Federal judge frees convicted MS-13 killer David Antonio Aviles Perez: ‘We should all feel scandalized by that’

A convicted Salvadoran gang member wanted on an aggravated homicide warrant has been ordered released from immigration detention by a federal judge, according to court documents.

David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, is an MS-13 member who was being held in a Southern California immigration facility, records show.

United States District Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered the release from custody last Wednesday, according to court records.

The order directed federal authorities to free him from detention by 5 p.m. the following day, records show.

Federal officials were holding him in custody while arranging for his removal from the country, authorities said.

Judge Ohta ruled that federal authorities must release him unless they can prove he presents a flight risk or a danger to the community, according to the decision.

That determination would have to be established at a formal bail hearing, the judge wrote.

The ruling was issued despite an active warrant in El Salvador accusing him of aggravated murder, records show.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement captured him in San Diego in April, federal officials said.

The arrest was made pursuant to an international warrant for aggravated murder, authorities said.

Authorities had detained him pending extradition to his home country, according to immigration officials.

A federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the case criticized the ruling, court records and officials said.

“Criminal aliens are being released from ICE custody by activist judges on courts across the country,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“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,” the official said.

“We should all feel scandalized by that,” the official added.

The defendant was convicted in El Salvador in connection with a 2014 gang killing, according to foreign authorities.

In December, Salvadoran authorities sentenced him to 20 years in prison, officials in that country reported.

The sentence stemmed from an aggravated homicide charge involving the execution of a rival gang member, according to Salvadoran authorities.

The killing occurred in July 2014 in the town of Yucuaiquín, located in the eastern state of La Union, prosecutors in El Salvador said.

Aviles Perez acted alongside an accomplice identified as Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores, according to the attorney general of El Salvador.

Aviles Perez is known by the aliases “la bruja” and “the witch,” according to foreign prosecutors.

Gang members pursued the victim and fired shots at him during an altercation, according to a Salvadoran attorney general alert issued on Dec. 16.

Additional gang associates soon arrived at the scene, according to the prosecution indictment.

The associates “forced [the victim] to stop and kneel, holding him by the shoulders, while Ismael and David arrived,” the Salvadoran indictment states.

The two men then “shot the victim in the chest, back, and face,” according to the Salvadoran attorney general’s report.

Both men were identified by Salvadoran authorities as active members of MS-13, the report states.

Federal authorities said it remains unclear when or how the defendant entered the United States.

His presence first came to the attention of California law enforcement nearly ten years after the Salvadoran homicide, records show.

On Aug. 2, 2023, police officers arrested him in Monterey, California, according to an incident report.

The arrest occurred following an argument with an unhoused man at Laguna Grande Park near Monterey State Beach, police said.

During the altercation, he swung a machete at the man, according to police records.

He subsequently concealed the weapon, according to investigators.

Police later located the machete in a Holiday Inn parking lot, the incident report states.

Police documents identified him as a transient at the time of his Monterey arrest.

The defendant faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance and petty theft, officials said.

He was convicted in the Monterey case, according to local prosecutors.

He was subsequently released from local custody under California sanctuary policies, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis criticized the release under state law, officials said.

Bis said California sanctuary policies permitted him to walk free despite his criminal charges, according to officials.

His release “back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk,” Bis said.

The defendant remained at large until ICE agents apprehended him in April, federal officials said.

He remained in custody until last Thursday awaiting deportation to serve his prison sentence, authorities said.

Judge Ohta worked as an attorney before Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to the San Diego County Superior Court in 2020, records show.

President Joe Biden appointed her to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in 2021, judicial records show.

Judge Ohta did not respond to a request for comment regarding her ruling.

The decision coincided with an order releasing another Salvadoran national from ICE detention, records show.

United States District Judge Linda Lopez ordered the release of Luis Valle, according to court documents.

Valle is an affiliated gang member who had been awaiting deportation from the United States, records show.

He was convicted of first-degree murder in connection with a killing in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, court records show.

A California court sentenced Valle to life in prison with the possibility of parole, records indicate.

State prison authorities released Valle on parole last year, according to records.

Judge Lopez ruled that there was “good reason to believe that there is no significant likelihood of his removal in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

Judge Lopez previously worked as an attorney before Biden nominated her to the federal bench in 2021, records show.

Judge Lopez did not respond to a request for comment on the order releasing Valle.

Aviles Perez remains subject to the active Salvadoran aggravated murder warrant following his release from federal detention, records show.