The stabbing suspect arrested for allegedly butchering an elderly man to death outside his Bay Area home a day after being released from jail has been identified as an illegal migrant from Venezuela.

Marcos Iriarte-Valdez, 36, is accused of fatally stabbing Todd Stewart, 68, on the front lawn of the retiree’s Martinez home last week, with surveillance footage capturing the horrifying attack.

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security revealed Iriarte-Valdez is a “Venezuelan illegal alien” who committed the alleged crime “in sanctuary California.”

“[Governor Gavin Newsom] must NOT RELEASE this murderer from jail and turn him over to us so we can REMOVE him from our nation,” the department posted on X.

Iriarte-Valdez, had already been in trouble with the law and was on pretrial release for a residential burglary case when he was jailed last Tuesday for allegedly violating the terms of his home-detention monitoring.

A day later, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge released him on his own recognizance and referred him back to home detention. Less than 24 hours later, Stewart was dead.

Iriarte-Valdez had been on pretrial release over residential burglaries that occurred April 29 in Orinda.

Martinez Police Chief Andrew White said the suspect apparently did not even have his home-detention monitoring equipment placed on him until Friday, the day after Stewart was killed.

The suspect was arrested Friday evening at his home in the 1600 block of Ashwood Drive on suspicion of murder. He is being held on $1.1 million bail.

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Police said there was no known connection between Iriarte-Valdez and Stewart.

Stewart had been working on a project in his garage before the attack, neighbors said.

The eruption of violence left Stewart’s neighbors stunned.

“I’m still processing because I still expect to see him over the fence,” neighbor Galina Pasternak told KTVU. “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.”

Investigators quickly zeroed in on the suspect using surveillance footage, automated license-plate recognition technology and tips from residents who recognized the vehicle.

“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,” White said. “Simultaneously, we were receiving tips from the community from people who recognized the vehicle.”

Cops eventually tracked Iriarte-Valdez to his apartment complex and arrested him without incident.

His criminal record also includes an October 2025 arrest in Contra Costa County for DUI of alcohol and hit-and-run causing property damage, according to county booking records and police statements.

Following the alleged killing, Martinez police booked Iriarte-Valdez on suspicion of murder along with a secondary charge alleging he committed a felony while released on his own recognizance.