A man was found guilty on Monday of killing Rachel Morin on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, a case that received intense national attention and became an issue in the 2024 presidential election.

Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was convicted in Harford County Circuit Court of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense and kidnapping.

The jury deliberated for less than one hour. When the verdict was read, Martinez-Hernandez did not visibly react.

Circuit Judge Yolanda L. Curtin presided over the trial, which started on April 1. Sentencing has not been scheduled.

Martinez-Hernandez will continue to be held in the Harford County Detention Center without bail.

“It is my sincere hope that today’s verdict brings some peace and closure to the entire Morin family,” Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey told reporters at a news conference.

“While no verdict or sentence can ever bring Rachel back, I’m proud of the work that we’ve done to ensure that justice was served, and that Victor Martinez-Hernandez will never again be a threat to another woman in his lifetime.”

Healey was involved in the case from the beginning and even went to the crime scene. Deputy State’s Attorney David Ryden served as her co-counsel at trial.

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler thanked the men and women of his office and its law enforcement partners.

The conviction is proof that investigators have a long reach, said William DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office.

“This investigation and today’s conviction make it clear to any criminals, that if you’re thinking you’re going to get away with it, you won’t,” DelBagno said. “And the FBI and our partners will do everything we can to stop you. We will track you down, and we will make you pay for your crimes.”

On Aug. 5, 2023, Morin went out for a run at about 7 p.m. on the trail, a winding path that’s surrounded by forest. She was a fitness enthusiast, and loved ones testified that she tried to exercise there every day.

Kyle Stacy and his girlfriend, Olivia, were walking on the trail that evening with their dog when he heard a tree branch snap.

That’s when Stacy testified that he saw a man in the woods, which made him feel “pretty nervous and uncomfortable.” The man was holding a walking stick and wearing sunglasses and a gray sweatshirt with the hood up.

Thirty seconds to one minute later, Stacy said, he and his girlfriend walked past a woman he’d soon learn was Morin. She was alone.

Morin’s boyfriend, Richard Tobin, called 911 later that night to report her missing. Two of Morin’s daughters, Violet Custer and Faye McMahon, also grew concerned when their mother stopped responding to text messages.

Cecilia Occorso heard about the search for a missing person in Harford County through Facebook and wanted to help. So she reached out to her friend, Evan Knapp, and they went out to the trail.

Occorso testified that the two walked down what she described as a deer path. They came upon a bloody rock and leaves.

Knapp then went around a sticker bush, she said, and spotted Morin’s body inside a drainage tunnel that ran under Maryland Route 24.

Law enforcement nearby found her Apple Watch and iPhone XR, and both had been damaged. Detectives took swabs from her body for DNA.

The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined her cause of death was strangulation and blunt force injuries. The manner of death was homicide.

Morin suffered a minimum of 15 to 20 blows to her head and face, said Dr. Zabiullah Ali, a now-retired forensic pathologist with the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The lead investigator, Detective Phil Golden, testified that law enforcement received at least 1,000 tips.

The investigation led detectives to an apartment in Temple Hills, Maryland, as well as a home in Alexandria, Virginia.

A cousin, Jose Hernandez, testified that Martinez-Hernandez lived with him at his apartment at the time for about five months.

The FBI visited and, one day, Martinez-Hernandez took off without notice. He left behind belongings including a pair of shoes and dirty clothes, which law enforcement collected and swabbed for DNA.

Another one of his cousins, Tania Hernandez, said Martinez-Hernandez also ditched a toothbrush and blanket at her house.

Detectives collected those items and swabbed them for DNA, too.

On June 14, 2024, Golden testified, he took the swabs to the Maryland State Police for testing. He received the results, and he had his primary suspect.

Golden obtained an arrest warrant. But he did not know where Martinez-Hernandez was at that time.

Law enforcement asked T-Mobile to ping his cellphone for its location and learned the answer: Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office reached out that night to the Tulsa Police Department for help, and officers found Martinez-Hernandez at Los Dos Amigos Sports Bar.

Tulsa Police Detective Steven Sanders testified that a security guard provided officers with a Samsung Galaxy A15.

Though Martinez-Hernandez repeatedly told police that his name was Juan Carlos, he eventually relented, Sanders said.

Police arrested him.

His DNA was found on Morin’s left wrist, neck and chest, said Tiffany Keener, a forensic scientist for the Maryland State Police, as well as on her Apple Watch.

Following his arrest, Martinez-Hernandez agreed to waive his Miranda rights after requesting to have an attorney present.

Martinez-Hernandez told detectives that he did not know the name Rachel Morin and had never been to Maryland. He suggested that someone wishing to do him harm could’ve planted his DNA at the crime scene.

Harford County Sheriff’s digital forensic supervisor Heather Marsh testified that she later analyzed the phone and recovered evidence that Martinez-Hernandez had watched news reports on YouTube about the investigation.

Detectives also learned that he had worked at Popeyes and Barrett’s On The Pike in Bel Air and lived at a home on George Street near Plumtree Park.

Those places are all about 1 mile from the trail.

Martinez-Hernandez exercised his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

“I will not give testimony,” Martinez-Hernandez said through a Spanish language interpreter.

His attorneys, Assistant Public Defenders Marcus Jenkins, Sawyer Hicks and Tara LeCompte, argued that there were unanswered questions in the case and gaps in the evidence against their client.

“Mr. Martinez-Hernandez is still presumed innocent,” Jenkins said in his closing argument. “You have to find him not guilty unless you have been persuaded, all 12 of you, that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Jenkins, Hicks and LeCompte released a statement after the verdict.

“We are disappointed in the verdict, which will be reviewed by our team,” they said. “We will now focus on sentencing and ensuring that Mr. Martinez Hernandez has a fair process that balances all of the relevant factors.”

In 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that it apprehended Martinez-Hernandez after he illegally crossed the border into the United States and expelled him to Mexico three times. He’s a native of El Salvador.

Martinez-Hernandez unlawfully entered the United States again on about Feb. 13, 2023, near El Paso, Texas, law enforcement alleges. He’s also wanted in the killing of a different woman in El Salvador.

His immigration status was not an element of the charges. But Presidential Donald Trump seized upon the killing during the 2024 presidential election to push the narrative that immigrants are committing violent crimes en masse, despite extensive evidence that the opposite is true.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice found in a study released in 2024 that undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes.

The report analyzed arrest records in Texas between 2012 and 2018.

Her mother, Patty, appeared on stage with Trump, attended his inauguration and testified before Congress. Morin’s brother, Michael, spoke during the 2024 Republican National Convention.

The Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a notice of its intention to seek life in prison without the possibility of parole — and prosecutors said they’ll likely ask for even more time at sentencing.

Outside the courthouse, Erin Layman, Morin’s half-sister, said she felt relieved, grateful and thankful with the verdict.

“We weren’t supposed to show too much reaction,” Layman said. “But man, was that tough.”

Matt McMahon, the father of Morin’s oldest daughter, Faye, said he “can’t even explain the energy release you that feel inside of you.”

Martinez-Hernandez, he said, preyed on women.

“He was taking everything away from these women,” McMahon said. “And it was amazing to see so many powerful women take that power away from him.”

The arresting officer. The state’s attorney. And then the foreperson of the jury.