San Diego Judge Frees MS-13 Murder Suspect Known as 'The Witch'

A federal judge in San Diego released David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, an MS-13 member wanted for aggravated murder in El Salvador. Officials say activist judges are emboldening dangerous releases.

MS-13 Executioner Released by Federal Judge Despite Active Murder Warrant

A machete-wielding MS-13 gang member known as "la bruja" — "the witch" — has been released from federal custody in California despite an active aggravated murder warrant issued by El Salvador, NY Post Metro reports.

David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, was taken into custody by ICE agents in San Diego in April after international authorities flagged him on a warrant for aggravated murder. He had been held in a southern California ICE detention facility pending removal to El Salvador, where he was sentenced in December to 20 years in prison for a 2014 execution-style killing.

Federal Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered his release last Wednesday, requiring that he be freed from the facility by 5 p.m. the following day. In her decision, Ohta stated that Aviles Perez must be released unless federal authorities can demonstrate at a bail hearing that he poses a danger to the community or constitutes a flight risk.

Federal Officials Condemn the Decision

A federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the case sharply criticized the ruling.

"Criminal aliens are being released from ICE custody by activist judges on courts across the country," the official, who requested anonymity, told The California Post. "These judges are becoming emboldened by the failure of lower-level federal prosecutors to appeal their increasingly extreme decisions due to staffing and resource constraints. We should all feel scandalized by that."

Judge Ohta did not respond to a request for comment. She was appointed to the San Diego County Superior Court in 2020 by Gov. Gavin Newsom and elevated to the federal bench in the Southern District of California by then-President Joe Biden in 2021.

A Record of Violence in El Salvador and the US

According to El Salvador's attorney general, Aviles Perez and an accomplice, Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores, murdered a man in the town of Yucuaiquín in the eastern state of La Unión in July 2014. The two men followed the victim, opened fire on him, then forced him to stop and kneel before shooting him "in the chest, back, and face," the Salvadoran prosecution's indictment states. Both men were identified as "active members of MS-13."

In December, a Salvadoran court sentenced Aviles Perez to 20 years in prison for aggravated homicide in connection with that killing. He had been held in US federal custody awaiting extradition to serve that sentence.

His violent conduct extended to the United States as well. On August 2, 2023, Monterey police arrested Aviles Perez after he swung a machete at a homeless man following an argument at Laguna Grande Park near Monterey State Beach, according to an incident report obtained by The Post. After the attack, Aviles Perez concealed the machete in a Holiday Inn parking lot, where it was later recovered by officers. He was identified as a transient at the time of the arrest.

He was subsequently charged and convicted on the assault charge, Monterey prosecutors confirmed, but was released back onto the streets — a release that Department of Homeland Security officials attributed to California's sanctuary laws.

DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said those policies allowed Aviles Perez to walk free despite charges including assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft. Bis said his release "back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk."

Aviles Perez remained at large following that release until ICE agents arrested him again in San Diego this past April. He is now free once more.

A Second Concurrent Release by a Neighboring Judge

Aviles Perez's release was not an isolated incident on the same court. Also last Wednesday, federal Judge Linda Lopez — who sits on the same court as Ohta — ordered the release of Luis Valle, a convicted first-degree murderer from El Salvador who was also in ICE detention awaiting removal.

Valle had been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for a murder he committed in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. He was released from state prison on parole only last year before being taken into ICE custody.

Lopez ruled there is "good reason to believe that there is no significant likelihood of his removal in the reasonably foreseeable future," ordering Valle freed from ICE detention. Like Ohta, Lopez is a former attorney who was nominated to the federal bench by Biden in 2021. Lopez also did not respond to a request for comment.

It remains unclear when or how Aviles Perez first entered the United States, but California law enforcement first encountered him nearly a decade after the El Salvador murder.

Source: NY Post Metro