Steinle Verdict: Atty Gen Jeff Sessions Blasts Sanctuary Cities

SAN FRANCISCO, CA —U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions attacked San Francisco's Sanctuary City policies following a not guilty verdict in the high-profile trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented man charged with the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle.

Sessions issued a statement placing the blame for Steinle's July 1, 2015 death on the city's Sanctuary City policies, which limit cooperation and communication between local law enforcement and immigration authorities.

"When jurisdictions choose to return criminal aliens to the streets rather than turning them over to federal immigration authorities, they put the public's safety at risk," Sessions said. "San Francisco's decision to protect criminal aliens led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle."

A six-man, six-woman jury on Thursday found Garcia Zarate, a 45-year-old homeless Mexican citizen, not guilty of murder and assault with a deadly weapon after a four-week trial and six days of deliberation. They convicted him of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Steinle, a 32-year-old Pleasanton native and San Francisco resident, was walking on Pier 14 with her father and a family friend around 6:30 p.m. when she was struck in the back by a single bullet that had ricocheted off the pier before it hit her.

Prosecutor Diana Garcia had argued the shooting was a deliberate act, while defense attorneys Matt Gonzalez and Francisco Ugarte described it as an accident, occurring after Garcia Zarate picked up a gun he found on the pier.

• Kate Steinle Murder Verdict: Undocumented Immigrant Not Guilty

Inside the courtroom, Garcia Zarate's status as an undocumented immigrant played little role in the trial, which focused on whether he intended to pull the trigger and whether an accidental shooting was in fact

possible.

However outside the courtroom the case became part of a highly politicized national debate over Sanctuary City policies after it became known that Garcia Zarate, who has prior criminal convictions for drug charges
and returning to the country after deportation, had been released from city jail several months earlier without notification to federal immigration authorities.

Sanctuary City policies, which are used by hundreds of cities and counties nationwide, deliberately restrict communication and cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration authorities in an effort to
encourage immigrants to report crimes and maintain communication with local police.

Among those capitalizing on Steinle's death were Sessions and then-candidate Donald Trump, who cited the death of "beautiful Kate" as justification for a crackdown on immigration.

Gonzalez said the jury's decision should be respected.

Should Trump or Attorney General Jeff Sessions choose to comment on the case again, he said they should recall that they are under investigation themselves by a special prosecutor and "may soon avail themselves of the presumption of innocence."

"I would ask them to reflect on that before they disparage the results of this case," he said.

Ugarte said the case had been used to "foment hate" and drive a "program of mass deportation."

"Nothing about Mr. Garcia Zarate's ethnicity, nothing about his immigration status, nothing about the fact that he is born in Mexico has any relevance to what happened on July 1, 2015," Ugarte said.

"We believe the verdict is a correct and accurate reflection of the law and what happened," he said.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said his office had worked during the trial to present evidence not only to the jury but also to the media and community in an effort to correct the record, given the amount of misinformation that had been put out about the case.

Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said the verdict was not what prosecutors had hoped for, but that they would respect the jurors' decision.

"This really is about the Steinle family," Bastian said. "They've shown incredible resolve during this whole process."

The Steinle family was not in the courtroom Thursday, but attended on some other days. A local family member of Garcia Zarate attended court on some days but was not present Thursday either.

Anticipating responses such as that issued by Sessions, a coalition of nine local immigration groups issued a statement today calling for public and elected officials to avoid exploiting Steinle's tragic death "to demonize all immigrants and bolster support for deporting millions of people who are part of the fabric of our communities."

"We believe that immigrants are a part of our nation's soul, and "Sanctuary" policies are vital to defending all people against troubling abuses of federal power, limiting racial profiling, and addressing a growing
crisis of confidence in law enforcement," the immigration advocates said.

Garcia Zarate, who has remained in custody since his arrest shortly after the shooting, will be sentenced to either 16 months in prison, two years or three years on the gun possession charge, depending on the ruling of Judge James Feng.

A sentencing hearing has been set for Dec. 14.

— Bay City News; (AP File Photo/Alex Brandon)