Illegal Alien Accused of Raping, Killing Maryland Mother Gets Pretrial Hearing

The illegal alien accused of killing Maryland mother Rachel Morin walked, shackled, into the Harford County, Md., courthouse on Monday for a pretrial hearing.  

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez faces a number of charges in Morin’s death, including first-degree murder and first-degree rape.  

“Rachel Morin is another victim of the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, told The Daily Signal.  

Martinez-Hernandez, 24, is from El Salvador and crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in February 2023, according to Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler. Six months later, in August 2023, Martinez-Hernandez stood accused of attacking, raping, and killing Morin, 37, while she exercised on the MA & PA Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore. 

Morin’s boyfriend reported her missing after the mother of five did not return home from a walk. Her body was found off the trail in a culvert on Aug. 6.  

After a lengthy investigation, authorities tracked Martinez-Hernandez to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was arrested in June 2024.   

Due to the previous administration’s “failure to secure our border, we have dangerous people walking our streets,” Guest said, vowing to “hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable for their failures.”

During the pretrial hearing, the prosecution said they would present damning evidence against Martinez-Hernandez, including police body-camera footage, Ring doorbell videos, DNA evidence, digital forensics, and a police interview with the suspect after he was arrested, reported WBAL-TV, Channel 11 and an NBC affiliate.  

Defense attorneys for the illegal alien have repeatedly voiced concern over whether their client can receive a fair trial in what is a high-profile case. Harford County Circuit Court Judge Yolanda Curtin denied a request for a change of venue earlier this year. 

The high-profile trial is expected to last about two weeks and comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is in the middle of an aggressive campaign to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens.  .  

Seventeen criminal illegal aliens were deported to El Salvador from Guantanamo Bay on Sunday night, the White House told Fox News. The 17 illegal aliens include seven alleged Tren de Aragua gang members and multiple “convicted murderers, rapists, & pedophiles,” according to Fox.  

“Thank you. President Bukele, of El Salvador, for taking the criminals that were so stupidly allowed, by the Crooked Joe Biden administration, to enter our Country, and giving them such a wonderful place to live,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday with a video of the 17 illegal aliens arriving in El Salvador.  

In the first 50 days of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made more than 32,000 arrests of illegal aliens, including 1,155 criminal gang members, according to the Department of Homeland Security. 

“I am thankful for the opportunity to work alongside President Trump to secure our border and make America safe again,” Guest said.  

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