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Venezuelan illegal migrant identified in brutal killing of 68-year-old California retiree

August 12, 2026 | | Print Article

A Venezuelan illegal alien allegedly murdered an elderly Bay Area man only months after committing multiple burglaries.

On April 29, illegal alien Marcos Iriarte-Valdez, 36, broke into two homes in the California town of Orinda Downs, including the home of an 83-year-old woman.

The woman told local station KTVU that he stole a laptop from her garage and ate some food.

Later that same day, another woman who lived close by had her own scary encounter with Iriarte-Valdez.

“She was in the back of her house, I think, and saw the reflection in her bathroom,” the 83-year-old woman recalled. “She saw this man trying to get into her back door.”

According to the 83-year-old woman’s husband, the woman down the street “screamed” when she saw Iriarte-Valdez, spooking him and inspiring him to take off.

He was arrested sometime after and pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony first-degree burglary. He was subsequently let back onto the streets on pretrial release, according to Martinez News and Views.

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Months later, on Aug. 4, he was taken into custody again for allegedly violating a home-detention monitoring rule. However, a day later he was released back onto the streets once again by this judge:

Another day later on Aug. 6, Iriarte-Valdez allegedly butchered 68-year-old retiree Todd Stewart on Stewart’s own front lawn in the nearby town of Martinez.

“Stewart was stabbed multiple times just steps from his front door,” according to KTVU. “Neighbors said he had been working on a project in his garage before the attack. He died at the scene.”

Surveillance footage captured the horrible assault and murder.

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Watch (*Graphic content):

Neighbors were stunned.

“I’m still processing because I still expect to see him over the fence,” neighbor Galina Pasternak said. “It’s nowhere as bad as his family, because they lost their father, his wife lost her husband. They finally were spending more time together because they were retired. They were traveling.”

Thankfully, investigators determined that Iriarte-Valdez was the top suspect.

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“Through using automated license plate recognition technology, we were able to locate what ultimately became that vehicle and understand kind of where it had been,” Martinez Chief of Police Andrew White. “Simultaneously, we were receiving tips from the community from people who recognized the vehicle.”

The authorities then tracked the suspect, Iriarte-Valdez, to his apartment complex, where he was taken into custody.

According to Martinez News and Views, it appears the authorities may be at least partly to blame for this murder.

“Iriarte-Valdez was wearing an ankle bracelet when he was returned to jail for the alleged home detention rule violation on Tuesday, but it was removed while he was in custody, and he was not wearing one upon his release Wednesday,” the outlet reported.

He wasn’t scheduled to receive a new bracelet until Friday, a day after Stewart’s murder.

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This wasn’t the first time the authorities treated him with kid gloves.

“Iriarte-Valdez had been taken into custody by Martinez police in October 2025 on suspicion of hit-and-run resulting in property damage, but … the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges in that case,” according to Martinez News and Views.

His criminal history also included a misdemeanor “for intentionally and knowingly violating a valid court-issued restraining, protective or stay-away order,” as well as “arrests in San Luis Obispo in 2016 on suspicion of forcible rape/infliction of corporal injury on a spouse/cohabitant.”

The Department of Homeland Security has since placed a detainer on Iriarte-Valdez and demanded that California Gov. Gavin Newsom ensure that he not be released from jail.

Vivek Saxena
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