Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer
A fugitive from El Salvador was convicted on Monday of murdering 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. He bashed her head against nearby rocks before raping her and concealing her body in a drainage culvert. The prosecution’s case hinged on DNA evidence that connected him to the crime.
A jury found Martinez-Hernandes guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree rape among other offenses. Martinez-Hernandez was accused of entering the U.S. illegally after allegedly killing another woman in his home country. Authorities have also linked him to a home invasion in 2023 that took place in Los Angeles.
