Family of murder Maryland mother Rachel Morin addresses court at convicted killer's sentencing
The family of Maryland mother Rachel Morin addressed the court Monday before Victor Martinez-Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for her murder.
Martinez-Hernandez, a 24-year-old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, will remain in prison for life without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of Morin's 2023 murder off the Ma & Pa Trail in Harford County.
"The brutality of her murder will haunt us for the rest of our lives," said Patty Morin, Rachel Morin's mother.
The court heard impact statements from four of Morin's five children.
A written statement read by Healey from Morin's oldest daughter, Faye, saying in part, "Every milestone in my life is a reminder of what Victor Martinez-Hernandez has taken from me."
Pictures were shown in the courtroom of Faye holding Morin's first grandchild, born after her death.
Recorded statements from Morin's other three children, ranging in age from 9 to 15, were also played for the courtroom.
One of the children said, "Now I have to spend more time without you than I did with you."
The courtroom also heard from five of Morin's siblings, along with her mother, who spoke with WJZ last week about the pain of losing her daughter.
"I said I'm just going to sit down and just write right now what's in my heart and my mind, and I'm going to put it on paper," Patty Morin said about the sentencing. "And maybe it's not what you would expect, but I'm a mother, my child is gone. So it was so very hard."
Martinez-Hernandez showed no emotion
Martinez-Hernandez showed little to no emotion upon learning his fate, but Morin's family says they are relieved more than two years after Rachel Morin's murder.
Aside from the life sentence for the first-degree murder conviction, Martinez-Hernandez was given a life sentence for the rape charge, and a combined additional 40 years for third-degree sex offense and kidnapping. He will fulfill the entire sentence in a Maryland prison.
"I felt relieved that he's never going to see the light of day outside of a fence," Patty Morin said. "That another person is not going to feel this grief, another mother is not going to lose a child."
At the end of the sentencing, Martinez-Hernandez told the judge he wants to appeal.
Martinez-Hernandez convicted of rape and murder
Rachel Morin was found brutally murdered in a culvert yards off the Ma & Pa Trail on August 6, 2023, the day after she left for a jog and never returned home.
The murder gained national attention, with evidence connecting it from Maryland to California, where a child and her mother were assaulted during a home invasion.
The 10-month manhunt ended in June 2024 when Martinez-Hernandez, a native of El Salvador, was located and arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He was found guilty of murder and rape during a trial in April.
"The worst imaginable"
Judge Yolanda Curtin called Martinez-Hernandez's actions "the worst imaginable."
In a pre-sentencing investigation, a doctor said Martinez-Hernandez showed no remorse, continued to lie about proven facts, and even laughed and cracked jokes during their session, which Curtin said led to her decision.
The judge told Martinez-Hernandez that he was "not a candidate for any rehabilitative sentence."
Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healey asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence for Martinez-Hernandez.
"Arguably, Harford County has never seen a case or a defendant more deserving of every single day of the maximum sentence this court imposed today," Healey said.
