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.”

“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.