The prostitute who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and administering drugs in the 2013 death of a Google executive aboard his yacht has been released from custody early due to good behavior—but she might not be hanging around the US for long. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office says Alix Tichelman was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials immediately upon her release from Santa Cruz jail on March 29, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Agents had filed a 24-hour hold request a month after she was sentenced in 2015 and again days before her release, reports the New York Daily News.
However, jail officials refused to hold Tichelman since the law prohibits them from detaining a person for immigration reasons. Instead, ICE agents arrived to take Tichelman into custody at her release around 5am. ICE officials haven't commented—a rep tells the Sentinel that a press release is in the works—but the director of the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project says "anyone with a felony is put in a very special category, and there's virtually no way of preventing their deportation." Tichelman was born in Canada but spent much of her childhood in Georgia, reports KSBW. She was living in California at the time of her arrest. (More Alix Tichelman stories.)