DHS wrongly said NC officials released immigrant charged in Charlotte murder
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security incorrectly said a Honduran man charged with murder in Charlotte was released “back on to North Carolina’s streets ... after authorities failed to honor the ICE detainer.”
The man, Jose Ulloa-Martinez, 43, has never been released from Mecklenburg County Jail since he was arrested in the May 2024 Charlotte murder of 23-year-old Kevin Merlos-Saravia, jail records show and the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
After the 2024 homicide, Ulloa-Martinez fled to Texas, where police arrested him and extradited him back to Charlotte, police said at the time. He has been in jail since June 2024.
DHS’ information is “simply untrue,” Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden told The Charlotte Observer. DHS did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment.
A Mecklenburg magistrate judge did receive an ICE detainer in September and ordered McFadden hold Ulloa-Martinez in his custody. That detainer expired after 48 hours, sheriff’s office spokesperson Bradley Smith said, and ICE agents never came.
But Ulloa-Martinez remained in the Mecklenburg jail — where he still is currently.
DHS in its Saturday news release said “sanctuary policies prevented nearly 1,400 detainers from being honored” in North Carolina. The department named seven Mecklenburg defendants who it alleged were “released after authorities failed to honor” detainers.
“No one is released from the Mecklenburg County Detention Center unless a judge or magistrate issues a lawful order directing the Sheriff’s Office to do so,” McFadden said in a statement. “As Sheriff, I do not and cannot decide who is released.”
Charlotte homicide
Ulloa-Martinez’s wife told police he and Merlos-Saravia had been drinking for hours on May 25, 2024 — a Saturday evening. She woke up to gunshots at 3 a.m. the next day and called police when she found Merlos-Saravia “lying on his back by the stairs and Jose’s vehicle no longer in the parking lot,” according to the arrest affidavit.
She said her husband was “known to shoot” when drinking.
Texas police arrested Ulloa-Martinez in Houston weeks later, on June 3, 2024, and he was extradited to Charlotte June 24, 2024.
He has remained under McFadden’s custody since.
DHS removed Jose Ulloa-Martinez from a Nov. 15 news release after publication of this article but never responded to requests for comment.
Observer staff writer Amber Gaudet contributed.
This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
