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wow the killer didnt even have to become transgender or anything to get away with the murder. rode that mexican card the whole way.
Law Kathryn Steinle's Murder: Illegal Immigrant Found NOT Guilty of Manslaughter by San Francisco Jury
- Thread starter Arkain2K
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Changes since Steinle shooting wouldn’t have kept SF from freeing (illegal)* immigrant
By Bob Egelko | December 2, 2017
By Bob Egelko | December 2, 2017
Much has changed in immigration policy and politics since April 2015, when San Francisco released undocumented immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate less than three months before he fired the shot that killed Kate Steinle on a city pier.
Since then, San Francisco has loosened that law to allow the sheriff to notify federal officials in some cases before freeing an undocumented immigrant. City voters elected a new sheriff, Vicki Hennessy, partly in response to Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s refusal to contact federal agents about Garcia Zarate.
Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, seized on the incident to call for an immigration crackdown, and since taking office has sought to strip funding from the hundreds of sanctuary cities that restrict or reject cooperation with immigration officers. The House has passed a bill to expand the government’s authority to withhold such funding. It also passed a measure, nicknamed “Kate’s Law,” that would increase sentences for repeated illegal re-entry. Both bills are now in the Senate.
But despite the changes and the political pressure, if Garcia Zarate — a Mexican citizen who has been deported from the U.S. five times — or someone like him were about to be released from custody today in San Francisco, the sheriff’s office would still set him free without contacting immigration officers who had asked to be notified.
“The same,” Hennessy said when asked what would happen.
Based on Garcia Zarate’s record, which included convictions for drugs and illegal re-entry after deportation but no violent felonies, “he still would not have fallen within those provisions” of the San Francisco ordinance that allow the sheriff to turn him over to federal agents, the sheriff said.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Changes-since-Steinle-shooting-wouldn-t-have-12401000.php
* News headline has been altered in order to actually make sense, since newspapers from San Francisco couldn't tell the differences between legal and illegal immigrants.
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Illegal immigrant who killed Kate Steinle sentenced to time served for firearm posession
By Claudia Cowan
By Claudia Cowan
The illegal immigrant and seven-time felon who was acquitted of murder and assault in the 2015 San Francisco fatal shooting of 32-year old Kate Steinle was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday.
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who has been in custody since shortly after the shooting, was credited for time served. He will be on parole for 48 months and will remain in custody to face federal charges.
The case sparked national debate over immigration reform and so-called Sanctuary Cities that shield illegals from deportation, of which San Francisco is one.
The felony possession was the only conviction to come out of Garcia Zarate’s trial in November. The jury decided Steinle's death, the result of a ricochet bullet fired from roughly 100 feet away, was an accident.
At a hearing Friday, Garcia Zarate entered the courtroom wearing huge oversized bright orange sweatshirt and sweatpants. He was uncuffed and smiling as he shook the hand of each member of his defense team, including new attorney Tony Serra.
His attorneys requested a new trial, but the judge denied the motion.
Garcia Zarate is expected to be turned over to U.S. Marshals to face new charges in federal court, under an indictment handed down on Dec. 5.
A federal grand jury has charged Garcia Zarate with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and being an “illegally present alien” in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Public defender Matt Gonzalez told reporters the new charges are “discriminatory,” and a reaction by administration officials upset over his client's acquittal of murder and assault.
Garcia Zarate could be arraigned as early as next week for the federal charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. Immigration officials have also indicated they plan to deport him for a sixth time.
On Friday, Serra blasted the federal government for filing federal charges against Garcia Zarate after he was cleared of most state charges.
“Shame on the federal government, shame on the Trump administration. Shame on them in terms of bringing a retaliatory, vindictive prosecution,” Serra said. “So we will take those issues on.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/0...-likely-will-be-sentenced-to-time-served.html
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California appeals court overturns sole conviction in Kate Steinle death
A California state appeals court Friday overturned the lone conviction against an undocumented immigrant who shot and killed Kate Steinle on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015, a case that drew national attention and became a flashpoint in the debate over illegal immigration.
Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate, who was in the U.S. illegally and had been deported to his native Mexico five times, was acquitted in November 2017 of first- and second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and assault with a semi-automatic weapon. He was convicted of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
On Friday, the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco overturned that conviction, saying the judge failed to give the jury the option of acquitting Garcia-Zarate on the theory he possessed the weapon for only a moment.
Prosecutors argued that the jury instruction lapse was harmless because Garcia-Zarate admitted firing the gun and experts said he couldn't do so without pulling the trigger. The court disagreed, saying the jury's verdict showed they rejected the prosecution theory that the shooting was intentional or even negligent and they had asked the judge to define possession and whether there was a time requirement for possession.
