The stabbing suspect arrested for allegedly butchering an aged man to demise outdoors his Bay Space residence a day after being launched from jail has been recognized as an unlawful migrant from Venezuela.
Marcos Iriarte-Valdez, 36, is accused of fatally stabbing Todd Stewart, 68, on the entrance garden of the retiree’s Martinez residence final week, with surveillance footage capturing the horrifying assault.
On Tuesday, the Division of Homeland Safety revealed Iriarte-Valdez is a “Venezuelan unlawful alien” who dedicated the alleged crime “in sanctuary California.”
“[Governor Gavin Newsom] should NOT RELEASE this assassin from jail and switch him over to us so we are able to REMOVE him from our nation,” the division posted on X.
Iriarte-Valdez, had already been in bother with the legislation and was on pretrial launch for a residential housebreaking case when he was jailed final Tuesday for allegedly violating the phrases of his home-detention monitoring.
A day later, a Contra Costa County Superior Court docket decide launched him on his personal recognizance and referred him again to residence detention. Lower than 24 hours later, Stewart was lifeless.
Iriarte-Valdez had been on pretrial launch over residential burglaries that occurred April 29 in Orinda.
Martinez Police Chief Andrew White mentioned the suspect apparently didn’t even have his home-detention monitoring tools positioned on him till Friday, the day after Stewart was killed.
The suspect was arrested Friday night at his residence within the 1600 block of Ashwood Drive on suspicion of homicide. He’s being held on $1.1 million bail.
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Police mentioned there was no identified connection between Iriarte-Valdez and Stewart.
Stewart had been engaged on a challenge in his storage earlier than the assault, neighbors mentioned.
The eruption of violence left Stewart’s neighbors shocked.
“I’m nonetheless processing as a result of I nonetheless count on to see him over the fence,” neighbor Galina Pasternak informed KTVU. “It’s nowhere as unhealthy as his household, as a result of they misplaced their father, his spouse misplaced her husband. They lastly had been spending extra time collectively as a result of they had been retired. They had been touring.”
Investigators shortly zeroed in on the suspect utilizing surveillance footage, automated license-plate recognition know-how and ideas from residents who acknowledged the automobile.
“Via utilizing automated license plate recognition know-how, we had been capable of find what in the end grew to become that automobile and perceive sort of the place it had been,” White mentioned. “Concurrently, we had been receiving ideas from the neighborhood from individuals who acknowledged the automobile.”
Cops finally tracked Iriarte-Valdez to his condominium advanced and arrested him with out incident.
His felony document additionally consists of an October 2025 arrest in Contra Costa County for DUI of alcohol and hit-and-run inflicting property harm, based on county reserving data and police statements.
Following the alleged killing, Martinez police booked Iriarte-Valdez on suspicion of homicide together with a secondary cost alleging he dedicated a felony whereas launched on his personal recognizance.
