Walter Martinez pleaded guilty to murdering Kayla Hamilton in August
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.