"These questions go to the heart of the momentary possession defense," Justice Sandra Margulies wrote in the 3-0 decision. "The fact the jury asked whether there was a time requirement for possession suggests jurors were wrestling with how long [the] defendant had the gun."
Garcia-Zarate remained in custody and was facing federal charges of gun possession and being in the country illegally. His attorney, Tony Serra, told The Associated Press that trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 13 and added that the appeals court reversal will give prosecutors the option to re-try Garcia-Zarate.
"That kind of error causes reversals all the time. Then the prosecution has the prerogative of going again," Serra said. "The state case is a heavier case because it's a homicide and a gun. ... It's going to be a big potential decision on what they're going to do."
The San Francisco district attorney's office was weighing its options, spokesman Alex Bastian said.
Steinle, 32, died July 1, 2015, after she was struck by a bullet while walking with her father and a family friend. Garcia-Zarate claimed he unwittingly picked up the gun, which was wrapped in a T-shirt, and it fired accidentally.
The gun belonged to a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger and had been stolen from his parked car a week earlier.
Earlier this year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Steinle's parents against San Francisco. The lawsuit maintained that the city’s so-called sanctuary policy and San Francisco County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi bore responsibility for Steinle’s death.
Three months before the killing, Garcia-Zarate was released from custody after a drug case against him was dropped. The sheriff’s office, which had ended contact between jail employees and immigration officials, ignored a request by federal authorities to hold Garcia-Zarate until they could assume custody and did not inform them that he was being released.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/kate-steinle-jose-inez-garcia-zarate-california-appeals-court
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Feds: State Court Ruling Has No Impact On Federal Prosecution In Kate Steinle Case
September 3, 2019
September 3, 2019
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A state appeals court decision overturning the illegal gun possession conviction of Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate in the Kate Steinle case will have no impact on his federal prosecution, officials announced Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney David Anderson was adamant that the federal court prosecution of Garcia-Zarate will continue unfettered.
“The state-court ruling has no legal effect on the federal prosecution, which will continue,” Anderson said. “A repeatedly deported, previously convicted felon has no right to possess a firearm under federal law, even if California extends him sanctuary.”
On December 5, 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Garcia-Zarate for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and for being an illegally present alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He currently is in federal custody on the gun charges
The ruling last week by three judges in California’s First Appellate District found that the state trial court failed to instruct the jury on a legal defense for Garcia-Zarate, that he possessed the gun too briefly to be convicted of possessing a firearm as a felon.
Public defender Matt Gonzalez, who argued the case before the jury, said the improper instruction meant that Garcia-Zarate did not get a fair trial.
“This really wasn’t a close call. We were entitled to the instruction, and we should’ve had it. We thought that Mr. Garcia-Zarate would have been acquitted had the jury been instructed this way, so this is very gratifying for us,” he said. “He picked up an object not knowing what it was, it fired, and he threw it to the ground when it did fire.”
Garcia-Zarate had been tried for murder in the July 1, 2015, shooting of Steinle, who was walking with her father and a family friend on Pier 14 off The Embarcadero.
Garcia-Zarate’s defense attorneys argued that he had picked up an object wrapped in rags, which he realized was a gun only when it discharged, hitting Steinle in the back.
He was acquitted of the murder. After that, prosecutors filed the weapons possession charges and Zarate was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison.
The gun had been stolen from a U.S. Bureau of Land Management agent’s car.
The case became a national flashpoint in debates over immigration, as Garcia-Zarate is an undocumented Mexican citizen who had been deported five times and had seven felony convictions.
The case was frequently cited by President Donald Trump as he sought more restrictive immigration policies.
After the acquittal in 2017, Trump called the verdict in “disgraceful” in a tweet, and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions blamed the sanctuary city policy for Steinle’s death.
A statement released Friday night by the San Francisco Police Officers Association said that again Steinle and her family have been victimized by judges who are protecting criminals.
“This is yet another disgusting injustice perpetrated by a broken criminal justice system that is more intent on re-harming victims of crime and their families than holding violent offenders accountable,” Tony Montoya, president of the police officers association said.
Tony Serra, the attorney who is representing Garcia-Zarate on federal charges, said the state reversal means the district attorney will have the option of re-trying Garcia-Zarate on the gun charge.
“That kind of error causes reversals all the time. Then the prosecution has the prerogative of going again,” Serra said. “It’s going to be a big potential decision on what they’re going to do.”
The San Francisco district attorney’s office was still weighing its options, spokesman Alex Bastian said. The state attorney general’s office, which argued the case on appeal, also said it was reviewing the case.
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2...rate-federal-prosecution-illegal-immigration/
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What does this all mean?
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State charges tossed, Federal charges continues.
