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Aug 11, 2025  |  
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David Zimmermann


NextImg:Illegal immigrant who killed Rachel Morin sentenced to life in prison

The Salvadoran illegal immigrant who murdered Maryland mother Rachel Morin two years ago was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday.

A Maryland jury convicted Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, in less than an hour in April on all charges: first-degree murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense, and kidnapping. The four charges stem from the August 2023 murder of Morin, 37, who went jogging on a popular trail in suburban Maryland and never returned home.

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Authorities discovered her body near the Ma and Pa Heritage Trail. She was beaten to death by Martinez-Hernandez. After authorities identified his DNA at the crime scene, he was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The defendant faces an additional life sentence, plus 40 years, on top of the initial life sentence without the possibility of parole for his crimes. Maryland prosecutors sought the penalties, while defense lawyers argued their case for a life sentence with parole. They maintained that the four charges should be merged into two.

The judge presiding over the case determined that the illegal immigrant was not fit for “rehabilitation,” saying he is beyond saving.

“There is simply no hope to rehabilitate you,” the judge said at the sentencing hearing, per a Baltimore outlet. “You took a life that was not yours to take. Your acts not only brutalized a young woman but also terrorized a community. The Ma and Pa Trail is a place of beauty. … Your acts turned that into a place of terror.”

Martinez-Hernandez declined to provide his testimony in court on Monday.

Morin’s family, including four of her five children and her mother, gave victim impact statements during the hearing.

“The depths of grief are equivalent to the depths of love felt. This will impact generations to come,” the victim’s mother, Patty Morin, told the court. She said she has suffered from nightmares, anxiety attacks, and insomnia since her daughter’s death.

Patty Morin spoke to Fox & Friends ahead of the hearing, saying it was “going to be a really hard day” for her and the family.

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“When you get to the point where you actually sit down and write the statement, you don’t think it’s good enough,” she said. “How can I put the value of her life, reduce it to ink and paper? And then how do I feel about this person and what he’s done to take that life away? And then I think about my grandchildren, and her siblings, and the pain that they’ve suffered. And how that, today, they’re going to be expressing their pain as well in statements.”

Martinez-Hernandez will be imprisoned in Maryland rather than being deported back to El Salvador.