<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3BTokY_0ujf45jS00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3BTokY_0ujf45jS00" width="1320" height="743" >STERLING, Va. (7News) — The Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office told 7News they plan to bring forward homicide charges against Jose Aguilar-Martinez following a fatal carjacking that took the life of 54-year-old Melody Waldecker in Sterling, Virginia over the weekend.Aguilar-Martinez is currently charged with felony carjacking. He is from El Salvador and he is in the U.S. illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is currently being held at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.“Melody was here visiting her mom,” Sheriff Mike Chapman told 7News. “She was in the Loudoun rehab nursing home here doing all the right things when your parents are aging. [She] came out to help her out and the next thing you know she comes out of the 7-Eleven and that’s the end of her life. Tragic. Should’ve never happened.”<img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0nx6fh_0ujf45jS00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0nx6fh_0ujf45jS00" width="648" height="365" >Aguilar-Martinez allegedly struck and killed Waldecker of Silver Spring, Maryland in the parking lot of a shopping center in Sterling with her car.“Running her right over, complete disregard for her life, complete disregard for anybody in the area. [He] took off, ends up getting into two car accidents while he’s fleeing away,” said Chapman. “He is here illegally. And that’s why this could have been prevented. Had he not been in this country illegally, this would have never happened and that’s the problem.”“This could have been anybody's mother or wife or grandmother?” 7News Reporter Nick Minock asked.“Yea, or child,” Chapman answered. “Here she is going to visit her elderly mom and then she gets on the killed.”<img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0xpm0Y_0ujf45jS00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0xpm0Y_0ujf45jS00" width="648" height="365" >Although Aguilar-Martinez is in the U.S. illegally, 7News was shown his California driver’s license with a Los Angeles address.“The fact that he had a California driver's license is perplexing to me,” said Chapman.ICE has already issued a detainer against Aguilar-Martinez.“If this man is convicted of carjacking, and perhaps even murder, do you think he should serve his full sentence before being deported?” 7News Reporter Nick Minock asked Chapman.“I do because my concern is that if he gets deported before serving a full sentence, that he’ll come back again like he did last time and then there's no record of him coming in and then you've got a violent criminal reentering the United States, so we want to make sure that he serves his sentence,” said Chapman. “He's in jail, he can't hurt anybody else.”Aguilar Martinez was arrested in Loudoun County last month for public intoxication. Chapman said his office notified ICE at the time that Aguilar Martinez was in the U.S. illegally. And Chapman said ICE did not issue a detainer after the public intoxication arrest.“No, they didn't. That’s a civil fine, a drunk in public,” said Chapman. “I think they just hold you overnight until you sober up and your let go because it’s a civil fine. They couldn’t confirm that he was illegal. At the time, they couldn't confirm that he was a violent criminal.”<img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0aX5BQ_0ujf45jS00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0aX5BQ_0ujf45jS00" width="648" height="365" >On Tuesday, 7News visited the ICE field office in Chantilly and 7News asked the Washington Field Officer Director how enforcement and removal operations decide when to issue immigration detainers on people who are in the U.S. illegally.“It’s on a case-by-case basis,” said Liana Castano, who is a Field Office Director for the Washington Field Office for Enforcement and Removal Operations U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We review each case before we launch those detainers. We have to make sure that there is probable cause to believe that someone’s here in the country illegally or that they are subject to a removal order.”</div></body>

NewsBreak

Man arrested in fatal Sterling carjacking was in the country illegally, ICE says

STERLING, Va. (7News) — The Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office told 7News they plan to bring forward homicide charges against Jose Aguilar-Martinez following a fatal carjacking that took the life of 54-year-old Melody Waldecker in Sterling, Virginia over the weekend. Aguilar-Martinez is currently charged with felony carjacking....