MS-13 gang member, murder suspect enrolled at Maryland high school

A murder suspect and MS-13 gang member who entered the United States illegally enrolled at a Maryland high school. Police failed to tell school administrators of his background as reported on Monday, Sept. 9, by Baltimore's Fox 45 .

The revelations have sparked outrage by the murder victim's mother over the potential danger it posed to students at the school he attended.

Walter Martinez, who was 16 at the time, became the primary suspect in the murder of Kayla Hamilton in 2022. Authorities said that surveillance video and an audio recording placed Martinez at the scene of the crime, and they already read him his Miranda Rights. All they needed to arrest him were DNA results.

"They knew he was guilty," Tammy Nobles, Hamilton's mother, told Baltimore's Fox 45 . "They just needed that DNA."

However, the DNA results would take six months and while police waited for the results, Martinez was able to attend Edgewood High School in Hartford County.

"It makes me angry," Nobles said. "You're sitting there putting this monster into high school with other people's children. You're putting children at risk. Look what he did to Kayla."

DNA results in January 2023, would lead to Martinez's arrest for the murder of Hamilton. Maryland law allowed Martinez to attend school, and authorities are not required to tell the district about a student's background if they are not yet charged with a crime. However, Nobles said that they should have and wants the law to change.

"Somebody needs to be held accountable," Nobles said. "Why did you put him in a public school? I want to know why?"

Nobles believes that a suspect in a felony case should not be able to attend school with other kids when virtual learning is an option.

Meanwhile, the school said that it had no prior knowledge of the pending charges against Martinez nor that he could be a danger to students. School officials say that law enforcement does not allow them to freely access student information regarding any affiliation with gangs or connection to "heinous and disturbing crimes."

Martinez, who is from Salvador, reportedly entered the United States as an unaccompanied minor through the Texas border. U.S Border Patrol and Customs took him into custody, and he eventually went to live with a sponsor in Maryland.

Four months later, police say he strangled Hamilton to death. He pleaded guilty to the killing of Hamilton and was sentenced to 70 years in prison in August 2024.

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