Rachel Morin's alleged murderer charged in 'crucial step in search of justice', what are the charges against him?

An illegal immigrant accused of brutally raping and killing Maryland mother Rachel Morin was indicted this week, in a move a lawyer for the victim's family called “a critical step.”

A Maryland grand jury voted to formally indict Victor Martinez Hernandez, 23, on two counts of murder, two counts of rape and one count each of sexual battery and kidnapping for the ruthless attack on Morin in 2023. Martinez-Hernandez allegedly ambushed and killed her on a Maryland hiking trail last year.

“The indictment marks a critical milestone in the pursuit of justice for Rachel Morin and her family,” attorney Randolph Rice said in a statement, according to the New York Post. “This is an important step toward achieving justice for Rachel Morin and holding the defendant accountable for this heinous crime.”

“I'm sure she was thinking about her children and all the things she was going to lose.”

Martinez-Hernandez, a migrant from El Salvador, is believed to have ties to Salvadoran street gangs. He is said to have a violent past and is accused of at least one other murder. After a nationwide manhunt, he was arrested last month at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Morin's mother, Patty Morin, said she was haunted by thoughts of what her daughter's final moments might have been like. “I'm sure she knew she wasn't going to live,” Patty previously told Fox News Digital. “I'm sure she was thinking about her children and everything she was going to lose, and that this was going to be the end of her life. She must have felt so helpless.”

Martinez-Hernandez is reportedly due back in Harford County court on July 22. He allegedly entered the United States illegally in February 2023 and remained there for six months before attacking Morin, who was hiking alone on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.