A 36-year-old man who was on pretrial release for two residential burglaries in Orinda's Orinda Downs neighborhood now faces a murder charge in the fatal stabbing of a 68-year-old Martinez resident one day after a judge freed him.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office charged Marcos Iriarte-Valdez on Wednesday, Aug. 12, with murder and a special-circumstance allegation in the death of Todd Stewart, according to Patch. The special circumstance, murder while fleeing a burglary attempt, can make a defendant eligible for the death penalty or life without parole under California law.
Iriarte-Valdez is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, Aug. 13. He is being held on $1.1 million bail.
The Orinda connection
The April 29 burglaries occurred on a cul-de-sac off Dalewood Drive in Orinda Downs while residents were home. An 83-year-old woman reported a man stole a laptop from her garage and took food from her refrigerator. A neighbor a few doors away spotted the same man trying to enter her back door and screamed, causing him to flee.
Jim, an Orinda Downs homeowner whose last name was withheld by ABC7, said Ring camera footage from his home helped police make an arrest in the burglary case. He told the station he had been under the impression Iriarte-Valdez would remain in custody after violating his home-detention terms.
Timeline: release to killing
Iriarte-Valdez was taken into custody Tuesday, Aug. 4, for allegedly violating his home-detention monitoring. A judge released him on his own recognizance Wednesday, Aug. 5, and referred him back to home detention.
The next day, Thursday, Aug. 6, just after 5 p.m., surveillance video showed a man arriving at Francis Court in Martinez in a gray Cadillac SUV, putting on a mask and stabbing Stewart several times with a large knife. Stewart, a retired engineer who neighbors said had lived on the street about 40 years, was pronounced dead outside his home.
Martinez Police Chief Andrew White told NBC Bay Area on Aug. 8 that the attack had "no known connection to the victim."
"It's obviously deeply unsettling, it was a horrific attack," White said.
White also told KTVU it appeared Iriarte-Valdez did not have his home-detention monitoring equipment placed on him until Saturday, Aug. 8, two days after the killing.
Arrest and charges
Investigators used automated license-plate recognition technology and community tips to track the gray SUV to the 1600 block of Ashwood Drive in Martinez. The Central County SWAT team arrested Iriarte-Valdez there at approximately 6:23 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7.
Police said there was no known prior connection between Iriarte-Valdez and Stewart. Neighbor Galina Pasternak told KTVU on Aug. 8: "I'm glad they arrested him, but it won't bring Todd back. I wish they did not release him."
The Orinda Downs burglary cases remain pending with no next court date publicly announced. County records also show Iriarte-Valdez was in a diversion program for a misdemeanor violation of a protective order at the time of the killing. The identity of the judge who released him Aug. 5 has not been publicly disclosed.
