BEL AIR, Md. — Victor Martinez Hernandez looked on stoicly from the Harford County Detention Center in a closed circuit hearing as the judge recited a series of charges he faces in connection with Rachel Morin’s death, including counts of first degree murder and rape.
“I was sitting next to Patty the whole time and the one thing she said to me was, ‘We shouldn’t be here today’,” said Randolph Rice, the Morin family attorney, “I certainly think it’s tough the first time. I thought it was tough the first time to look at the eyes , even though it was on video, to look in the face of the man who’s alleged to have taken your daughter’s, your sister’s life.”
Prosecutors called this one of the most brutal, heinous crimes in Harford County’s history.
To that point, they revealed in court that during the attack, Rachel suffered 10 to 15 head wounds and her manner of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma.
Martinez Hernandez’ attorney argued to the court that he financially supports his parents and his three-year-old daughter, and they added he had no prior convictions.
It’s a point that rang hollow since he has yet to be charged with allegedly sexually assaulting a mother and her nine-year-old daughter in Los Angeles, as well as murdering a young woman in his native country of El Salvador before entering this country.
“We did not know the details, that it was a young woman that she was coming out of a bar,” said Rice, “The defense objected and the state quit talking about the facts of the murder in El Salvador.”
State’s Attorney Alison Healey also told the court, Martinez Hernandez was spotted leaving the bar with that victim before she later turned up dead.
Martinez Hernandez is next due in court on July 22. Prosecutors will be seeking life in prison without parole.
