Migrant sentenced to life for murdering Maryland mum

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador has been sentenced to life without parole for killing an American mother of five – in a case invoked by President Donald Trump to support his border security crackdown.

Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was found guilty this year in the rape and murder of Rachel Morin, 37, on a hiking trail in Bel Air, Maryland, in August 2023.

He assaulted her, bludgeoned her head with rocks and strangled her before hiding her body in a drainage culvert, the court heard.

The killer was also linked to a 2023 home invasion in Los Angeles and is wanted in El Salvador for the murder of another woman, according to prosecutors.

He showed little emotion as he learned his fate on Monday.

Judge Yolanda Curtin sentenced him to life for the first-degree murder conviction, life for the rape charge, and an additional 40 years for a third-degree sex offence and kidnapping. He will serve the entire sentence in a Maryland prison.

He was arrested in June 2024 after a 10-month manhunt in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“Arguably, Harford County has never seen a case or a defendant more deserving of every single day of the maximum sentences this court imposed,” prosecutor Alison Healey said outside the courthouse.

In a victim-impact statement before the sentence was handed down, the victim’s mother, Patty Morin, said: “The brutality of her murder will haunt us for the rest of our lives.”

Voice recordings of Ms Morin’s children, ranging in age from nine to 15, were played for the court.

In a message addressed to their mother, one of the children said: “Now I have to spend more time without you than I did with you.”

Rachel’s older brother, Michael Morin, told the court his Christian faith compelled him to offer the killer forgiveness.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the killer illegally entered the US and was sent back across the US-Mexico border three times in 2023.

During last year’s White House election campaign, Trump held up Ms Morin’s killing and other so-called angel families – those with loved ones who have been killed by illegal immigrants – as he pledged to close the US-Mexico border.

Most studies indicate undocumented immigrants are not more likely to engage in criminality than American citizens.

The Morin family has supported Trump’s campaign for border security.

Michael Morin addressed the Republican National Convention last summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous, but there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and robbing children of their mother,” he said.

In April, amid an escalating showdown between the president and the judiciary on immigration, the White House invited Ms Morin’s mother to address a media briefing.

Patty Morin shared graphic details of her daughter’s death.