Rachel Morin's murder suspect waives right to speedy trial, hearing delayed to 2025
BALTIMORE --The man charged in the rape and death of a Harford County mother of five appeared in person in court on Friday.
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez faces murder, rape, and kidnapping charges in the death of Rachel Morin, who was found dead in August 2023 along the Ma and Pa trail in Bel Air.
Morin's mother, Patty, sat in the front row, wearing all black as Martinez-Hernandez was brought into the Harford County Circuit Court. She welled with emotion, seeing the man accused of killing her daughter for the first time in person.
"To see him on TV when we had the bail review hearing across the street is so different when you have him in the room. His hands are shackled, his feet are shackled, he's wearing the striped black and white jumpsuit," Randolph Rice, Morin family attorney, said. "To be in the same room with the man who is alleged to have killed your daughter, it's just a very emotional day."
The appearance was originally scheduled as a motion hearing. It changed to a postponement hearing after the defense filed a motion to move the beginning of the trial to next year. The trial was supposed to begin later this month but has been pushed back to April 2025, allowing the defense more time to review evidence, which public defender Marcus Jenkins called "voluminous".
"You're looking at ten months of evidence. The state has had this since the day Rachel was found and they've been collecting evidence. The defense is three months and three days, four days into this so they've got a lot of catch up to do," Rice explained.
Judge Yolanda Curtin was presiding.
The alleged killer waived his right to a speedy trial and a waiver of conflict of interest with the public defenders' office because of its prior representation of Morin's boyfriend Richard Tobin.
After a nationwide search, Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in a bar in Tulsa, Okla. in June and brought back to Maryland to face the charges. Martinez-Hernandez is from El Salvador and only speaks Spanish. He communicated through an interpreter, explaining he is under psychological care at the detention center and completed school through the seventh grade. He also added that he is not on any medications that would inhibit his ability to understand what was happening in court.
Martinez-Hernandez is also accused of another murder in his home country of El Salvador and fled to the United States in 2023, entering illegally, according to law enforcement. He was apprehended by Customs and Border Protection at least three times along the border. He is also connected to a home invasion and assault of a child in Los Angeles, according to police.
DNA evidence collected after law enforcement found Morin's body linked Martinez-Hernandez to his crimes while in the U.S.
Court documents revealed Martinez-Hernandez was living with family members in Maryland from December 2023 to May 2024.
Matthew McMahon, the father of Morin's eldest daughter, was also in court today. He said his daughter is now expecting her first child. He began to tear up when describing how Morin should be here to become a grandparent alongside him.
"Rachel just didn't deserve this; we shouldn't have to be here. But at the end of the day, it's a good day because this is a day for justice for Rachel," McMahon said.
Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healey is pushing for the maximum sentence if Martinez Hernandez is convicted, according to a court filing.
The maximum penalty is life without the possibility of parole.
The attorneys will meet for motion hearings, followed by a pre-trial conference scheduled for March 31. The trial is scheduled to begin April 1, 2025.