INCLUDING KIDNAPING? WELL, LET’S PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE. IT TOOK A JURY OF TEN MEN AND AND TWO WOMEN JUST ABOUT AN HOUR TO FIND THE DEFENDANT GUILTY OF PREMEDITATED FIRST DEGREE MURDER, FIRST DEGREE RAPE, THIRD DEGREE ASSAULT AND KIDNAPING UNDER TIGHT SECURITY. I HEARD GAFFES AND SNIFFS AS THE JURY WAS POLLED. PROSECUTORS SAY THE EVIDENCE WAS OVERWHELMING AND INCLUDED DNA AND WITNESS TESTIMONY IMPLICATING STRONGLY IMPLICATING THE DEFENDANT. NOW, THE DEFENDANT HIMSELF DIDN’T SHOW ANY OBVIOUS SIGNS OF A REACTION. THE STATE IS SEEKING LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE. SENTENCING WILL BE HELD AT A LATER DATE. THIS IS WHEN THE MARIN FAMILY WILL HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE IMPACT STATEMENTS. THEY WILL TELL THE JUDGE HOW THEIR RACHEL’S DEATH IMPACTED THEM. FAMILY MEMBERS, THROUGH A SPOKESMAN, THANKED INVESTIGATORS FOR THEIR REMARKABLE WORK. PROSECUTOR ALISON HEALY, WHO HAVE A STATEMENT OR TWO IN THE NEXT FEW MINUTES OR SO RIGHT HERE, SAID IN HER CLOSING ARGUMENTS THAT RACHEL LIVED HER WORST NIGHTMARE THAT DAY AND SHE NEVER GOT TO WAKE UP AND TELL ANYONE. SHE CONTINUED HER BODY TOLD US WHAT HAPPENED AND WHO DID IT. SHE DID TELL HER STORY AND THAT LED TO A GUILTY VERDICT. REPORTING LIVE FR
Victor Martinez-Hernandez found guilty of premeditated murder, other charges in Rachel Morin trial
A jury reached a verdict in Harford County on Monday in the Rachel Morin murder trial.Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in June 2024 after a nationwide manhunt.Throughout the trial, the jury heard from numerous witnesses and saw the interaction between Martinez-Hernandez and detectives when he was arrested in Oklahoma. Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty on all of the charges after the jury deliberated for less than 50 minutes.”The incredible efforts of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office… should not go unmentioned,” said Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey.Video below: Officials react to jury’s verdictHealey said the state will seek the maximum penalty for Martinez-Hernandez’s sentencing, and she was not surprised by the jury’s short deliberation time.”The failure here 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,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler.Healey said they will likely seek a sentence greater than life without parole for Martinez-Hernandez.Morin, 37, a mother of five, went for a jog on the popular Ma and Pa Trail in August 2023 and never returned. Authorities found her body on Aug. 6, 2023, along the trail.”This was a very important day that puts the bow on the case,” attorney Randolph Rice said after the state rested its case on Friday.A Maryland State Police DNA analyst testified on Friday and said the defendant’s DNA was the only male profile found on Morin’s body or other evidence gathered at the scene.On Thursday, testimony delivered by the prosecution placed Martinez-Hernandez in Bel Air, close to the crime scene for five months before and after Morin’s death.In state testimony on Wednesday, the jury was presented with evidence by a witness that the defendant hid in the woods with a shovel.
A jury reached a verdict in Harford County on Monday in the Rachel Morin murder trial.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.
Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in June 2024 after a nationwide manhunt.
Throughout the trial, the jury heard from numerous witnesses and saw the interaction between Martinez-Hernandez and detectives when he was arrested in Oklahoma.
Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty on all of the charges after the jury deliberated for less than 50 minutes.
“The incredible efforts of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office… should not go unmentioned,” said Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey.
Video below: Officials react to jury’s verdict
Healey said the state will seek the maximum penalty for Martinez-Hernandez’s sentencing, and she was not surprised by the jury’s short deliberation time.
“The failure here 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,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler.
Healey said they will likely seek a sentence greater than life without parole for Martinez-Hernandez.
Morin, 37, a mother of five, went for a jog on the popular Ma and Pa Trail in August 2023 and never returned. Authorities found her body on Aug. 6, 2023, along the trail.
“This was a very important day that puts the bow on the case,” attorney Randolph Rice said after the state rested its case on Friday.
A Maryland State Police DNA analyst testified on Friday and said the defendant’s DNA was the only male profile found on Morin’s body or other evidence gathered at the scene.
On Thursday, testimony delivered by the prosecution placed Martinez-Hernandez in Bel Air, close to the crime scene for five months before and after Morin’s death.
In state testimony on Wednesday, the jury was presented with evidence by a witness that the defendant hid in the woods with a shovel.
