 'We will now focus on sentencing and ensuring that Mr. Martinez Hernandez has a fair process that balances all of the relevant factors.' Morin's death and Martinez-Hernandez's arrest became a political talking point on illegal immigration for then-candidate Donald Trump in his 2024 campaign for president. Trump spoke with Morin's mother, Patricia Morin, and other family members numerous times before inviting them to attend the Republican National Convention in July. There, Morin's brother Michael addressed a crowd of thousands, telling them his sister 'was raped and murdered by a suspected illegal immigrant' in what has been 'described as among the most brutal and violent offenses that has ever occurred in Harford County, Maryland history.' Morin's mother also testified before Congress on numerous occasions regarding illegal immigration leading up to Martinez-Hernandez's trial. The Republican President mentioned Martinez-Hernandez's verdict on his social media platform, Truth Social, yesterday, calling Morin's death heinous and taking aim at illegal immigration. 'Rachel was a beautiful mother of five from Maryland, and her life was taken at the hands of a monster who should have never been here in the first place,' Trump wrote. 'We will never forget Rachel Morin, and are committed to protecting women like her across our Country.' Following Martinez-Hernandez's sentencing in the coming months, the Division of Corrections will decide what corrections facility he will be sent to. Martinez-Hernandez is currently held at the Harford County Detention Center without bond. _____
