MS-13 gang member suspected of murder allowed to attend Maryland high school

An unsuspecting Maryland high school allowed a MS-13 gang member at the center of a murder investigation to enroll after authorities failed to alert the administration of the gang member’s suspect status.

Walter Martinez, an MS-13 gang member who at 16-years-old was the primary suspect in the July 2022 murder of Kayla Hamilton, enrolled in and attended Edgewood High School in Harford County, Maryland, without the district being informed of his status as a suspect in the case, according to a report from Baltimore’s Fox 45.

“When I start from the very beginning and get to the very end, they’re like, ‘Wow, that is a really crazy story,’” Hamilton’s mother, Tammy Nobles, told Project Baltimore for the report. “And I say, ‘It is a crazy story. But it’s a true story.’ It’s the worst pain that a parent can ever get.”

“She was just found with a cord wrapped around her neck and her mouth. Then just left her on the floor, like trash,” Nobles added.

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Martinez, a native of Salvador who was in the U.S. illegally, was quickly identified as the primary suspect and was detained by police, with surveillance video and an audio recording placing the gang member at the scene of the crime.

“They knew he was guilty. They just needed that DNA to really lock it in,” Nobles said.

According to the Fox 45 report, Martinez was read his Miranda Rights and police sent out his DNA for testing, but the process took six months. In the meantime, he was allowed to enroll at the school without any agency warning administrators about the investigation.

“It makes me angry,” Nobles said. “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 entered the U.S. illegally through Texas as an unaccompanied minor through Texas in March 2022, the report notes, being apprehended by Border Patrol and eventually sent to Maryland to live with a sponsor.