Judge Sets $2,500 Bond for the Illegal Alien Accused of Beheading Quantico's Iwo Jima Marine Statue

Five days after police say he knocked the head off a Marine on the Iwo Jima statue outside Marine Corps Base Quantico, Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano got a way out of jail. On Monday morning, Prince William County Circuit Court Chief Judge Petula Metzler set his bond at $2,500. In the same hearing, the court learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already lodged a detainer on him.

WJLA's Nick Minock, who was in the courtroom, broke the ruling. The Commonwealth's Attorney's office argued to keep him locked up. His lawyer argued for release. The judge sided with the defense.

For readers just catching up: police say officers pulled up to the statue near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road at about 10:13 p.m. on Oct. 21 and found the 27-year-old from Stafford still swinging a sledgehammer. One Marine figure was left without a head. Another had its face smashed. Police put the damage in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He is charged with felony destruction of property, trespassing with intent to damage property and felony injury to a monument.

The bond fight took three judges

Monday wasn't the first round. A magistrate first ordered him held with no bond at all. Then a General District Court judge granted him cashless bail, meaning he could walk out without paying a cent. Prosecutors objected, and that judge put his own order on hold so a higher court could decide, Potomac Local reported.

On Friday, retired Circuit Court Judge Craig D. Johnston pushed the appeal to Monday after defense attorney Barry Zweig said his client hadn't been notified of the date. Johnston kept him jailed until then. Monday, Metzler replaced the free release with a $2,500 bond.

Think of it as a ladder. The magistrate said no. The next judge said yes, for free. The chief judge said yes, for $2,500. Prosecutors have now lost twice.

What the court heard

A Prince William County police detective testified Monday that Maldonado Soriano was arrested without a fight but that investigators quickly grew worried about his mental health, NBC4 Washington reported. According to the detective, he told investigators that the rapper DaBaby told him to desecrate the statue, and he made several statements about harming himself.

The detective also said there have been several threats against him online. Prosecutors asked the judge to weigh those threats as a reason to keep him jailed for his own protection. The defense said the law doesn't allow that.

Here's the law the judge was working with. Virginia says a defendant gets bail unless there is probable cause to believe one of two things: he won't show up for court, or his release would be an "unreasonable danger to himself, family or household members ... or the public." The statute also tells judges to consider mental health history and ties to the community. On Monday the court heard testimony touching both the danger question and his mental health. The judge still let him out on bond.

Where ICE comes in

A detainer is a request from ICE asking a jail to hold someone for immigration agents, or give notice before letting him go, so agents can pick him up. ICE's own release Monday lays out his record. He entered the country illegally at an unknown date and place in 1999. The Obama administration granted him DACA, the program for people brought here as children, in October 2014. The Biden administration renewed it. It has since expired, and ICE says a renewal request was denied on Oct. 23. The Department of Homeland Security also says he was arrested for trespassing in Stafford County in 2022.

"This hateful illegal alien attacked a memorial to our brave Marines, decapitating one of the statues with a sledgehammer," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. "Criminals like this who clearly hate America have no business being in our country ... This criminal will soon face justice."

If he leaves county custody, the detective testified, federal agents could pick him up. NBC4 reported he could even be deported before his preliminary hearing, which is set for January.

What nobody has said yet

The local coverage stops at the bond amount. Here's what's still open. As of Monday afternoon, no court record or official statement we could find said whether he had posted the $2,500, or whether the Prince William County jail will hold him for ICE or simply notify agents. The judge's reasons for choosing $2,500 haven't been made public. And no one has said whether federal prosecutors will look at the attack, since the statue sits at the gate of a Marine base.

What is clear: a man police caught in the act of beheading a Marine on a war memorial, with no legal status and an ICE detainer on file, was granted bond five days later. Prosecutors fought it twice. Now the question is who gets him first, a deportation officer or a Virginia courtroom in January.