Southwest
Rachel Morin's 'bum' killer mooched off locals before murdering mom of 5: lawyer
The attorney for Rachel Morin’s family says the trial of her murderer is a testament to relentless law enforcement and a devastating indictment of immigration failures that allowed her killer to murder the Maryland mom of five.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was found guilty of raping and murdering Morin in August 2023. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in 46 minutes after a weeklong trial that exposed the graphic details of the crime and the cross-country manhunt that followed.
“After 19 months of going through this nightmare of losing Rachel, we now have a verdict,” Randolph Rice, the Morin family attorney, told Fox News Digital. “Victor Martinez-Hernandez is guilty on all counts.”
RACHEL MORIN MURDER: JURY FINDS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT GUILTY OF KILLING JOGGER
Victor Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty of raping and killing Rachel Morin in Maryland in August 2022. (Tulsa Police Department/Facebook)
The Baltimore-based attorney said the migrant was a “bum” who took advantage of the people he stayed with.
“What we also learned was that he really had no connections to that community, other than he might have had some people that he knew from El Salvador when he was a little child, and apparently he seemed like he was couch-surfing wherever he could find a home,” Rice said.
“He was a troublemaker. He was a bum who didn’t pay for a thing and was ultimately kicked out of that Bel Air home,” he said. “Even though they got him jobs, he was just sitting at the bar drinking.”
Entrance to the Ma & Pa Trail in Maryland (Google Maps)
The Salvadoran migrant’s path led him to the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, a quaint community northeast of Baltimore, on Aug. 14, 2023.
“She was attacked and dragged into a tunnel. Her Apple Watch later became a critical piece of evidence, linking the suspect directly to the crime scene,” Rice said.
Witnesses described following blood trails that eventually led to Morin’s remains. Forensic teams later recovered DNA from her body, the tunnel wall and other surrounding evidence.
RACHEL MORIN’S ALLEGED ILLEGAL KILLER LEFT SLAIN JOGGER’S BODY ALONG 150-FOOT BLOOD TRAIL
They described a trail with flattened leaves before finding rocks with blood on them. The two witnesses walked through two tunnels with overgrown brush, where they found Morin’s body.
“I saw an unclothed human body on her back. At first, I truly thought it might have been a deer or something that had died in there,” testified Evan Knapp, who found Morin’s body. “So, I had to move a bit closer to confirm what I had seen, and it was a human. I feel like time froze for a second, and I didn’t know what I was looking at.”
Evan Knapp testifies in the murder trial of Victor Martinez-Hernandez at the Harford County Courthouse in Bel Air, Md., on April 4, 2025. (Dana Verkouteren)
Knapp and his friend, Cecilia, immediately called 911. Authorities retraced the path where Morin’s body had been dragged after her rape and murder. Police also collected large bloody rocks that authorities said were used to smash her skull.
Autopsy results revealed that Morin had endured 15 to 20 blows to the head and had died from a combination of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Her death was officially ruled a homicide.
Victor Martinez-Hernandez was convicted of raping and murdering Rachel Morin in Maryland on Aug. 5, 2023. (Tulsa Police Department/Facebook)
Rice said this was a “preventable crime” that touched on a flash point in the 2024 presidential race with immigration front and center.
“This was a preventable crime because you had an individual who should not have been in the United States.”
“And in fact, he was stopped three times at the border. He was returned to Mexico. And then ultimately he crosses a fourth time in El Paso, Texas. And then he goes on his spree of crimes in the United States, starting in Los Angeles. There, he breaks into a house and he assaults a mother and daughter there, and then he makes his way across the country, presumably on a bus, to Bel Air, Maryland.”
WATCH: VICTOR MARTINEZ-HERNANDEZ ARREST
Rice praised the dedication of law enforcement, noting that investigators combined DNA evidence, digital tracking and social media clues to locate the suspect. He was ultimately arrested at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
RACHEL MORIN MURDER: FORMER FBI AGENT REVEALS HOW CAPTURE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN KILLING WENT DOWN
“He had screenshots of press releases about Rachel’s murder saved on his phone,” Rice said. “He knew the net was closing in.”
Despite denying ever being in Maryland, Martinez-Hernandez’s DNA was matched to multiple sources at the crime scene.
