Salvadoran fugitive convicted in deadly attack of Maryland hiker

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Salvadoran fugitive convicted in deadly attack of Maryland hiker

The Associated Press
April 14, 2025, 9:25 PM


Media members set up outside the Harford County Circuit Courthouse for the opening statements in the trial of Victor Martinez-Hernandez, accused of killing Rachel Morin on Friday, April 4, 2025 in Bel Air, Md. ( Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Banner via AP)(AP/Jerry Jackson)

BEL AIR, Md. (AP) — A fugitive from El Salvador was convicted Monday in the 2023 slaying of a Maryland woman who was attacked while exercising on a popular hiking trail northeast of Baltimore.

Prosecutors alleged that Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was carrying out a planned attack when he grabbed Rachel Morin off the trail, bashed her head against nearby rocks, raped her and concealed her body in a drainage culvert. Their case hinged on DNA evidence connecting him to the crime. … A jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree rape, among other offenses, according to Randolph Rice, an attorney representing Morin’s relatives.

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Martinez-Hernandez was accused of entering the United States illegally after allegedly killing another woman in his home country. Authorities also linked him to a 2023 home invasion in Los Angeles.

Morin was killed in August 2023. The act of violence sent shock waves through Bel Air, a suburban community northeast of Baltimore. It also became a political flashpoint during the 2024 presidential election campaign as Donald Trump called for increased border security and mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

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