An MS-13 Killer Nicknamed “The Witch” Was Ordered Released From ICE Custody.
The Judge Who Signed That Order Was Appointed by Gavin Newsom, Then by Joe Biden.
David Antonio Aviles Perez is a 35-year-old MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for a 2014 murder and convicted in California for swinging a machete at a homeless man in a Monterey park. In late March 2026, a federal judge ordered him released from immigration detention pending a bond hearing — the same kind of due-process ruling federal judges issue routinely, except this time the man on the other side of it carried a foreign murder warrant.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement re-arrested him in San Diego within roughly a day, this time on the international warrant rather than an immigration hold. But the sequence — a violent, twice-convicted gang member ordered released, then scrambled back into custody before he could disappear — traces directly back through California's sanctuary-policy framework and to a judge whose entire career has run through Sacramento and Washington appointments from the same party.
It's a story with three separate failure points, and this time even Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) didn't try to defend all of them.
- 20 years — the prison sentence an El Salvador court handed Aviles Perez in absentia for a 2014 aggravated-homicide conviction · Source: DHS.gov
- 2023 — the year Monterey police arrested Aviles Perez in Laguna Grande Park after he swung a machete at a homeless man · Source: Fox News
- 47-24 — the U.S. Senate vote that confirmed Judge Jinsook Ohta to the federal bench in December 2021, three years after Gov. Newsom appointed her to San Diego County Superior Court · Source: Federal Judicial Center / Wikipedia
- ~1 day — how long Aviles Perez stayed free between his federal release order and his re-arrest by ICE on the international murder warrant · Source: DHS.gov
- 2017 — the year California enacted SB 54, the California Values Act, restricting state and local cooperation with ICE notifications · Source: The Town Hall
Investigators and reporters who have tracked Aviles Perez say the nickname “la bruja” — “the witch” — followed him out of El Salvador, where a court convicted him in absentia of aggravated homicide over a 2014 killing and sentenced him to 20 years. He surfaced years later in Monterey County, California, where in August 2023 police arrested him in Laguna Grande Park after he swung a machete at a homeless man. Prosecutors charged him with assault with a deadly weapon, drug possession, and petty theft, and he was convicted on those California charges.
What happened next is the first failure point. Rather than being handed to ICE for a detainer, Aviles Perez was released from California custody without immigration authorities being notified — a gap reporting attributes to the restrictions California's sanctuary statutes place on local and state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. A convicted MS-13 member with an outstanding foreign murder warrant walked out of a California jail and stayed at large for roughly two and a half years before ICE and federal prosecutors caught up with him again.
By March 2026, Aviles Perez was in ICE detention, and his case landed in front of Judge Jinsook Ohta of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Around March 25–26, 2026, Ohta ordered him released from immigration detention unless the government could prove at a bond hearing that he was a danger to the community or a flight risk. That is a standard, procedurally unremarkable form of ruling — a bond determination, not a verdict on his guilt in either the Salvadoran homicide or the Monterey machete assault, both of which were already resolved. But it put a convicted, twice-over violent offender back on track for release with a proven history of vanishing from custody.
Ohta's own career is a straight line through Democratic appointments. Gov. Newsom appointed her to the San Diego County Superior Court in December 2020. Less than a year later, in September 2021, President Biden (D) nominated her to the federal bench in the Southern District of California; the Senate confirmed her 47–24 on December 17, 2021. She moved from a state trial bench to a lifetime federal judgeship in roughly twelve months, appointed at each step by the same party now facing questions about the practical results of the immigration rulings that bench produces.
California's SB 54, the California Values Act, and the related TRUTH Act limit how much state and local law enforcement can coordinate with ICE — including notifying federal agents before releasing someone from custody. Those statutes are the specific mechanism reporting points to for why Monterey County released Aviles Perez in 2023 without an ICE handoff, even though he was a convicted gang member with a foreign murder warrant attached to his name.
What makes this case different from the usual partisan back-and-forth is that Gov. Newsom himself broke from the standard defense of those laws. In a March 26, 2026 interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles, he said: “I support the spirit and intent of those laws. But let's be honest about what's happening. It's not working.” Immigrant Legal Resource Center attorney Luz Chavez pushed back publicly, calling that framing “deeply disappointing” and arguing it undercuts the protections sanctuary policy is meant to provide immigrant communities.
“I support the spirit and intent of those laws. But let's be honest about what's happening. It's not working.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Fox 11 Los Angeles, March 26, 2026
Judge Ohta's ruling was a bond/detention decision, not a finding on guilt — Aviles Perez's convictions in both El Salvador and California were already final.
The ruling required the government to prove danger or flight risk at a hearing; it did not order him freed unconditionally.
The underlying gap that let him walk out of California custody in 2023 without an ICE handoff traces to SB 54 and the TRUTH Act, not to Judge Ohta's later federal ruling.
ICE did not let the gap reopen. Federal agents arrested Aviles Perez in San Diego on March 26, 2026, this time on the strength of the outstanding international murder warrant from El Salvador rather than a routine immigration hold. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis (Trump-appointed) announced the arrest in blunt terms: “ICE arrested this dangerous criminal illegal alien and MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for murder.”
Bis put the earlier release directly on California's sanctuary framework: “Gavin Newsom's sanctuary policies allowed this gang member to be released from jail after his arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft. Releasing this gang member back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk.” Aviles Perez remains in ICE custody as of this writing, pending removal proceedings tied to the extradition request from El Salvador.
A convicted MS-13 killer wanted for murder in El Salvador was released from a California jail in 2023 without ICE notification under the state's sanctuary statutes, then ordered released again from federal immigration detention in 2026 by a judge appointed first by Gov. Newsom and then by President Biden. ICE recaptured him within roughly a day on the strength of his outstanding murder warrant. Every step traces to a named official, a named statute, or a named ruling — and even California's governor now says the policy chain isn't working.
