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A friend of a California crime victim who was allegedly fatally stabbed by an illegal immigrant on his front lawn lashed out on Monday, accusing the Golden State’s justice system of failing the family while calling for change.
“California state law, the judge, judicial system really failed Todd [Stewart] and his family and the community,” Victoria, whose last name was withheld, told “Fox & Friends.”
Victoria’s outrage stemmed from a string of developments leading up to the Aug. 6 murder, including the suspect’s prior release.
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According to records, Marcos Iriarte-Valdez, alternatively identified by DHS as Marcos Valdezusper, entered the U.S. illegally during the George W. Bush administration. He had already faced felony burglary charges stemming from alleged home burglaries in April and was later released under pretrial supervision and home detention.
Iriarte-Valdez was arrested again on Aug. 4 on allegations that he violated his home-detention requirements, but a judge ordered his release on his own recognizance the following day and referred him back to electronic monitoring.
“Clearly, they were not thinking,” Victoria said of the release. “And unfortunately, if a person shows you who they are, not once, not twice, not three times, you need to believe them.”
On Aug. 6, police said Iriarte-Valdez stabbed and killed Victoria’s friend, 68-year-old retiree Todd Stewart, during an apparent burglary attempt at Stewart’s Contra Costa County home.
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A Contra Costa County SWAT team arrested Iriarte-Valdez the following day. His bail was initially set at $1.1 million before a judge later ordered him held without bail after prosecutors charged him in Stewart’s death.
Victoria said that knowing her friend’s death was preventable is “difficult” while pointing to broader issues allowing repeat offenders to remain on the loose.
“It’s very, very difficult when you know that this was preventable and there are ways and methods and laws that could have kept these people off the streets… but that’s just not the way it works right now, which is unfortunate,” she said.
“Maybe if anyone involved with having this criminal released were to go to the crime scene and see firsthand what he did to Todd and have that play in their mind next time they make a decision to release someone dangerous like that onto the streets, maybe they’ll think twice or it will have them change the way things are done, because my friend is going to have that vision of seeing her husband murdered in front of her eyes playing through her head for the rest of her life,” she added, referring to Todd’s wife, Nadia.
Fox News’ Charles Creitz and Elaine Mallon contributed to this report.
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