Three-time deportee charged in Modesto triple murder after sanctuary law blocked ICE

A 28-year-old illegal immigrant who had already been deported from the United States three times is now charged with three counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of two women and an infant in Modesto, California, a case that a senior law enforcement official says could have been prevented had California's sanctuary law not barred local jailers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

Joaquin Escoto, a Mexican national born in Jalisco, was arrested Thursday morning after police found the bodies of Fabiola Gonzalez, 23, Silvia Nuñez, 54, and infant Mateo Gonzalez inside a home on the 1600 block of Monterey Avenue. All three had been stabbed. The two women were pronounced dead at the scene. The baby died at the hospital.

A four-year-old child was also found inside the home with stab wounds and was transported for medical evaluation. Escoto is being held without bail.

How California's sanctuary law kept Escoto on the streets

The timeline is damning. Escoto had been arrested for driving under the influence twice, once before June and again in June in San Joaquin County. After the June DUI arrest, ICE requested that San Joaquin County law enforcement notify the agency before releasing Escoto so federal agents could take him into custody and deport him for a fourth time.

That request was never honored. The New York Post reported that a senior law enforcement official shared police documents substantiating the June DUI arrest and the ignored ICE notification request. The official told the outlet plainly what happened next.

"Safe to say, California law prohibited the jail from complying."

California's sanctuary law, passed in 2017, bars state and local law enforcement from using resources for federal immigration enforcement. Police cannot ask about immigration status, cannot detain individuals solely for ICE, and cannot share information with immigration authorities, with narrow exceptions for certain criminal convictions. Escoto's DUI apparently did not qualify.

So a man deported three times, arrested twice for DUI, and flagged by federal immigration agents walked out of a San Joaquin County jail and back onto California streets. Less than a year later, three people were dead.

The scene on Monterey Avenue

Modesto police responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic disturbance around 9:20 a.m. Thursday. Officers arrived near Monterey and Thrasher avenues and discovered Gonzalez suffering from multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

As officers searched the residence, they found Nuñez and the infant, both with apparent stab wounds. Nuñez was also pronounced dead at the scene. The baby was rushed to a hospital but did not survive.

Police established a perimeter and called in SWAT and hostage negotiators. Escoto was found hiding inside a nearby residence and was taken into custody without incident. Video posted on the Stockton Chronicle's TikTok page showed him being led away by officers.

Investigators believe Escoto shared a child with one of the victims, though police would not specify which one. They also would not say whether either child found in the home, the infant or the four-year-old, was believed to be Escoto's biological child. Police have not identified a motive.

Nearby Orville Wright Elementary School was placed on lockdown as a precaution. Students and staff were relocated to La Loma Junior High School. Road closures remained in place Friday as the investigation continued. Escoto is set to appear in court Monday to be formally charged.

The case echoes a grim pattern of violent crimes tied to illegal immigrants who were not removed despite prior law enforcement contact, including a fatal hammer attack on a Florida mother allegedly committed by a Haitian immigrant.

A grieving family, and a law that tied federal hands

The victims' family has been described as "shattered" by the killings. Fabiola Gonzalez was 23. Silvia Nuñez was 54. Mateo Gonzalez was an infant. A four-year-old child survived but was found with stab wounds.

Modesto Police Lt. Eric Schuller acknowledged the weight of the case.

"This is a tragedy. Words cannot express how terrible this incident is."

Schuller also said the department would "do everything that we can to investigate it and bring closure to the families." But closure does not bring back two women and a baby. And it does not answer the question that hangs over the case: why was Escoto free in the first place?

The federal government has not been passive on the broader issue. The Justice Department filed suit against Los Angeles in June over its sanctuary city policies. Former U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has said sanctuary laws "impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design."

The Trump administration has also moved to order sanctuary states to stop blocking undercover plates for federal agents, part of a broader push to dismantle the legal architecture that shields illegal immigrants from deportation even after they come into contact with local law enforcement.

Political fallout in California

Steve Hilton, a candidate for California governor, did not mince words. He directed his criticism at the state's political leadership and the sanctuary framework they built.

"Gavin Newsom has the blood of these women and this innocent little baby on his hands. Xavier Becerra is no better and Tom Steyer is even worse."

Hilton went further, calling the sanctuary regime an expression of "sick sanctuary extremism" that "sets monsters like this free to murder and terrorize our communities."

"Enough is enough: this insanity must end, and it will on Day One when I am governor."

Whether voters agree will be tested at the ballot box. But the policy consequences are not hypothetical. They are lying in a Modesto morgue.

Representatives for the San Joaquin Sheriff and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Escoto's previous DUI arrest and immigration history. That silence is itself worth noting. A man flagged by federal agents, deported three times, and arrested again was released back into the community, and no one in the chain of authority has yet stepped forward to explain why the system worked exactly as California designed it to work.

The state's enforcement gap is not an accident or an oversight. It is policy. California chose in 2017 to prohibit its officers from cooperating with ICE in most cases. The law bars police from detaining individuals solely on immigration holds and restricts information-sharing with federal authorities. Supporters call it a protection for immigrant communities. Critics, and now, a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of this case, call it a barrier that cost lives.

Meanwhile, federal and state authorities in other parts of the country have taken a different approach. Florida recently partnered with federal agents to arrest 249 illegal immigrants in a three-day highway sweep, the kind of cooperative enforcement that California's law makes functionally impossible.

And the challenge is not limited to California. A Venezuelan national was recently accused of grabbing a federal agent's gun during an arrest in Michigan, underscoring the dangers agents face even when jurisdictions do cooperate.

The questions that remain

Police have not identified a motive for the Modesto killings. They have not said whether the four-year-old child found wounded in the home is expected to recover fully. They have not explained the relationship between Escoto and each of the three victims beyond the belief that he shared a child with one of them.

What is known is straightforward. ICE asked to be told when Escoto would be released. The jail said no, because California law told them to say no. Escoto walked free. Three people are dead.

Sanctuary laws were sold as compassion. In Modesto, the invoice arrived, and a 23-year-old woman, a 54-year-old woman, and a baby paid it.