ATLANTA — Officials in the Trump administration used a killing in a suburban Atlanta area to back their hardline immigration policy. On Monday, the man charged with murder and rape pleaded not guilty in court.

Hector David Sagastume Rivas was supposed to show up in court in Cobb County on Tuesday. But in the document that he signed with his lawyer, A. Lee Fudger, he put in his plea instead of going to official arraignment.

A reply sent to Fudger was not answered right away.

As part of the attack on Camillia Williams, 52, Rivas pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault, aggravated sexual abuse, and necrophilia. Williams was strangled in Marietta sometime late on March 11 or early on March 12. It takes about 32 km to get from Marietta to Atlanta (19 miles).

The police haven’t said what the reason is.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office says that Rivas, a 21-year-old from Honduras, came into the U.S. illegally in March 2021 and was arrested by border patrol agents. He was then released with a notice to appear in court.

The office said that in 2025, a judge had told them to get rid of him.

It was March, and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Rivas “should have never been in our country in the first place.” She also said that she and President Trump were “putting the safety of Americans FIRST.”

At a news conference in April, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the killing “horrific” and said it showed how lax the Biden government was with border enforcement.

Williams was a grandmother and mother. Her family said she moved to metro Atlanta from Louisiana.

Arsene Williams, her brother, told WAGA-TV that he thinks his sister would still be living if Rivas had been sent back to her home country.