Franklin Smith, 34, of Catonsville, received a nine-year sentence, while Davon Dorsey, 30, of Gwynn Oak, was sentenced to 15 years.

The defendants were charged with 12 counts in April 2022, including kidnapping, according to court documents. In July, Smith pleaded guilty to carjacking and using a gun in a violent crime. In March, Dorsey pleaded guilty to carjacking.

In May 2021, Smith, Dorsey and two others posed as police officers with lights on their car, vests and badges and pulled over an employee of Check Cash Depot in Northwest Baltimore on her way home from work, according to court documents. Smith set up a detour to direct the woman down a side street where two other defendants brandishing guns removed her from her car, handcuffed and blindfolded her while demanding access to the cash checking business, according to court documents. The defendants then left the woman in the trunk of her own car and covered it with a tarp. She was able to make her way out and call for help, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office.

Later in May 2021, the defendants again used police lights to pull over a man around midnight in Edgewood, according to court documents. The defendants told the victim he had a warrant and was under arrest before handcuffing, blindfolding and bounding him while demanding $10,000, according to court documents. The defendants eventually released the victim in Baltimore City after 5 a.m.

In August 2021 the defendants carjacked a woman outside an Ace Cash Express in Cockeysville by posing as police officers and blindfolding her in the back of a car, according to the indictment. The defendants demanded access to the check cashing business and safe codes, detaining the victim for nearly six hours before releasing her near Edmonson Village, according to court documents.

In all three cases, the defendants threatened the victims with guns and assaulted them with blow torches while demanding money and keys to the businesses, according to court documents. Court documents do not say that the defendants were ever successful in accessing or robbing one of the check cashing businesses.

The two other defendants in the case did not take plea deals, according to court documents. Dennis Hairston, 34, of Windsor Mill, and Donte Stanley, 33, of Rosedale, were convicted by a jury in June of kidnapping, gun and carjacking charges. They both have sentencing hearings scheduled for November.

“As a mother of seven, I am utterly devastated and heartbroken,” Nikia Evans wrote in a letter to the school system. “This tragedy highlights a critical need for increased safety measures, improved communication and greater transparency.”

Her letter echoed the sentiments of many parents who posted on social media platforms asking for enhanced security measures and transparency since the Friday killing of 15-year-old Warren Grant.

“We must implement additional measures such as metal detectors, expanded school police forces and tighter security protocols,” Evans wrote. “I urge the school district to implement more stringent measures to prevent future acts of violence within our schools.”

Joppatowne High student Jaylen Rushawn Prince, 16, of Edgewood, was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Grant, a fellow student. According to police reports, Prince pulled out a handgun during a fight inside the school and shot Grant in the chest. Prince fled the school and was arrested after allegedly attempting to break into a home, police said.

County Councilmembers Aaron Penman and Dion Guthrie said the county needs to look into ways to improve security within schools.

“I think back to when my kids were at Joppatowne High School and it is sad,” said Guthrie, a Democrat representing District A. “School safety needs to be a priority, and I will be looking into what we can do as a council to protect our students.”

Penman, a Republican representing District B and a sergeant with the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, said he also wants to engage in conversations about safety in addition to discussing methods of intervention to prevent problems from spilling into the school building.

“This should have never happened in a school,” Penman said. “There is a good possibility this could have happened outside of the school and we need to diagnose that from a community level and maybe that spills over to school administrators and they need to have the conversation and allow law enforcement to take preventative measures.”

As for prevention inside the school, Penman explained the importance of school resource officers and the potential of metal detectors as being a solution.

Both Guthrie and Penman said implementing deterrents such as metal detectors would be a costly endeavor.

“We need to have these discussions and I look forward to examining all options at the county level and metal detectors at schools would be one,” Penman said. “That does come with a cost but the loss of a life is much more costly than any dollar cost.”

Conversations at the county level regarding school safety are still preliminary stages. As of Monday, county officials said they are working to understand what led to the shooting at Joppatowne High School and what solutions they can enact that further protect students.

In a filing in the foreclosure case of Spacey’s harborfront home in Baltimore’s Federal Hill, the actor asked the court to revoke the sale to a Potomac real estate investor. Trustees mishandled the auction, leading to an inadequate price of $3.24 million, and the buyer should be disqualified because of harassment, the document says.

