A known MS-13 gangster was allowed to enroll in a Maryland public high school while he was the primary suspect in the rape and murder an autistic woman.
Walter Martinez, 17, was being investigated for the July 2022 murder of Kayla Hamilton, 19, when he enrolled in Edgewood High School in Harford County, as reported by Fox 45.
The El Salvador native was in the US illegally after entering through Texas as an unaccompanied minor in March, 2022. He was apprehended by Border Patrol before being sent to live in with a sponsor in a mobile home in Aberdeen, about a 40-minute drive from Baltimore, where he raped and killed Hamilton.
The then-16-year-old was placed at the scene of the brutal strangling murder through surveillance video and audio, according to Aberdeen police.
Martinez was detained and questioned but was allowed to go free for six months as authorities worked to confirm that his DNA was found at the scene.
Walter Martinez, 17, was allowed to enroll in a Maryland high school while he was the primary suspect of an autistic woman’s rape and murder
Martinez was apprehended by Border Patrol before being sent to live in with a sponsor in a mobile home in Aberdeen, where he raped and killed Hamilton
‘It’s the worst pain that a parent can ever get,’ Hamilton’s mother Tammy Nobles, told Project Baltimore.
‘She was just found with a cord wrapped around her neck and her mouth. Then just left her on the floor, like trash.’
Authorities did not alarm the school was about Martinez’ status as a suspect and Martinez enrolled as a student.
‘It makes me angry,’ Nobles added.
‘You’re sitting there putting this monster into high school with other people’s children, and you’re putting children at risk. Look what he did to Kayla.’
Martinez was finally arrested in January, 2023, after DNA results came back. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 70 years in prison back in August.
The Aberdeen Police Department said Hamilton, who was killed inside her apartment, had just moved into the city to live with her 22-year-old boyfriend before her gruesome murder
Nobles is now demanding the law be changed so officials are required to inform schools about those being investigated for heinous crimes.
Harford County Public Schools said in a statement that there was ‘no information in our possession that would suggest he was a danger to other students and staff. HCPS is not afforded unfettered access to information held by law enforcement which may suggest that a potential student is dangerous, gang-affiliated, or suspected of heinous and disturbing crimes.’
The Aberdeen Police Department said Hamilton, who was killed inside her apartment, had just moved into the city to live with her 22-year-old boyfriend before her gruesome murder.
Her mother Nobles filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging it failed to stop Martinez at the border.
Harford County Public Schools said in a statement that there was ‘no information in our possession that would suggest he was a danger to other students and staff’
The lawsuit names both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as defendants, and demands $100million in damages.
The lawsuit alleges both agencies failed the woman by letting the killer in the country after not verifying his status with a phone call, and allowing him to be placed in a holding facility.
They also failed to find the damning gangland tattoos said to have been on the perp’s person, before ultimately neglecting to confirm a verified sponsor for him.
