The illegal immigrant acquitted of killing a woman in California was sentenced on June 6 to time served on a federal charge.
Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate is a Mexican who was deported five times before being accused of killing 32-year-old Kate Steinle in San Francisco on July 1, 2015.
Garcia-Zarate has acknowledged firing the shot that killed Steinle but claimed it was accidental. He was acquitted of murder by a jury in late 2017, with jurors convicting him of being a felon in possession of a gun.
A few months later, the defendant was sentenced to time served for that conviction.
Garcia-Zarate was indicted on three federal counts—being a felon and carrying a gun, being an illegal alien and carrying a gun, and criminal forfeiture—around the time of his partial acquittal, but because of various delays, including questions about the man’s mental competency to stand trial, the federal case took longer to resolve.
The defendant pleaded guilty on March 14 to two counts and faced up to 20 years in prison and up to 6 years of supervised release.
But U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, an Obama appointee, on Monday sentenced Garcia-Zarate to no additional prison time.
Instead, the defendant received time served, and three years of supervised release.
“If you return to this country again and you are back in front of me, I will not spare you. Let this be your last warning: do not return to this country,” Chhabria told Garcia-Zarate.
The Mexican native was set to be transferred to Texas, where he could be ordered removed from the country by a federal judge for not reporting where he was after being released from jail by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department shortly before shooting Steinle.
Before the killing, Garcia-Zarate had recently completed a prison sentence for illegal re-entry to the United States when he was transferred to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge.
Garcia-Zarate “feels horrible about what happened, and that he’s very sorry and apologizes,” his lawyer, Mike Hinckley, said in court.
The judge said he does not believe that prosecutors proved that Garcia Zarate had acted with criminal recklessness in the shooting and that he likely did not understand what was happening that day when he killed Steinle, because of his mental health illness. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Chhabria also expressed sympathy for the defendant, who spent most of his seven years in county jail without treatment. “That must have been hell,” Chhabria said.
Steinle’s relatives were not present in court for the sentencing and prosecutors said her family did not want to participate in the proceedings.
A lawyer who has represented her family did not respond to a request for comment.
Stephanie Hinds, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the case “highlights the dangers inherent in illegal firearm possession.”
“Here, the result was the tragic death of an innocent young woman, with a devastating impact on the victim’s family, friends, and community. The office will continue to focus on prosecuting those who possess firearms in violation of federal law, as public safety remains our paramount concern,” Hinds added.
Sentencing guidelines called for between 41 months to 51 months in prison, but defense lawyers said the defendant should receive a lesser sentence than he has already served, which would have meant possible leniency in the Texas case, J. Tony Serra, one of Garcia-Zarate’s lawyers, told The Epoch Times. Prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum that they did “not oppose” a sentence of time served while the probation department recommended 10 years in jail.
The judge “went down the middle” Serra said.