A representative of buyer Sam Asgari called the claims “frivolous” and without merit.

“This is still the house of cards,” said Sam Sheibani, a Compass real estate agent who is representing Asgari, on Monday, referring to the popular Netflix TV series filmed in Baltimore in which Spacey starred.

Asgari is preparing a response to the latest filings in Baltimore City Circuit Court and plans to pursue eviction, Sheibani said.

Attorneys for Spacey, listed as Kevin Spacey Fowler, principal of home owner Clear Toaster LLC, accused Asgari of acting in bad faith.

“Mr. Asgari has continuously harassed Clear Toaster’s principal, Kevin Spacey Fowler, and has published false and defamatory statements and accusations against Clear Toaster’s principal, Kevin Spacey Fowler, who occupies the property as his home,” said Spacey’s attorney, Edward U. Lee III, in a motion Friday.

Spacey purchased the two-unit condo in the gated The Pier Homes at Harborview for $5.7 million in 2017. His friend and manager Evan Lowenstein owned the home, but the former “House of Cards” star recently laid claim to it, Lowenstein previously told The Sun.

The Oscar-winning Spacey, who has said he was left with millions of dollars of debt from fighting several lawsuits in the U.S. and Britain alleging sexual misconduct, owed back payments for the home.

Last summer, a city Circuit Court judge approved a foreclosure sale.

Spacey’s attorneys are arguing the court should revoke the July sale, which took place outside Baltimore Circuit Court and require trustees to resell the property.

They say trustees failed in their obligations to maximize the home’s price. They advertised it as a dwelling, the filing said, but left out details such as its size, 9,000 square feet on five levels, and amenities, such as seven full baths, a sauna, elevator, home theaters, a rooftop terrace and four-car garage.

The price at auction fell well below both the property’s assessed value of more than $5.4 million in July, and the outstanding principal balance of more than $3.8 million, the court document said.

It says Asgari should be disqualified, in part because he threatened eviction before the auction sale had been ratified and before he had possession of the home, placing a “notice about eviction” on the home Spacey has occupied as his primary residence. The sale is not final, the filing says, until an exception period expires and the court ratifies the sale.

Yet, Spacey’s filing says, the notice placed on the property on the day of the auction gave anyone residing in the home 15 days to notify Asgari, or the property would be considered abandoned and the locks changed, without a court order.

Asgari knew the home was not abandoned and intended only to “harass and coerce [Spacey] to leave his home when he was in no way obligated to do so,” the filing said. “In Mr. Asgari’s wrongful demand to have [Spacey] vacate the property, he threatened to pursue eviction as a result of the property being ‘abandoned.'”

Lee said Asgari contacted him in mid-August, “threatening to proceed with interviews with Inside Edition and CBS News that same day unless an immediate response was provided regarding the vacancy date and further threatening to start eviction proceedings the following Monday.”

Asgari views the chain of events differently, Sheibani said. Spacey simply won’t return something that no longer belongs to him, he said.

He is taking advantage of “my client’s generosity, requesting a large sum of money and a long time to vacate the property,” Sheibani said. “We simply want the property that rightly belongs to my client to be vacated and handed over.”

Lee, Spacey’s attorney, countered in the filing that Spacey has never “refused or threatened to refuse” to leave the home.

The document said Lee spoke with Asgari’s attorney Aug. 6 and proposed that Spacey be allowed to stay until about Feb. 1 in exchange for giving Asgari early entry to the home to begin planning to sell to an investor and agreeing not to file an objection to ratification of the sale.

But then a week later, Asgari offered $50,000 if Spacey would leave by Sept. 15, the filing says.

The 33-year-old African penguin, who made a “tremendous contribution” to the survival of his endangered species by fathering 230 chicks, was euthanized for age-related declining health, the Maryland Zoo said. He is survived by his lifelong mate Mrs. Greedy.

“This one bird was incredibly important to the continued existence of African penguins throughout the world,” Maryland Zoo bird curator Jen Kottyan said in a Sept. 5 news release. “It’s tough to lose an animal who has been such a welcome presence at our Zoo for three decades, but all of us are proud that he is survived by five generations of offspring.”

Kottyan added the median life expectancy of African penguins is 18 years, and Mr. Greedy was the oldest penguin in the zoo’s colony. Both Mr. and Mrs. Greedy hatched in 1991 and arrived in Baltimore in 1992.

