A 68-year-old Martinez, California, retiree was fatally stabbed outside his own home, allegedly by an illegal immigrant a judge had released on his own recognizance just one day earlier, prompting DHS to demand Governor Gavin Newsom hand the suspect over.
Todd Stewart had lived on his quiet street in Martinez, a small city just east of San Francisco, for roughly 40 years. Prosecutors say Marcos Iriarte-Valdez, a 36-year-old Venezuelan national, killed him during an attempted burglary, one day after a Contra Costa County judge turned Iriarte-Valdez loose despite his criminal record and a pending home-detention violation. Fox News reported that DHS has now placed an immigration detainer on the suspect and is publicly pressuring California's governor to surrender him to federal custody for removal.
The timeline is damning. Iriarte-Valdez was arrested on a Tuesday for allegedly violating a condition of his home detention, itself tied to earlier burglary charges. On Wednesday, an unnamed judge ordered him released on his own recognizance. By Thursday, Stewart was dead.
Investigators say Stewart encountered Iriarte-Valdez in the garage of his Martinez home. Iriarte-Valdez allegedly tried to flee, then stabbed the 68-year-old retiree and killed him. Martinez police arrested Iriarte-Valdez on Friday evening after tracking him through automated license-plate-recognition technology and community tips.
Iriarte-Valdez entered the United States legally during the George W. Bush administration, the New York Post reported, arriving as early as 2007. He was later classified as an illegal immigrant by DHS, though the specific change in his status has not been publicly explained. He also reportedly holds Spanish citizenship.
His criminal history did not begin with the Stewart killing. Contra Costa County prosecutors had already charged him in connection with burglaries at occupied residences in April. In one of those incidents, an 83-year-old woman saw Iriarte-Valdez's reflection inside her home and screamed. Her husband told FOX's San Francisco affiliate, KTVU-TV, that Iriarte-Valdez then fled.
Beyond the burglary charges, Iriarte-Valdez's record includes DUI, hit-and-run, domestic violence, and violating a court-ordered protective order. The full list of current charges, as described by DHS, includes murder, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, three counts of burglary, receiving known stolen property, trespassing, entering a non-commercial dwelling, and loitering, on top of the protective-order violation.
Prosecutors added 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 on his own recognizance. That last enhancement speaks directly to the judge's decision. Iriarte-Valdez pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. He is due back in court Tuesday, September 1.
The pattern is not unique to this case. An illegal immigrant trucker who killed three people on a California highway recently received less than five years in prison, a sentence that left victims' families questioning whether the state takes public safety seriously when illegal immigrants are the defendants.
The Department of Homeland Security did not hold back. On September 23, 2025, DHS placed an immigration detainer on Iriarte-Valdez. The department then posted publicly on social media, directing its message at Newsom:
"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 separate statement to Fox News Digital, DHS went further:
"Sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety. This type of insanity leads to more crimes and more innocent victims."
A DHS spokesperson elaborated on the agency's broader argument, saying the safest way to arrest and remove criminal illegal immigrants is by lodging detainers with local jails, and that sanctuary jurisdictions undermine that process.
"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."
The spokesperson added that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin continues to target the "worst of the worst" among criminal illegal immigrants. Fox News reported the case is being cited as a direct illustration of the consequences when local governments refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Newsom's office pushed back. Diana Crofts-Pelayo, the governor's chief deputy director of communications, told Fox News Digital that the state takes public safety seriously, then turned the blame back on Washington:
"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 amounts to a familiar deflection. Crofts-Pelayo's claim that "nothing in California law prevents" federal enforcement sidesteps the core complaint: sanctuary policies bar local jails from honoring ICE detainers, which forces federal agents to track suspects on the street instead of picking them up in custody. DHS says that gap is exactly what put Todd Stewart in danger.
The judge who released Iriarte-Valdez has not been publicly identified. Fox News Digital reported that the judge could not be reached for comment. Neither the Contra Costa Superior Court, the Martinez Police Department, nor District Attorney Diana Becton's office responded to requests for comment.
The homeowner whose wife encountered Iriarte-Valdez during the April burglary offered a resigned reaction when asked about the judge's decision by KTVU-TV:
"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 may not feel empowered to argue. But the question of why a man already charged with burgling occupied homes, and already caught violating his home-detention conditions, was released on his own recognizance deserves a public answer. The judge's identity, the reasoning behind the release, and the specific home-detention violation Iriarte-Valdez allegedly committed remain undisclosed.
Cases like this are not isolated. In Virginia, a Fairfax County prosecutor faced a congressional grilling over reduced charges in cases involving illegal immigrants, part of a broader pattern of local officials making decisions that shield criminal suspects from federal enforcement and full accountability.
Todd Stewart is the latest American whose death sits at the intersection of lenient judicial decisions, sanctuary policies, and a suspect who should not have been on the street. He was a retiree. He lived in his neighborhood for four decades. He walked into his own garage.
In Florida, two illegal immigrants were charged in the murder of a Marine veteran and father of two, another case where Americans paid the price for enforcement failures. And in Minnesota, a clemency board cleared a convicted child rapist for a pardon partly to shield him from deportation, prioritizing a criminal's future over public safety.
Several key questions remain unanswered in the Stewart case. What specific change in Iriarte-Valdez's immigration status turned a legal admission into illegal presence? Why did the judge release him after he violated home-detention conditions tied to burglary charges? And will Contra Costa County honor the DHS detainer, or will sanctuary policy prevail again?
Newsom's office says California takes public safety seriously. Todd Stewart's family might disagree. When a man with a record of burglary, domestic violence, and protective-order violations walks out of a courthouse on a Wednesday and kills a retiree on a Thursday, the system did not take public safety seriously. It took a gamble, and a 68-year-old man who spent 40 years in his home paid for it.