A Maryland jury on Monday found illegal immigrant Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez guilty of murdering Bel Air woman Rachel Morin in August 2023.
Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was jogging along the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel-Air, a quaint community northeast of Baltimore, when Martinez-Hernandez ambushed, strangled and beat her to death, authorities said.
Prosecutors rested their case on Friday, and on Monday the defense rested its case after less than 10 minutes before closing arguments were made, FOX 45 reported.
“This has been an emotionally grueling experience for Rachel’s family, but they remain steadfast in their pursuit of justice,” Randolph Rice, the family’s attorney, previously said in a Friday statement.
RACHEL MORIN MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT DENIED EVER BEING IN MARYLAND AT TIME OF CRIME
Following the guilty verdict, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said the U.S. immigration system failed Morin.
“The failure here, again, is the immigration system that allowed this person to enter our country illegally and remain in our country and commit crimes in Los Angeles and then here in Harford County,” Gahler said.
Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Mike McCarthy said the fact that the suspect was an illegal immigrant “adds another layer of pain and frustration to many of us in the community.”
“It raises questions that deserve to be taken seriously about how we protect our neighborhoods, about how we enforce our laws and how we prevent such tragedy in the future,” McCarthy said.
Harford County autopsy results revealed that Morin had endured 15 to 20 blows to the head and had died from a combination of strangulation and blunt-force trauma. Her death was officially ruled a homicide.
RACHEL MORIN’S ALLEGED ILLEGAL KILLER LEFT SLAIN JOGGER’S BODY ALONG 150-FOOT BLOOD TRAIL
Witnesses who were walking along the Ma & Pa Trail when Morin was still considered missing said they found a path resembling a deer trail flattened by leaves, but they soon discovered rocks with blood on them near the trail and followed the unusual markings through two tunnels near the trail with overgrown brush.
That’s where they came across Morin’s naked body, Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey said in her opening statements.
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“I saw an unclothed human body on her back. At first, I truly thought it might have been a deer or something that had died in there,” testified Evan Knapp, who found Morin’s body. “So, I had to move a bit closer to confirm what I had seen, and it was a human. I feel like time froze for a second and I didn’t know what I was looking at.”
WATCH: BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE OF MIGRANT ACCUSED IN MURDER, RAPE OF MARYLAND MOM RACHEL MORIN
Martinez-Hernandez, who is from El Salvador, allegedly fled the scene and the State of Maryland after Morin’s murder. Authorities said during his trial that they found DNA matching the suspect’s at the crime scene and were eventually able to trace him to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where police arrested him.
WATCH TULSA AUTHORITIES ARREST VICTOR MARTINEZ-HERNANDEZ:
The 23-year-old migrant illegally crossed into the United States in February 2023, police said.
“We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim,” Gahler said after the suspect’s arrest. “It is my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the United States illegally after committing the brutal murder of a young woman in El Salvador a month earlier in January of 2023.”
Gahler added that officials’ first DNA match for Martinez-Hernandez was from a Los Angeles home invasion and attack in March 2023.
Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
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