“They had been paired up from the time they hit reproductive age in 1994,” Kottyan said.

Zookeepers are monitoring Mrs. Greedy, and if she shows interest, will pair her with a single male in the colony as a companion, according to the release.

The couple’s oldest offspring is 28 years old, and several of the pair’s chicks still live at the Maryland Zoo, including a fifth-generation descendant named Olive, according to the release.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland Zoo is home to the largest colony of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) in North America, according to the release, and has bred more than 1,000 chicks.

The zoo’s Penguin Coast exhibit is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and offers private visits with a zookeeper and photo opportunities.

Jerome Isaac Hurley, 44, was charged in April with one count of theft of more than $100,000, a felony in Maryland law punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Hurley appeared Friday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court in Annapolis. His next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4 with trial set to begin Dec. 10, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

Mark Lechowicz, Hurley’s defense attorney, declined to comment Monday.

On Sept. 5, 2023, Anne Arundel County Police went to the Miracle Temple along Southern Maryland Boulevard after being alerted to a theft, according to charging documents.

Police said church officials had recently discovered $347,000 of a $350,000 insurance check had been transferred from their Bank of America checking account into Hurley’s personal account.

According to charging documents, Hurley filed a successful insurance claim in March 2020 after a residence on the church’s property caught fire. Church officials told investigators that throughout Hurley’s seven years at Miracle Temple, from 2015 to 2022, he handled bank statements and finances.

A year after the fire, when the claim was vetted and a check was issued, Hurley took the vast majority of the insurance money from the temple’s account, police said. Charging documents reference bank account numbers and the dates of several bank transfers, including when the insurance money cleared the church’s account and when it was allegedly transferred to Hurley nine days later.

The church’s attempts to contact Hurley about the money were unsuccessful, police said. In February 2023, the Miracle Temple’s board sent Hurley a certified letter saying they had entrusted him “to act in good faith” when handling the church’s finances and that they had never been notified of the insurance claim or the $350,000 check, according to charging documents.

Police did not indicate what Hurley may have spent the money on once it was in his account.

A representative for Miracle Temple declined to comment Monday on Hurley’s case or time with the church.

A spokesperson with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the 2020 fire at Miracle Temple.

Since last year, Hurley’s case is at least the second criminal accusation levied against a church official in Anne Arundel County involving church money.

In March 2023, Marie Simeone was charged with embezzlement and two felony theft counts after she was accused of taking nearly $65,000 from the Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in West River.

Simeone, who was the church’s director of operations until about three months before she was charged, allegedly made personal purchases at several businesses, subscribed to magazines and streaming services, went to restaurants and paid her utility bills using church funds, prosecutors said.

In November 2023, Simeone pleaded guilty to a felony theft scheme charge and was granted probation before judgment.

The trail is meant to boost greenspace access and active transportation routes for residents of Northeast Baltimore, providing pedestrian and bicyclist connection to Morgan State University, Lake Montebello and Herring Run Park, in addition to other neighborhoods.

Local officials and community leaders gathered on the park’s basketball court Monday for a celebration of the grant and the park’s revitalization hosted by Rails to Trails Conservancy, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) and the Northeast Community Organization (NECO). The Morgan State Marching Band played cheerful music and danced before speakers took turns at the podium beneath a basketball hoop with a missing backboard and rim.

“We are able to come together today because we got a new vision and a new dream for our community,” said Father Joe Muth of Notre Dame of Maryland during the opening prayer, echoed by “Amens” from the crowd. “And we are grateful that we’ve come together today to make that dream a reality.”

About two years ago, the Rev. Cat Goodrich of Faith Presbyterian and some of her colleagues in Northeast Baltimore started having conversations about bringing residents together to see if there were common concerns, she said.

Of the issues raised, Goodrich said, “We heard a lot about Chinquapin Run Park.” She said people remembered when there were picnic tables and benches in the park, sports programs and children playing in the stream, noting the missing basketball rim and overgrown trail. The group had several meetings, held a walkthrough with City Councilmember Mark Conway and did some door-knocking, connecting with more than 100 residents, Goodrich said.

