January 1, BETRAYAL: Biden Judge Frees MS-13 Machete Killer as Trump Admin Sounds Alarm

Wyatt’s Take

• A Biden-appointed California judge just released a convicted MS-13 murderer nicknamed ‘the witch’ who hunted his victim through mountains and executed him point-blank — all because of a paperwork technicality about bond hearings.
• This radical activist judge ordered David Antonio Aviles Perez freed despite his 20-year murder conviction in El Salvador and his machete attack on a homeless man in California — California’s sanctuary policies already let him walk once before.
• DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin pulled no punches: ‘This dangerous illegal has been released back onto the streets in California’ for the SECOND time, putting American lives at risk while partisan judges play politics from the bench.

An MS-13 gang member convicted in a savage execution-style murder is out of federal custody in California after a federal judge ordered his immediate release. The Trump administration is furious.

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered the release of David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, also known as “the witch,” after finding that immigration officials held him for five months without giving him a bond hearing. The judge said ICE failed to determine whether he posed a danger to the public or a flight risk.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin accused the Biden-appointed judge of putting the public in danger.

“This radical activist judge has put American lives at risk by releasing a wanted murderer,” Mullin said in a statement Saturday.

“This is now the SECOND time this dangerous illegal has been released back onto the streets in California. Because sanctuary politicians want to play politics from the bench, innocent Americans are in danger.”

The case centers on a brutal 2014 gang killing in El Salvador and a legal fight over the Trump administration’s authority to detain immigrants while removal proceedings unfold.

Aviles Perez, identified by Salvadoran prosecutors as an active MS-13 member also known as “La Bruja,” or “The Witch,” was convicted while outside El Salvador in December 2025. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said Aviles Perez and another MS-13 member chased a man through a mountainous area in La Unión before fellow gang members forced the victim to stop and kneel. The victim was held by the shoulders as Aviles Perez and his accomplice approached.

The gang members then shot the man in the chest, back and face before fleeing. Both defendants were tried and convicted while outside the country.

Aviles Perez entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location, according to DHS.

He was arrested in Monterey, California, in 2023, after allegedly swinging a machete at a homeless man at Laguna Grande Park near Monterey State Beach. He allegedly hid the weapon before officers recovered it from a nearby Holiday Inn parking lot.

Aviles Perez was charged and convicted after the incident but later released from custody. DHS blamed California’s sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and federal immigration officials.

ICE agents arrested him again in San Diego on March 26 and took him into custody pending his removal to El Salvador. He was held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center until Judge Ohta ordered his immediate release on August 26.

After nearly five months in immigration custody, Aviles Perez filed a petition challenging his detention and seeking his immediate release.

Ohta ruled that immigration officials violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights by holding him without an individualized assessment of whether he was dangerous or likely to flee.

“Although Petitioner appears to have previously been convicted following a fight with another individual in May 2023, the government has offered no evidence that it detained him after considering those facts and making an individualized determination of his danger to the public or flight risk,” Ohta wrote.

The judge said federal officials gave Aviles Perez “no process before or after his detention” and had not shown that providing a hearing would place an undue burden on the government.

Ohta ordered his immediate release and barred ICE from detaining him again unless an immigration judge first holds a bond hearing and determines that renewed detention is warranted. A status report filed the next day confirmed DHS released Aviles Perez from federal custody.

The ruling did not clear Aviles Perez of wrongdoing or find that he posed no danger. It focused on whether immigration officials followed the required process to justify keeping him detained.

California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Ohta to the San Diego County Superior Court in December 2020. President Joe Biden nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in September 2021.

The Senate confirmed her that December, and her judicial commission was issued later that month.

Secretary Mullin vowed that the ruling would not derail the administration’s immigration crackdown.

“DHS and ICE will not be deterred by these partisan games. If California’s leaders won’t protect Americans, DHS will.”

Wyatt Matters

This isn’t about paperwork or process — it’s about whether judges care more about legal loopholes than keeping killers off our streets. While Biden-appointed activists play games with procedural technicalities, American families are left vulnerable to violent gang members who’ve already proven what they’re capable of. When sanctuary policies let convicted murderers walk free not once but twice, the message is clear: illegal criminals get more protection than law-abiding citizens. That’s not justice — that’s betrayal of the people these judges swore to protect.