Nearly two years after the killing of Maryland mother Rachel Morin, the man convicted of her rape and murder is set to be sentenced Monday morning in Harford County Circuit Court.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez, a 24-year-old from El Salvador, was found guilty in April of attacking and killing Morin, 37, while she was jogging along the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air on August 6, 2023. The jury took just 46 minutes to convict him on all counts. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, Maryland’s maximum penalty since the state abolished the death penalty in 2013.
Morin, a single mother of five, never returned home after setting out for a run that summer evening. The next day, her body was discovered in a drainage culvert roughly 150 feet from the trail. Investigators described the attack as brutal.
Prosecutors say Martinez-Hernandez fled Maryland shortly after the killing, triggering a ten-month nationwide manhunt. He was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 2024. Law enforcement officials later tied him to a string of violent crimes across multiple states — including the murder of a woman in El Salvador in 2022, three illegal entries into the United States early in 2023, and a sexual assault on a woman and a nine-year-old girl in Los Angeles that March. DNA evidence from the California assault linked him to Morin’s killing.
Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey said her office’s goal from the outset was to secure justice for Morin and her loved ones. She hopes the guilty verdict — and the sentence to follow — will bring the family some measure of closure. Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler emphasized that Martinez-Hernandez will never again be in a position to harm others.
For Morin’s mother, the sentencing is deeply personal. In an interview with NewsNation, Patty Morin described writing her victim impact statement as emotionally exhausting but also a way to honor her daughter’s life. She plans to convey to the court the value and vibrancy of Rachel — from the moment she learned she was expecting her, through her childhood, and into adulthood as a devoted mother. Morin’s teenage daughter is expected to speak to the court as well.
The case drew national attention not only for its brutality but also for the safety concerns it raised in the community. In the months following Morin’s death, Harford County officials installed more than 100 AI-enabled security cameras along the 2-mile Ma and Pa Trail to help deter violent crimes and provide more comprehensive surveillance.
Martinez-Hernandez’s sentencing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday. For Morin’s family, it marks the final chapter in a long and painful pursuit of justice — and the beginning of life after a verdict that can never undo their loss.