“It feels good and right that we are here today to celebrate because this park is a connector. It cuts through six different neighborhoods,” Goodrich said. “It runs all the way from the city-county line down to Morgan State. It cuts across lines of neighborhood and race and class, connecting us as one community.”

A clean, safe and well-kept park for families in the community is essential, said Angie Winder, president of NECO, reflecting on her elementary school teacher who “stood in the gap for us.”

“We, too, are standing in the gap for the next generation just by being here, affirming to them I’ll fight for their future,” Winder said. “Revitalizing this park is just one example of that, we will not see it be neglected or let it be disinvested.”

Grants and donations from the France-Merrick Foundation, Kentfields Foundation and Lockhart Vaughan Foundation, as well as private donors, comprise the investment funds according to the Rev. Kate Foster, a Baltimore resident and mid-Atlantic director of trails development for Rails to Trails.

The investment will support the preliminary planning of the trail, but Rails to Trails doesn’t own trail projects or build them, according to Foster. The group will continue working alongside partners to receive city and state funding for the project’s final design and construction.

“To get this park back and get it back better, we’re going to need resources. To get this trail built and to complete the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network, we’re going to need city leadership and a lot more money,” Foster said. “So we’re here to work with you, Baltimore City, but we need you to make it a priority too.”

The project is part of the vision to connect the area to the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network, a city-adopted plan for a 35-mile network of paths for city residents to “walk, bike or roll” between 75 neighborhoods and safely access green spaces, according to Foster.

Director of Baltimore City Recreation and Parks Reginald Moore emphasized the city’s commitment to all parks. Moore explained that benches will be replaced and a new basketball goal has been ordered, along with a fence to prevent people from doing donuts on the court with their vehicles, motioning to the marks on the ground. He also said the city will support a 2025 application for more funding to complete the full project.

Amidst many calls to action, Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry reminded the crowd that the mayor is responsible for delegating city spending, so people must call on the mayor to prioritize funding for the park.

“We have to make it clear that this is important and that we prioritize this. Are we good?” Henry said. “Yes,” the crowd cheered. “Do we understand the assignment?” Henry asked. “Yes,” the crowd cheered again.

Last week, the Baltimore County Council approved a plan to use $10 million in state funds to purchase 85 acres on the former C.P. Crane coal plant site in Bowleys Quarters from North Carolina realty firm Forsite Development. The county plans to use those acres to preserve it as a park, but it’s uncertain when it will open. The Department of Parks and Recreation plans to first gather community feedback, according to agency director Bob Smith.

At a Monday news conference, elected officials including County Council members, the Baltimore County executive and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the deal came together after years of advocacy by community groups in nearby Seneca Park and Bowleys Quarters.

The plant closed in 2018 after environmental regulators cited it for exceeding pollution limits and failing to test its emission levels. It changed owners multiple times, but plans to redevelop the site for housing or to reopen the plant as a natural gas facility fell through after residents pushed back. In 2022, Forsite demolished the candy cane-looking smoke stacks that served as a navigational marker for boaters and pilots from nearby Martin State Airport.

“The candy cones were good for boaters, but less so for the environment,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. “We knew that there was an opportunity to preserve the site as both open space and parkland, and also to find ways to support the transition to a more modern green economy and future.”

Local advocates began lobbying County Councilman David Marks and other officials to preserve it as a park, according to Seneca Park Improvement Association Vice President Bonny Jasinski.

“We enjoy and appreciate the natural wonder that is the Chesapeake Bay, and know the reality of its fragile ecosystem,” Jasinski said. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here. The purchase of this property will connect and extend that undeveloped land in combination with local, state and federal lands.”

“People talk a lot about how government doesn’t work these days, but here’s an example of government working together across party lines and in partnership with neighborhoods,” said Marks, an Upper Falls Republican. He described the negotiations as “complex.”

Forsite will still own 33 acres on the site and is in charge of cleaning up the site, which includes a dilapidated pier, parking lot and warehouse. The company is applying for permits to build a battery storage center, according to Chief Operating Officer Ryan Ford.

Baltimore County will receive an additional $1.7 million in federal funding to acquire right-of-way easements to connect the property via a rail trail to Marshy Point Nature Center and Eastern Regional Park, according to U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat.

“There are very limited amounts for these congressionally directed spending projects, earmarks, so the ones that rise to the top are ones that are well thought-out and have community support,” Van Hollen said.

