According to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the man charged with murder for leaving his 6-year-old son in a hot car on Saturday in Paso Robles is in the United States illegally.
Briant ReyesEstrada, 27, was arrested after taking the boy to Twin Cities Hospital in Templeton, where the child was pronounced dead. The high temperature in Paso Robles on Saturday was 99 degrees. ReyesEstrada is charged with murder and child abuse.
In a post on X, shared by San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow, Essayli shared a KSBY News article about ReyesEstrada’s murder arrest and said that the suspect had been arrested just two weeks prior to the boy’s death.
Briant ReyesEstrada had been arrested and booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on April 29, 2025, after which United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an order to detain the inmate at the county jail. However, California’s state “sanctuary” law… https://t.co/J2K4VTb5Sl
— Dan Dow (@dandow) May 14, 2025
“ICE issued a detainer to deport this alien, but he was released from jail because of California’s sanctuary state laws,” Essayli’s post reads. “Had California allowed local law enforcement to honor the immigration detainer against this defendant, this child would be alive today.”
Dow goes on to say in his post that ReyesEstrada was arrested and booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on April 29, but that the jail was prohibited from holding him on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office booking log shows that he was arrested on charges of false impersonation, falsifying a driver’s license, and embezzlement.
KSBY News reached out to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office for comment. Sheriff Ian Parkinson said in a statement, "This is an example of the complete failure of SB 54 in the state of California. SB 54 prohibits California Sheriff’s from turning over somebody to ICE on a detainer. We also cannot speak with ICE unless the arrestee has a conviction for a qualifying offense. The prior arrest for this individual was for a property crime where he was taken to County Jail and later was legally eligible to make bail and was released from custody."
Senate Bill 54, also known as the California Values Act, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2017. It limits cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration enforcement.
ReyesEstrada was in court Wednesday for his arraignment on the murder and child abuse charges. He pleaded not guilty.
Dow says they are seeking a conviction on second-degree murder charges, which would carry a sentence of up to 15 years to life in prison if ReyesEstrada is convicted.
“To charge him with murder under the circumstances that I'm aware of [is] very ambitious of this district attorney's office," ReyesEstrada's attorney, Patrick Fisher, told KSBY News reporter Ashley Stevens. "So, they have a lot that they're going to have to prove, and you know, it's my job to test their evidence. Can they prove it? And they've really set the bar high for themselves here.”
ReyesEstrada is due back in court on Thursday, May 22 for a pre-preliminary hearing.
