SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Mexican man acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman that sparked a national immigration debate has been sentenced to time served for a gun charge.
A judge sentenced Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on Friday and denied his attorneys’ request for a new trial for the conviction on illegal gun possession. Garcia Zarate will now be taken into federal custody.
Garcia Zarate had been deported five times before Kate Steinle was fatally shot in 2015. San Francisco officials released him from jail several weeks before the shooting, ignoring a federal request to detain him for a sixth deportation in line with a “sanctuary city” policy.
His acquittal reignited the furor of critics who say Steinle’s death shows the need for tougher immigration policies.
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