Suspect accused of fatal stabbing day after his release from California jail charged with murder
Todd Stewart, 68, was fatally stabbed outside his home, police said.
A suspect accused of fatally stabbing a man outside a California residence during a burglary a day after being released from custody has been charged with murder, officials said.
The suspect, 36-year-old Marcos Eduardo Iriarte-Valdez, had been out of custody on electronic monitoring in a separate burglary case when last week's stabbing occurred, according to prosecutors.
The victim, 68-year-old Todd Stewart, was stabbed outside his home in Martinez on Aug. 6 in an incident captured on video surveillance, according to prosecutors. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The suspect fled in a Cadillac SUV, and Iriarte-Valdez was arrested the following day after investigators identified a license plate and located the vehicle in Martinez, police said.
Prosecutors allege that Iriarte-Valdez stabbed Stewart to death with a knife while committing a residential burglary.
He was charged by the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office with one count of murder with additional enhancements that allege the killing took place during a burglary, involved the use of a knife and was committed while the suspect was out on conditional release in a separate, unrelated burglary case.
According to police, Iriarte-Valdez had been taken into custody on Aug. 4 for allegedly violating a home detention monitoring rule while on pretrial release in a case involving residential burglaries that occurred in April in Orinda.
On Aug. 5, a day before the fatal stabbing, he was ordered released and referred to home detention monitoring in the burglary case, police said. He was on conditional release, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, which said it objected to electronic home detention for the suspect three times -- during the Aug. 5 hearing on the alleged violation of his electronic home detention terms, as well as during his arraignment and preliminary hearing in that case.
Iriarte-Valdez pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Wednesday and was ordered held without bail, with Judge David Goldstein calling him a "risk to public safety," prosecutors said.
ABC News reached out to Iriarte-Valdez's public defender in the separate burglary case for comment but has not yet received a response.
An Orinda homeowner who said he was among the victims of the April burglaries spoke with ABC San Francisco station KGO following the deadly stabbing.
"I was told he had an ankle bracelet, taking it off or doing something to it, and released," the homeowner, Jim, told KGO. "Whether he should have been or not is an open question, but it's very sad."
A memorial fund for Stewart remembered him as a "very loving, kind and helpful person" who was devoted to his family and church. He was a recently retired engineer and is survived by his wife and two children, according to the fund.
Iriarte-Valdez faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted in the murder case, prosecutors said.
"Our office will pursue this case with diligence and integrity to hold Iriarte-Valdez fully accountable under the law for this devastating act of violence," Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the victim's loved ones and the larger community as they navigate this unimaginable loss."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer for Iriarte-Valdez with the Contra Costa County Jail on Aug. 8, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, who referred to the suspect in a statement as a "criminal alien." Iriarte-Valdez is a Venezuelan national with citizenship in Spain, who was legally admitted into the U.S. in December 2007, the spokesperson said.
In addition to murder, he has been charged with multiple offenses, including burglary, trespassing and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, and has been convicted of violating a court-ordered protective order, the spokesperson said.
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