Patty Morin is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee   at a hearing titled: “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspective,” her attorney, Randolph Rice, said in a news release. The hearing begins at 10 a.m.

The man suspected of killing Rachel Morin, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 23, of El Salvador, was arrested in June. Prosecutors say he entered the U.S. illegally.

Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first- and second-degree murder; first- and second-degree rape; and third-degree sex offense and kidnapping in connection with Rachel Morin’s death. He is being held without bail in the Harford County Detention Center.

Patty Morin’s planned testimony is not the first time the Morin family has spoken publicly about illegal immigration following Morin’s death. In July, the family was invited to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. During the convention, Michael Morin said his sister’s death happened because of broken immigration laws.

Rice’s news release stated that Patty Morin is expected to discuss how the suspect’s ability to enter the U.S. illegally created an “opportunity for the tragedy and how policies need to change to prevent other families from suffering a similar loss.”

“Patty’s courage in speaking out during such a difficult time is admirable,” Rice said in the news release. “This hearing provides a crucial platform to shed light on the consequences of our nation’s border policies, and we hope her voice helps create meaningful change.”

“The 16-year-old who committed this crime, he’s going to live his life, he’s being charged as an adult, he’s going to be going through the judicial process as an adult,” Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said Monday in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “He made a very adult decision, he should be allowed to make this decision to talk to the police, in my opinion.”

On Saturday, Jaylen Rushawn Prince, 16, of Edgewood was charged and arrested in the shooting death of 15-year-old Warren Curtis Grant during an altercation in a first-floor bathroom at Joppatowne High School on Friday.

Police are still searching for the weapon, with Gahler pointing to the Maryland Child Interrogation Protection Act as the reason for the missing firearm.

“I hope my frustration is clear that the legislature has handcuffed police,” he said at a news conference Friday. “There are families … and the parents of the shooter, who have a right to know why we stand here today why we all stand here today and why there’s a person who has been shot in one of our schools, and we are not allowed to ask the person who committed that act because of this crazy legislature we have in this state.”

The Child Interrogation Protection Act, passed in 2022, mandates that law enforcement immediately alert a child’s parent or guardian when they are taken into custody and provide minors with the opportunity to speak with an attorney who uses age-appropriate terms to explain their civil rights before they are interrogated.

If police willfully do not follow the parameters of the law, any statement made by the child in question would be inadmissible in court.

In a January opinion, Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said the Child Interrogation Protection Act was constitutional.

There were several failed attempts — largely on the part of Republican lawmakers — to reform the policy during the 2024 legislative session.

Among the cohort of Maryland Republicans who have consistently opposed the law in the past, Del. Kathy Szeliga, a Baltimore County Republican who used to represent Joppatowne in the State House, said Gahler’s frustrations are warranted. Even though the suspect is in custody, the missing weapon “is extremely troubling,” Szeliga said.

“This is a very family friendly community — lots of kids around. You just would hate for this gun to fall into the hands of a child or a criminal,” Szeliga said. “This is a perfect example of bad policy having unintended consequences.”

Szeliga said she’s hoping law enforcement officials who have lobbied in the past to repeal the interrogation law will do so again during the annual 90-day session that will begin Jan. 8 in Annapolis.

The Child Interrogation Protection Act does not prohibit law enforcement from speaking with children during the fact-finding phase of an investigation — only if the child is taken into police custody.

An investigation by The Baltimore Sun last September found that, of 77 juvenile arrests made by Baltimore police in July 2023, only one child called the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s 24/7 Youth Access to Counsel Hotline.

By legal precedent, minors do not have the ability to waive their right to a lawyer or their right to remain silent.

David Jaros, a law professor and faculty director of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform, said that the state law may make it more difficult for police to “persuade or inadvertently waive” constitutional rights, but nothing stops minors from talking to police after they speak with their attorney.

“All this requires is that the juvenile make an informed decision about invoking or waiving constitutional rights,” Jaros said. “Our system is built on the belief that we can have effective law enforcement and respect fundamental constitutional rights, and the right to remain silent is an essential part of the protections of the constitution.”

Gahler said he needed to consult with his detectives regarding the number of instances in which children waive or invoke their rights to remain silent, but offered that “there’s no attorney” who will tell their client to speak with the police, “and, in this instance, we have a gun that remains on the street.”

