A known MS-13 gangster was allowed to attend a public high school in Maryland despite being considered the prime suspect in the rape and murder of an autistic woman.
Walter Martinez, 17, was investigated for the murder of 19-year-old Kayla Hamilton in July 2022 while attending Edgewood High School in Harford County, Fox 45 reported.
The El Salvadorian native was in the United States illegally after entering the country as an unaccompanied minor via Texas in March 2022. He was detained by border police before being taken to a sponsor in a mobile home in Aberdeen, about a 40-minute drive from Baltimore, where he raped and killed Hamilton.
According to Aberdeen police, the then 16-year-old was located using video and audio recordings from a surveillance camera at the scene of the brutal strangulation murder.
Martinez was arrested and questioned, but was released for six months while authorities attempted to confirm the discovery of his DNA at the crime scene.
Walter Martinez, 17, was allowed to enroll in a Maryland high school despite being the prime suspect in the rape and murder of an autistic woman
Martinez was arrested by Border Patrol and then sent to a sponsor’s mobile home in Aberdeen, where he raped and killed Hamilton.
“This is the worst pain a parent can ever endure,” Hamilton’s mother, Tammy Nobles, told Project Baltimore.
“She was found with a string around her neck and mouth. Then she was just left on the ground like garbage.”
Authorities were not concerned about Martinez’s status as a suspect at the school, and Martinez was enrolled as a student.
“It makes me angry,” Nobles added.
“You sit there and send this monster to high school with other people’s children, and you’re putting children in danger. Look what he did to Kayla.”
Martinez was finally arrested in January 2023 after DNA results were available. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 70 years in prison in August.
Aberdeen police said Hamilton, who was killed in her apartment, had just moved to the city to live with her 22-year-old boyfriend before her gruesome murder
Nobles is now calling for a change in the law that would require authorities to inform schools about people being investigated for serious crimes.
Harford County Public Schools said in a statement that “we have no information to suggest that he poses a danger to other students and staff. HCPS does not have unrestricted access to information from law enforcement that might indicate that a potential student is dangerous, affiliated with a gang, or suspected of heinous and disturbing crimes.”
Aberdeen police said Hamilton, who was killed in her apartment, had just moved to the city to live with her 22-year-old boyfriend before her gruesome murder.
Her mother, Nobles, filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming it failed to stop Martinez at the border.
Harford County Public Schools said in a statement that “we have no information to suggest that he poses a danger to other students and staff.”
The lawsuit names both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as defendants and seeks $100 million in damages.
The lawsuit alleges that both agencies failed the woman by allowing the killer into the country without checking his status by phone and allowing him to be placed in a detention facility.
They also failed to find the incriminating gangland tattoos that were allegedly on the perpetrator’s body and ultimately failed to confirm a verified sponsor for him.
