Thread: BREAKING: Jury Finds Illegal Immigrant NOT GUILTY In Kate Steinle Murder

BREAKING: Jury Finds Illegal Immigrant NOT GUILTY In Kate Steinle Murder



8:01 PM 11/30/2017

A San Francisco jury found the illegal immigrant accused of killing Kate Steinle not guilty of murder Thursday, a stunning result in a case that ignited a nationwide debate over illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 54, was found not guilty on all counts, except for felony possession of a weapon. Zarate faced a charge of second-degree murder, but jurors were instructed to consider first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

At trial, Zarate admitted to firing the shot that killed Steinle, but contended that he had picked up a gun underneath a bench on the San Francisco pier and accidentally fired it. A ballistics investigation into the shooting revealed that the bullet skipped off the pavement before hitting Steinle, lending some credence to Zarate’s claims that the shooting was an accident.

A Mexican national, Zarate was a seven-time convicted felon and had been deported from the U.S. five times before the shooting. Just months before the shooting, Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an immigration detainer for Zarate with the San Francisco sheriff’s office, which declined the request.

In an interview with local media, Zarate said he had made his way to San Francisco because he knew he would be less likely to be deported because of the city’s sanctuary policies. The incident sparked a nationwide debate over sanctuary cities and later became a central theme of President Donald Trump’s campaign.

This summer, the House of Representatives passed a bill known as Kate’s Law, which would toughen penalties for illegal immgirants who have been deported and then illegally re-enter the country. The bill has not been taken up in the Senate.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/30/br...teinle-murder/

Kate Steinle shooting: Jury delivers not guilty verdict



November 30, 2017 at 3:18 pm | UPDATED: November 30, 2017 at 5:46 pm

SAN FRANCISCO — In a stunning verdict sure to reignite a national firestorm over immigration, a San Francisco jury on Thursday found an undocumented immigrant not guilty in the shooting death of Kate Steinle two years ago on a San Francisco pier.

The jury, which included three immigrants, weighed charges against Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 54, accused of gunning down Steinle in July 2015 while she was walking with her father on Pier 14 in San Francisco’s Embarcadero district.

Gracia Zarate, wearing a light white striped shirt and dark slacks, showed no reaction as the verdicts were read, only shifting forward once when the court clerk read that he was not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The jury of six men and six women, stared straight ahead, emotionless and not reacting. Department 13, Judge Samuel Feng’s courtroom, remained mostly silent during the verdicts, a stark contrast to the frenzy of media waiting in the hallways for news of the verdicts.

The jury, which deliberated six days, considered first-degree, second-degree, or involuntary manslaughter for Garcia Zarate. He was found guilty of guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon.

In an interview following the verdict, defense attorney Matt Gonzalez said this “verdict should be respected.”

Gonzalez said he was bracing for criticism of the verdict from the White House and said it was important to remember that the president, vice president, and attorney general were under investigation themselves and should appreciate that they would be afforded the protections of the justice system.

“Before you start tweeting or commenting on this outcome, just reflect on the fact that all of us get these protections. We get a right to a jury. We get these burdens of proof. We have to respect that a jury that spent this much time on this case got it right.”



The high-profile case against Garcia Zarate attracted national attention when details emerged about his immigration status. At the time of the shooting in 2015, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and others blamed San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy for Steinle’s death. Garcia Zarate had been deported five times but was released from a San Francisco jail after being held on a drug charge instead of being sent back to his native Mexico.

Both the prosecution and the defense kept politics and the immigration debate out of the courtroom during the four-week trial, focusing instead on evidence such as bullet trajectories, gunshot residue, and security video analysis.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office argued that Garcia Zarate intentionally aimed a gun at Steinle and fired at her, before throwing the weapon into the bay and running away. The defense paints the shooting as a freak accident, arguing that the gun accidentally discharged and the bullet ricocheted on the concrete pier 78 feet before hitting Steinle.

Much of the trial focused on the Sig Sauer pistol that fired the fatal shot. The weapon was stolen from a federal Bureau of Land Management agent’s car several days before the shooting. Garcia Zarate, who was homeless, said he found the gun wrapped in some sort of cloth under a seat he was sitting on at the pier. The defense called a weapons expert, who said that make of gun has a history of misfiring, while the prosecution maintained that it would be difficult to fire it unintentionally.

Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, said it was a “verdict we were not hoping for.”

“We will respect that decision. This is really about the Steinle family, Our hearts go out (to) them.”

Law experts weighed in on the verdicts, how the case was pursued and the ramifications.

“They must have thought it was an accident,” said Bay Area criminal defense attorney Anthony Boskovich. “The verdict means they believed his version and his experts’ testimony.

“This is going to cause a furor, given our current political climate,” Boskovich added. “The feds are going to see this as a runaway San Francisco jury and it will further fuel the crackdown on immigrants.”

