Mexican man found not guilty in killing on San Francisco pier

An illegal immigrant from Mexico was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by a San Francisco jury on Thursday in the fatal shooting of a woman that Donald Trump used as a rallying cry against “sanctuary cities” during his presidential campaign.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 45, who had been deported to Mexico five times since first entering the United States as a juvenile, had been charged in the July 1, 2015, killing of Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier.

Defense attorneys said Garcia Zarate found the gun and it accidentally discharged, the bullet ricocheting off the ground at the pier, which is popular with tourists, before striking the woman.

Prosecutors had argued that Garcia Zarate intentionally fired a stolen gun when he struck Steinle with a bullet.

The jury, while acquitting Garcia Zarate of murder, manslaughter and assault charges, found him guilty of the lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

The sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm in California can range between 16 months and three years in prison.

The case became a lightning rod for Trump and others in the push to halt illegal immigration and penalize so-called sanctuary cities, including San Francisco. Such cities often do not use municipal funds or resources to enforce federal immigration laws.

Before the shooting, Garcia Zarate had been released from a San Francisco jail despite a request by immigration authorities that he be detained for deportation.

In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed “Kate’s Law,” named for Steinle, that would increase penalties for illegal immigrants who return to the United States. The bill has not passed the U.S. Senate.

Since taking office as president in January, Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, have sought to cut federal funding for sanctuary cities but have encountered setbacks in court.

In a statement after the verdict, Sessions said San Francisco officials’ “decision to protect criminal aliens led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle.”

“I urge the leaders of the nation’s communities to reflect on the outcome of this case and consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to cooperate with federal law enforcement officers,” Sessions said.

Sanctuary supporters say enlisting police in deportation actions undermines community trust in local law enforcement, particularly among Latinos.

Jurors declined to speak to reporters, according to local media.

“There was a tremendous amount of misinformation that was spread about this case from day one,” San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi told reporters outside the courtroom. “You had then-candidate Trump espousing that this was an intentional shooting.”