A 36-year-old illegal immigrant already facing burglary charges walked out of a Bay Area courtroom on a judge's order and, prosecutors say, fatally stabbed a 68-year-old retiree in his own garage the very next day, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to demand California hand him over.
Marcos Iriarte-Valdez, a Venezuelan national who also holds Spanish citizenship, now faces a murder charge, three counts of burglary, and a string of additional offenses after the killing of Todd Stewart in Martinez, California, a small city just east of San Francisco. Stewart had lived on his quiet street for roughly 40 years. Fox News Digital reported that prosecutors say Stewart encountered Iriarte-Valdez in his garage, and the suspect tried to flee before stabbing Stewart to death.
The timeline is damning on its own. Iriarte-Valdez was arrested on a Tuesday for allegedly violating a condition of his home detention, itself a lenient arrangement tied to earlier residential burglary charges filed in April. On Wednesday, an unnamed judge in Contra Costa County ordered him released on his own recognizance. By Thursday, Stewart was dead.
Investigators used automated license plate recognition technology and community tips to track Iriarte-Valdez down. He was arrested Friday evening. He pleaded not guilty the following Wednesday and is being held without bail, with a court date set for September.
The charges stacked against Iriarte-Valdez go well beyond the murder itself. DHS listed his offenses as murder, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, three counts of burglary, receiving known stolen property, trespassing, entering a non-commercial dwelling, and loitering. He also had a prior conviction for violating a court-ordered protective order.
Prosecutors filed three enhancements: a special circumstance alleging the murder occurred during or immediately after a burglary, personal use of a deadly weapon, a knife, and committing the offense while released on bail or his own recognizance. That last enhancement exists precisely because the legal system is supposed to take the risk of pretrial release seriously. In this case, the judge's decision to let Iriarte-Valdez walk gave prosecutors the factual basis for the enhancement.
The April burglaries that first brought Iriarte-Valdez into the system targeted occupied homes in Contra Costa County. One homeowner, whose 83-year-old wife saw the intruder's reflection and screamed, told Fox's San Francisco affiliate KTVU-TV that the suspect fled. Asked about the judge's decision to release Iriarte-Valdez, the homeowner said:
"The judge uses his discretion or her discretion. I don't know who the judge was, so, you know, who am I to argue?"
That homeowner shouldn't have had to argue. The system is supposed to weigh the risk a defendant poses before turning him loose. Iriarte-Valdez had been charged with breaking into homes where people lived and slept. He had allegedly violated home detention. And the judge still cut him free, without bail, without a monitor. The New York Post reported that Iriarte-Valdez's home detention monitoring equipment had not even been placed on him until the day after the murder.
DHS placed an immigration detainer on Iriarte-Valdez on September 23, 2025. The department then went public, calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to transfer the suspect to federal custody. DHS posted on social media:
"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."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a DHS spokesperson laid out the agency's broader complaint about sanctuary jurisdictions:
"The safest way to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets is by lodging arrest detainers. Because sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to perpetuate more crimes. Seven of the top 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE."
DHS also said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin "continues to target the 'worst of the worst.'" The department added bluntly that "sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety" and that "this type of insanity leads to more crimes and more innocent victims."
Governor Newsom's office responded through Diana Crofts-Pelayo, his chief deputy director of communications. Her statement to Fox News Digital tried to split the difference:
"This individual should face justice for his alleged crime. California takes public safety seriously, and nothing in California law prevents federal authorities from enforcing federal immigration law. The federal government has billions of dollars and substantial resources to enforce federal law, they do their job instead of blaming California for ICE's enforcement failures."
That response deserves scrutiny. Crofts-Pelayo said "nothing in California law prevents federal authorities from enforcing federal immigration law." But the entire sanctuary framework, which California has built into state statute, limits how local jails cooperate with ICE detainers. DHS lodged its detainer. The question is whether the county will honor it or force ICE to chase the suspect through the community after any future release. Crofts-Pelayo framed the problem as a federal resource issue. DHS framed it as a state obstruction issue. Todd Stewart's family is left with neither an explanation nor their father.
Iriarte-Valdez was legally admitted to the United States during the George W. Bush administration. How he lost lawful status is not explained in the public record so far. But DHS now classifies him as an illegal immigrant, and the detainer makes federal authorities' position clear: they want him removed from the country after any criminal proceedings conclude.
He has been in the U.S. since at least 2007, long enough to have built a record that includes the protective-order violation, the spousal-injury charge, and the April burglaries, all before the murder charge. None of that history persuaded the unnamed Contra Costa County judge to keep him in custody.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Martinez Police Department, the Contra Costa Superior Court, and District Attorney Diana Becton's office for comment. No responses were noted. The judge who ordered the release could not be reached.
Stewart was 68 years old and retired. He had spent four decades in the same Martinez neighborhood. Prosecutors say he walked into his own garage, found a stranger there, and was stabbed to death when that stranger tried to escape. The special-circumstance enhancement, murder during or immediately after a burglary, means Iriarte-Valdez could face the most severe penalties California law allows if convicted.
Several key questions remain unanswered. Which judge signed the release order, and on what basis? Did the court weigh the pending burglary charges, the home-detention violation, and the protective-order conviction before granting own-recognizance release? Will Contra Costa County honor the DHS detainer, or will state sanctuary policy intervene? And who, if anyone, will be held accountable for the decision that put Iriarte-Valdez back on the street less than 24 hours before a retiree died in his own garage?
When the system releases a man with a record of break-ins, a protective-order violation, and a spousal-injury charge, and a retiree pays for that decision with his life, the people responsible owe the public more than silence and finger-pointing between Sacramento and Washington.
