Freed Dec. 16, accused of murder the next day: the Morales-Ortez case

The timeline in the House Judiciary Committee's Oct. 20 staff report takes 48 hours.

Dec. 16, 2025: Descano's office drops its case against Marvin Morales-Ortez, an alleged MS-13 member from El Salvador, on charges of malicious assault and pointing or brandishing a gun from a Sept. 12 incident. With the charges gone, the report says, Sheriff Stacey Kincaid does not honor ICE's detainer and releases him.

Dec. 17, 2025: Morales-Ortez allegedly murders a man in Reston. He is now charged with second-degree murder.

This was not his first pass through the system. The report says Descano's office had already dropped a murder charge against him, even though its own prosecutors argued in court in 2021 that he confessed to being present, ambushing the victim on a path and striking him three times with a machete.

Usually Fairfax's sheriff and prosecutor present a united front. This time they didn't. In a March letter to the committee, Kincaid put it on the prosecution: "the unscheduled dismissal of criminal charges led to the release of an individual who had been discharged from violent felonies. As Sheriff of Fairfax County, I have no say in the prosecution of any inmate." The report notes she has said before, "It's shameful the way things have not been prosecuted."

Kincaid, though, is the one who requires a judicial warrant before honoring ICE detainers, the policy that let him walk once the charges were dropped. A family in Reston paid for the failures of both offices, and the report gives no sign that either policy has changed.

RVN has asked Descano's office for comment. The report's claims are drawn from records the committee says it holds, which have not been made public.

Source: "Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies," interim staff report of the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, released Oct. 20, 2026. Read the report (PDF).

Fairfax is an independent city in Northern Virginia.

Fairfax County is a county in Northern Virginia. Its county seat is Fairfax, an independent city.