Rachel Morin was found dead on a hiking trail. She was reported missing by her boyfriend, Richard Tobin, far right. (Facebook)
Morin, 37, left behind five children. Her 14-year-old daughter was the first witness to testify last week, fighting back tears as she described her mother’s disappearance.
“This is a scary reminder of how careful we have to be when we’re out and about,” said Rice. “Rachel never knew this man. It was completely random.”
Martinez-Hernandez is set to be sentenced and could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fox News Digital reached out to his attorney.
Patty Morin, left, mother of Rachel Morin, is shown during the daily press briefing at the White House on April 16, 2025. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
With visible emotion, Morin’s mother, Patty Morin, spoke as a special guest at Wednesday’s press briefing at the White House, sharing personal testimony about the urgent need to remove criminal migrants from the country.
“These are the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country. These are the kind of criminals that we need removed from our country. We are American citizens,” she said. “Why should we allow people like this, violent criminals that have no conscience at all, to murder our mothers, our sisters, our daughters?”
“I don’t understand why there’s even any kind of problem with this. … We need to protect our families, our borders, our children,” she said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, joined by Patty Morin, mother of Rachel Morin, left, holds a briefing on April 16, 2025. (Pool)
Justice Department attorneys said they were unaware of Maryland immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts after he was deported to an El Salvadoran prison last month. (Fox News)
Rice slammed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., for traveling to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on the condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 39-year-old who was deported to the El Salvadoran mega prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center for being an alleged MS-13 gang member, though his attorneys maintain he does not have any gang ties.
“So it seems that he is giving more attention to an illegal immigrant than he is to a Maryland and American citizen, Rachel Morin,” Rice said. “That’s crazy … it is just a no-brainer. You’re here to protect Americans and Marylanders. And he’s more worried about going to El Salvador and bringing an illegal immigrant back who is a gang member.”
After Martinez-Hernandez was convicted of Morin’s murder, Van Hollen said in a statement he was grateful to law enforcement and calling for “meaningful action” to reform “our broken immigration system.”
“We can do this while also supporting our immigrant communities and respecting the rights of individuals who are here legally – I am committed to doing both, and I will continue pressing my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to move forward on this issue,” Van Hollen said.
Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
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One person is dead after a shooting on a Dallas Area Rapid Transit train Sunday night, marking the second deadly incident on the Texas train system in the past week.
The shooting happened near the Pearl/Arts District Station on Bryan Street around 7 p.m., according to FOX 4.
DART police responded after a caller reported an active shooter at the station, the outlet reported. One person was found dead from a gunshot wound on the train.
Details surrounding the incident are limited, but FOX 4 reported a suspect is in custody.
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Police responded to the DART train near Pearl/Arts District Station on Bryan Street after a passenger was shot and killed. (Jordan Bickerstaff via FOX 4)
Fox News Digital reached out to DART for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
The deadly shooting comes less than a week after a man was killed on the DART train last Monday. DART police responded to the Market Center Station on Harry Hines Boulevard at around 10:15 p.m., FOX 4 reported on Wednesday.
Daniel Tom Gormley, 53, was found inside a train car with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene after first responders attempted life-saving measures.
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One person is dead after a shooting on a DART train in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (Jordan Bickerstaff via FOX 4)
Gormley was a Marine veteran, according to a GoFundMe page aimed at helping the family pay for funeral costs.
“He was a victim of a senseless act of violence while aboard a train in Dallas, Texas, and was taken from us far too soon,” the fundraiser reads. “Our family is heartbroken and completely unprepared for the financial burden of planning a funeral and managing the associated costs. We are reaching out to our community for support during this devastating time.”
Daniel Tom Gormley, 53, was shot and killed on a DART train in Dallas on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (GoFundMe)
A DART rail operator reported to police that Gormley told the suspect to get off the train before the suspect fired a gun three times, according to FOX 4. It’s unclear what led to the exchange.
Gormley’s accused killer was identified as Christopher Clemson Akins and was taken into custody quickly, police said.
DART Police Chief Charles Cato said last Wednesday that such incidents are “extremely rare” and “taken very seriously.”
“DART Police remain deeply committed to the safety of our riders, employees, and the communities we serve,” Cato said, via FOX 4.
DART is a transit agency serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, offering multiple travel options: Light Rail, Trinity Railway Express commuter rail, bus routes, GoLink on-demand services and paratransit services.