He also was unaware whether the child charged in last week’s shooting invoked his right to remain silent, because officers had “sufficient information” to charge him without interrogation.

“The big question in everyone’s mind — and I’m sure in the parents’ minds, the students who will be going back to school later this week — is where is the gun?” Gahler said. “We know we have the violator in custody, but we don’t want this weapon out there. It could be used in another crime. We searched for it. It could have been dropped. It could have been passed. But until we recover that, I won’t feel comfortable.”

State Senate Judiciary Committee Vice Chair Jeff Waldstreicher, a Montgomery County Democrat, said the law should be revisited to make sure it’s serving its proper purpose, but that there is a public safety exception in the law that allows police to interrogate children if they are seeking information to protect against a public safety threat.

“How do I know? Because I’m the one who authored the public safety exception and included it in the law,” he said Monday.

The public safety exception follows the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case New York v. Quarles, which ruled that there is an exception to the requirement that officers issue Miranda Rights warnings to people suspected of crime in the interest of public safety.

Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, a Democrat who has testified against the Child Interrogation Protection Act before the General Assembly, said the Supreme Court case is “fine and good” regarding constitutional standards, but Maryland’s Child Interrogation Protection Act “overrides constitutional rights because it’s more strict.”

He said he “would love” if Waldstreicher were able to incorporate a clearer public safety standard into a revised law, but, “at the moment, that’s not the way that’s being read.”

“The statute’s clear as a bell. The public defender says to the police, ‘Don’t talk to my client’ — that’s the end of it,” Shellenberger said. “Clearly, this case where a gun is in public missing is the most concerning example of what we’re worried about.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Sam Janesch contributed to this article. 

“When I start from the very beginning and get to the very end, they’re like, ‘wow, that is a really crazy story,’” The victim’s mother Tammy Nobles told Project Baltimore. “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.”

Nobles’ daughter Kayla Hamilton was killed on July 27, 2022. For more than two years her death made headlines.

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

On the day Kayla died, Aberdeen Police quickly identified Walter Martinez — 16-year-old MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who was in United States illegally — as a primary suspect, according to charging documents, which showed Martinez was detained by police and questioned. Detectives had surveillance video and an audio recording that placed Martinez at the scene of the crime. Martinez was read his Miranda Rights.

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

When police sent out Martinez’s DNA, it took six months to process. And after Kayla was murdered, and while police were waiting for the DNA results, Martinez was allowed to enroll as a student and was attending Edgewood High School in Harford County.

“It makes me angry,” Nobles told FOX45. “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.”

According to information Fox45 News gathered from local and federal agencies involved in the investigation, this is the timeline of events surrounding Kayla’s murder.

• In March 2022, Martinez entered the United States illegally through Texas as an unaccompanied minor. He was apprehended by Border Patrol and sent to live with a sponsor in Maryland.
• By July 2022, Martinez moved to a mobile home in Aberdeen where he later killed Kayla.
• By the fall of 2022, as police waited for the DNA results, Martinez had been placed in foster care with Child and Protective Services. He then enrolled at Edgewood High School.
• In January 2023, the DNA results came back, and Martinez was arrested.
• In August 2024, he pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 70 years in jail.

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

Under Maryland law, even though Martinez was a suspect, since he had not yet been charged with murder, he could attend Edgewood High School, and authorities, including CPS, were not required to tell the school about his past. But Nobles believes someone should have.

Harford County Public Schools told Fox45 in a statement when Martinez was enrolled in October 2022, “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.”

“We need to change the laws,” said Nobles. “If you’re a suspect, the main suspect of a felony, you should not be able to attend school with other children. They have virtual school and computers.”

Several organizations were involved in the investigation into Martinez, including  the Aberdeen Police Department, Maryland State Police, the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Child and Protective Services.

Yet, when Martinez was enrolled in Edgewood High School, no one involved told the school that a teen suspected of murder was walking the hallways with 1,400 other students.

“Imagining what [Kayla] went through that day, how she felt — her last moments knowing that she was dying, and she wasn’t going to see me again — how scared she must have been,” said Nobles, who lives in Virginia with Kayla’s younger brother and sister. “I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to someone else. People need to know what actually happened and what is going on. Her death is not going to be in vain.”