Illegal immigrant charged with brutal slaying one day after California judge released him
A California judge in the Bay Area released an illegal immigrant who had been in custody on burglary charges one day before prosecutors say he murdered a 68-year-old retiree in...
By Fox News · Fox News
A California judge in the Bay Area released an illegal immigrant who had been in custody on burglary charges one day before prosecutors say he murdered a 68-year-old retiree in his Martinez neighborhood. Marcos Iriarte-Valdez had a prior criminal record and was facing burglary charges stemming from at least two incidents elsewhere in Contra Costa County, just east of San Francisco , when a judge in the Democratic-majority county ordered him released. The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News Digital it placed an immigration detainer on Iriarte-Valdez on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2025. "Valdezusper is charged with murder, inflicting corporal injury on spouse, three counts of burglary, receiving known stolen property, trespassing, entering non-commercial dwelling, loitering, as well as convicted of violation of court ordered protective order," the department said in a statement. FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN MOVES TO IMPEACH JUDGE WHO ORDERED CONVICTED CUBAN PLANE HIJACKER FREED FROM ICE "CA Governor [ Gavin Newsom ] must not release this murderer from jail and turn him over to us so we can REMOVE him from our nation," the department later tweeted about Iriarte-Valdez, who is from Venezuela but reported to have Spanish citizenship. " Sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety. This type of insanity leads to more crimes and more innocent victims," DHS said in a statement to Fox News Digital. Iriarte-Valdez is accused of murdering 68-year-old Todd Stewart of Martinez, who had lived on his quiet street for about 40 years, during an attempted burglary, prosecutors said. Contra Costa prosecutors previously charged Iriarte-Valdez in connection with burglaries at occupied residences in April. He was on pretrial release in that case when he was arrested Tuesday for allegedly violating a home-detention condition, then ordered released on his own recognizance on Wednesday, one day before Stewart was killed. Prosecutors said Iriarte-Valdez tried to run from St…