San Jose defense attorney Dennis Alan Lempert said the prosecution should have pursued a negligent discharge of a weapon conviction rather than murder in the first- or second-degree, or involuntary manslaughter.

“If he had been convicted of that charge, he would have faced at least a year in county jail and up to three years in state prison, depending on whether it was filed as a misdemeanor or felony.

“The notion that it was an intentional shot to kill somebody belies credulity,” said Lempert, a former reserve officer with the Los Gatos police, noting that the bullet ricocheted off the pavement, ultimately traveling 200 feet, the equivalent of more than 10 lanes of traffic. “But the pressure on the prosecution was enormous.”

Judge Feng thanked the jurors for their service, stating that they have “all been fantastic” during the three-week-long trial.

Garcia Zarate, who has spent more than two years in jail, faces 16 months to two to three years for a felon in possession of a firearm. There is no sentencing date.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/3...aches-verdict/

Jose Garcia Zarate acquitted of murder in Kate Steinle shooting

Lawyers call verdict a boost for immigrants and slap at Trump.



The Washington Times - Updated: 8:41 p.m. on Thursday, November 30, 2017

A California jury acquitted the illegal immigrant who killed Kate Steinle of murder Thursday but found him guilty of lesser gun charges in a case that helped ignite a new national debate over sanctuary cities and border policy.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 54, had admitted to killing Steinle as she walked the San Francisco waterfront with her father in the summer of 2015, but had called the shooting a shocking accident.

The case took on outsized significance, though, when it was revealed Garcia Zarate was an illegal immigrant who’d been deported five times and snuck back in each time. He was protected from another deportation by San Francisco’s sanctuary policy restricting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Then-candidate Donald Trump, new to the GOP presidential race at the time, quickly seized on the case and used it to build a winning campaign, complaining of rapists and other bad elements coming from Mexico and vowing to build a border wall to stop them.

On Thursday, Garcia Zarate’s lawyers said the verdict was boost for immigrants and a slap at Mr. Trump.

“From day one this case was used as a means to foment hate, to foment division, to foment a program of mass deportation. It was used to catapult a presidency along that philosophy of hate for others,” said Francisco Ugarte. “Today is a vindication for the rights of immigrants.”

Garcia Zarate was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm but was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges in a case that delved deeply into the weapon he said he found, and whether he intended to aim it at the attractive 32-year-old woman walking with her father.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...e-charges-kat/

Justice not served in slaying trial of Kate Steinle

Updated: November 30, 2017 5:52pm


The mother of Kate Steinle holds a photo of her daughter, who was shot and killed on San Francisco's Pier 14 in 2015.

No verdict in the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate could deliver satisfactory justice for the killing of Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was shot on July 1, 2015, as she was strolling with her father along Pier 14 in San Francisco.

On Thursday, Garcia Zarate was acquitted of the homicide — or even on a charge of involuntary manslaughter — though the jury convicted him of possessing the gun.

Judge Samuel Feng repeatedly admonished prospective jurors not to consider the overriding political implications that made this a national story. President Trump and Fox News commentators have often invoked Kate Steinle’s name as justification for cutting off federal funds to sanctuary cities and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The judge was absolutely right: The political dynamics had no bearing on Garcia Zarate’s culpability for Steinle’s death.

But that does not mean, in the aftermath of the trial, that sanctuary cities — and now the state of California, with its sanctuary policy — should be satisfied that they have struck the right balance for public safety.

Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed SB54, the “California Values Act,” which prohibits state and local law enforcement from asking about a person’s immigration status or participating in immigration raids with the feds. It also limits the authority of police and sheriffs to share information on inmates’ release dates, or to transfer people to immigration authorities. An exception would be for those convicted of one of roughly 800 crimes in the past 15 years.

San Francisco is considerably more restrictive: Under a compromise approved by the Board of Supervisors, federal authorities could be notified of an impending release only if the prisoner had a serious felony record within the past seven years. It’s a distinct improvement over the policy of former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi that led to Garcia Zarate’s release — that edict effectively shut off any local cooperation with federal agents — but it still leaves the city in a vulnerable place.

New Sheriff Vicki Hennessy had pushed for more autonomy in making judgment calls.

An inmate with Garcia Zarate’s record, a seven-time felon who repeatedly re-entered this country illegally, could be released on the streets today. Supervisors need to ask themselves, not only whether this is in the interest of public safety — but the humanity of sending an immigrant who was otherwise headed for deportation into the streets of one of the nation’s most expensive cities to become homeless.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/e...s-12396717.php

Jose Zarate found not guilty of Kate Steinle murder charges

Nov 30, 2017

Kate Steinle murder suspect found not guilty



Attorney for Zarate reacts to Steinle murder trial verdict

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty in death of Kate Steinle
https://www.alipac.us/f12/jose-ines-garcia-zarate-not-guilty-death-kate-steinle-352963/