Rachel Morin: Illegal immigrant discovered responsible of murdering mother-of-five | EUROtoday

An unlawful immigrant from El Salvador has been discovered responsible of the homicide of mother-of-five Rachel Morin on a preferred mountain climbing path.

Prosecutors believed that Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was finishing up a deliberate assault when he grabbed Morin off the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland.

The case hinged on DNA proof connecting Martinez-Hernandez to the crime.

A jury discovered Martinez-Hernandez responsible of first-degree homicide and first-degree rape, amongst different offenses, in accordance with Randolph Rice, an lawyer representing Morin’s kin.

Rice mentioned in a press release: “The Morin family is incredibly relieved that justice was served today.”

Martinez-Hernandez was accused of getting into the United States illegally after allegedly killing one other lady in his house nation.

Authorities additionally linked him to a 2023 house invasion in Los Angeles.

Morin was killed in August 2023. The act of violence despatched shock waves by way of Bel Air, a suburban group northeast of Baltimore, and have become a political flashpoint through the 2024 presidential election marketing campaign as Donald Trump referred to as for elevated border safety and mass deportations of immigrants residing within the U.S. illegally.

Martinez-Hernandez was arrested final summer time in Oklahoma.

He had been residing in Bel Air across the time of Morin’s dying, prosecutors mentioned. They mentioned Morin went strolling or working alongside the identical route virtually on daily basis, normally within the evenings.

Defense attorneys challenged the prosecutors’ assertion that the crime was a random assault and mentioned police merely bought the improper man. They additionally requested jurors to pay shut consideration to unanswered questions through the trial, together with questions of motive.

Detectives collected DNA from a number of locations on Morin’s physique and developed Martinez-Hernandez as a suspect, in accordance with prosecutors. After interviewing a few of his kin, detectives matched DNA from the scene with DNA collected from socks that Martinez-Hernandez left behind when he fled Maryland.

Morin, 37, left behind 5 youngsters.

Her 14-year-old daughter was the primary witness to testify in court docket final week, combating again tears as she described the quick aftermath of her mom’s disappearance.