HARFORD COUNTY, Md. — There are calls for a harsher punishment than what now-convicted killer Victor Martinez-Hernandez is facing for murdering Rachel Morin in August 2023.
"[Alison Healey] and her co-counsel Mr. Ryden prosecuted this case and got the just verdict. I would say just sentencing ahead, but we know Maryland did away with the death penalty," Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said.
On Monday, a jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty on all counts.
The state is seeking the harshest punishment under Maryland law: life in prison without the possibility for parole. That decision now up to presiding Judge Yolanda Curtin. Sentencing has not been scheduled, but is at least two to three months away.
"She saw what a violent and brutal and vicious attack this was, and I hope that she'll consider that ultimately when she makes her decision," Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healey said.
Prosecutors say the undocumented El Salvadorian ambushed Morin on her daily jog at the Ma and Pa Heritage trail and dragged her more than 100 feet to a secluded drainage tunnel where he sexually assaulted her and left her to die.
A case for capital punishment: Calls for harsher penalty for Rachel Morin's killer
The entire attack lasting no more than six minutes.
The extent of the violence of the crime played out in court over several days of graphic testimony and evidence. The defendant's DNA matched DNA found on Morin's body where some of her worst injuries were.
The state is seeking consecutive sentences that will not be served at the same time.
Though the 24-year-old may be spending the rest of his life locked away, some feel it's a punishment that does not fit the crime.
"I think he deserves the death penalty, I feel," trial observer Danielle Jones said.
"I can't think of any case more appropriately fitting and sadly our, our legislature has decided otherwise," Sheriff Gahler said.
It was first in 2008 that the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment recommended it be repealed, finding that racial and jurisdiction disparities in its implementation and that death penalty cases cost taxpayers millions of dollars than life sentences, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
After that, Maryland passed "the tightest death penalty restrictions in the country" requiring DNA, video evidence or a confession from the defendant in order to seek capital punishment.
In May 2013, Maryland lawmakers formally abolished capital punishment, the 18th state in the country to do so at the time, following suit with New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Illinois and Connecticut.
At the time it, the ACLU of Maryland called it a "victory."
Gahler has previously called for the reinstatement of the death penalty.
Prior to its revocation, the punishment was rarely used in Maryland. Since 1975, only five executions had taken place. The last execution in Maryland was recorded in 2005.
There are 23 states where the death penalty is no longer allowed.
