By Kenneth Schrupp | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s parole board has granted early release to an illegal immigrant convicted of killing two Americans.
Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano was convicted of killing two Southern California teens while he was drunk, high and speeding over 100 miles per hour. He is set to be released three years into his 10-year sentence.
Federal officials have since placed a detainer on the convict to prevent his release back into the public. They have said they are prosecuting Ortega-Anguiano with charges that could send him to federal prison for up to 20 years.
Fox News immigration correspondent Bill Melugin reported on the pending release of Ortega-Anguiano, who was convicted in 2022 for gross vehicular manslaughter for killing two U.S. citizens in Seal Beach: the American 19-year-olds, Anya Varfolomeev and Nikolay Osokin, who were dating, burned to death after Ortega-Anguinano crashed into them.
Ortega-Anguinano had a lengthy rap sheet, including multiple felony convictions, time in state prison and “multiple convictions for driving without a license.”
On Easter Sunday, the California Department of Corrections notified the teens’ parents that Ortega-Anguiano would be released in July, just three and a half years into his 10-year sentence.
“Twice deported illegal alien from Mexico, Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano, is serving time after being convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, which resulted in the deaths of an American couple. His previous criminal convictions include burglary in 2005, vehicle theft in 2007, and battery on a spouse with kidnapping in 2014,” announced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “After serving just three years of a 10-year sentence, [ICE] has placed a detainer with the California Department of Corrections upon his release.”
However, because California often does not comply with ICE detainers, and in many cases, the state’s sanctuary laws prevent ICE from being notified of the imminent release of illegal immigrant convicts, the teens’ families fear Ortega-Anguiano may still end up back in the United States.
“They hope the CA Dept. of Corrections will honor the detainer request and transfer him to their custody upon his release, which they often do,” wrote Melugin, who spoke to the teens’ families. “But the families fear, even if he is deported, he will just re-enter the US as a gotaway, as he’s done twice before.”
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has since announced he is prosecuting Ortega-Anguiano under federal felony immigration charges.
“My office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326,” said Essayli. “If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the [U.S. Department of Justice] will.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House meeting last week with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was “civil but difficult,” according to multiple U.S. officials cited by Channel 12 and Axios, with tensions flaring behind closed doors over the pace of Saudi–Israel normalization.
The U.S. Space Force has quietly awarded roughly half a dozen “Golden Dome” contracts to build competing space-based missile-defense prototypes, kicking off an industry race for future production deals worth tens of billions of dollars, according to multiple sources briefed on the awards.
The Trump administration late on Nov. 25 filed a notice of appeal challenging a federal district court ruling that ordered the government to halt its months-long deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration on Monday escalated its pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, formally designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization—a move that adds new terrorism-based sanctions and intensifies concerns of potential U.S. military action.
Israel announced a major expansion of its air-defense production last Thursday, accelerating manufacturing of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the emerging Iron Beam laser system amid warnings that two years of nonstop conflict have strained the country’s defensive readiness.
Crime-ridden Chicago on Monday faced the prospect of a bleak Christmas after shootings rocked the heart of this U.S. city, killing one person and injuring at least eight others, authorities said.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to review recent remarks by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) after the retired Navy captain appeared in a video urging service members to “refuse illegal orders,” a message the Trump administration has denounced as dangerous and politically motivated.