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Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas announced Monday that he’s running for the Senate, jumping into an already bitter battle between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and primary challenger Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“The U.S. Senate race in Texas must be about more than a petty feud between two men who have spent months trading barbs,” Hunt said in a statement as he launched his campaign. “With my candidacy, this race will finally be about what’s most important — Texas.”
Hunt’s entry into the race turns up the heat on an already combustible battle between Cornyn, who’s running in 2026 for a fifth six-year term representing red state Texas in the Senate, and Paxton, the MAGA firebrand who’s an ally of President Donald Trump.
Hunt, a West Point graduate who flew Apache helicopters during his Army service and a rising MAGA star who is in his second term representing a safe Republican district in the Houston-area, emphasized in his statement, “My record speaks louder than words. I am the most consistently conservative legislator representing Texas in Congress.”
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Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 15, 2024. (Mike Segar – Reuters)
Cornyn, who is backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, trailed Paxton by double digits at the beginning of the summer.
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But Cornyn has narrowed the polling gap in recent weeks, thanks in part to a massive ad blitz by allies that spotlighted the numerous controversies that have battered Paxton over the past decade.
Trump, whose endorsement would make a major impact in the Texas primary battle, has remained neutral to date.
Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas opens a Trump 2024 campaign field office in Philadelphia, on June 4, 2024. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News )
Hunt, pointing to his backing of Trump as the then-former president launched his 2024 White House comeback, touted that “I was the first person in the nation to endorse President Trump, and I have remained steadfast in my commitment to the people of Texas.”
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Hunt had been mulling a Senate run for months and sources confirmed to Fox News earlier this year that the congressman had made his case to Trump’s political team that he’s the only person who could win both a GOP primary and a general election.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is running for re-election in 2026 for a fifth six-year term in the U.S. Senate. (Reuters)
And an aligned super PAC spent big bucks this summer to increase Hunt’s name recognition across the state of Texas.
Paxton adviser Nick Maddux, in a statement to Fox News, said that “Primaries are good for our party and our voters, and Paxton and Hunt both know that Texans deserve better than the failed, anti-Trump record of John Cornyn.”
But Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak argued in a statement that “Rep. Wesley Hunt is a legend in his own mind. No one is happier this morning than the national Democrats who are watching Wesley continue his quixotic quest for relevancy, costing tens of millions of dollars that will endanger the Trump agenda from being passed.”
Hunt’s entry into the GOP nomination race could prevent the winner of next March’s primary from winning a majority of the vote, which would trigger a runoff election two and a half months later.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, seen at the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, is primary challenging GOP Sen. John Cornyn in the 2026 election. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Democrats are hoping for a Paxton victory in the primary, which they believe would make next year’s general election more competitive.
It’s been nearly four decades since a Democrat won a Senate election in Texas. You have to go back to the 1988 re-election victory by then-Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.
Former Rep. Colin Allred, who lost last November’s Senate election in Texas to conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz by over 8 points, is running for the 2026 Democratic nomination, along with rising star Texas state Rep. James Talarico and former astronaut Terry Virts.
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An Oklahoma police officer’s smooth moves while issuing a noise citation have gone viral.
The officer with the Tulsa Police Department was caught on video dancing at a party while onlookers recorded with their phones and cheered him on at approximately 9 p.m. on Sept. 27.
“The caller said her neighbors had been playing loud music all day, and she wanted to file a complaint,” the department’s Facebook post with the video of the dancing officer said.
“Since this was the second time officers got called out there for the same issue, Officer Greene did issue a nuisance sound citation… but while he was there, he took a few minutes to also show off his dance moves!”
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Tulsa Police Officer Greene dances while issuing a noise citation at a party on Sept. 27, 2025. (Facebook/Tulsa Police Department)
Tulsa PD’s video of the dance had been viewed more than 1.1 million times as of Monday afternoon.
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Tulsa Police Department’s Officer Greene appears to be doing a choreographed group dance. (Facebook/Tulsa Police Department)
“The fact that TPD posted the video after the complaint makes it even funnier,” one Facebook user wrote.
Onlookers are telling Tulsa PD’s Officer Greene the moves while recording him dancing. (Facebook/Tulsa Police Department)
The department did post a comment on the video explaining the ordinance that the partygoers allegedly violated.
“The people out there appreciated his style, and also agreed to turn down the music,” TPD wrote. “Nice moves, Officer Greene!”
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