Illlegal immigrant who raped and murdered Rachel Morin caged for life
U.S. President Donald Trump frequently shone the spotlight on Martinez-Hernandez as justification for a border crackdown
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Cold-blooded killer Victor Martinez-Hernandez will never again see the light of day.
The 24-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for raping and killing mother-of-five Rachel Morin in Maryland.
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Martinez-Hernandez became the poster boy for an American immigration system that had spiralled out of control with countless illegal immigrants being arrested for crimes like murder, sex and drug trafficking, and rape.
U.S. President Donald Trump frequently shone the spotlight on Martinez-Hernandez as justification for a border crackdown. Martinez-Hernandez was convicted earlier this year of the rape and murder of Morin, 37, on a hiking trail in Bel Air, Maryland, in August 2023.
The killer first assaulted Morin, then battered her head with rocks before strangling her. He then hid her body in a drainage culvert.
DNA linked the killer to a home invasion the same year in Los Angeles. A little digging by cops revealed that Martinez-Hernandez was wanted in his native El Salvador for the murder of another woman.
In a victim impact statement written by Morin’s oldest daughter and read by the prosecutor, she outlined how the illegal immigrant had shattered her family forever.
She wrote: “Every milestone in my life is a reminder of what Victor Martinez-Hernandez has taken from me.”
The killer showed little emotion as his bleak future was unveiled in court.
Judge Yolanda Curtin sentenced him to life for the first-degree murder conviction, life for the rape charge, and an additional 40 years for a third-degree sex offence and kidnapping charges. He will serve his sentence in a Maryland prison.
“Arguably, Harford County has never seen a case or a defendant more deserving of every single day of the maximum sentences this court imposed,” prosecutor Alison Healey said outside the courthouse.
Martinez-Hernandez evaded the U.S. Marshals during a 10-month manhunt until he was arrested in June 2024 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Martinez-Hernandez illegally entered the U.S. and was sent back across the Mexico border three times in 2023. But on his fourth entry, he caught up with Morin and murdered her.
During the 2024 presidential election campaign, Trump zeroed in on the killer and others of his ilk in a pledge to shut the U.S.-Mexico border. His policies earned the support of Morin’s family.
Her brother, Michael Morin, addressed the Republican National Convention last summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous, but there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and robbing children of their mother,” he said.
@HunterTOSun
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