Defense casts doubt on gun in Steinle case
Attorneys for the man accused of murdering Kate Steinle on San Francisco’s Pier 14 two years ago want to present evidence at trial they believe will show their client didn’t steal the gun allegedly used in the killing, but found it moments before the shooting.
An attorney for Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who had previously used the name Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, filed a motion in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday, seeking to include evidence that several cars had been broken into along the Embarcadero the day the gun was stolen from a Bureau of Land Management ranger’s car.
The defense believes if it can show Zarate, 54, didn’t steal the gun, it will back up its argument that he found the weapon on the pier, and Stein-
le’s death was a tragic accident, not a coldblooded killing.
“The series of breakins is consistent with a skilled auto burglar or a ring of thieves who managed to break into at least seven cars undetected — not the defendant, who has no history of committing theft crimes,” Matt Gonzalez, the chief attorney for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, wrote in the motion.
Steinle, 32, was fatally struck in the heart while walking with her father on the pier along the Embarcadero on July 1, 2015.
A spokesman for the district attorney on Thursday said he sees no relevance over whether Zarate or someone else stole the gun, which disappeared from the ranger’s car on June 27, 2015.
“He’s not charged with auto burglary. He’s charged with murder,” said Max Szabo, a spokesman for District Attorney George Gascón. “The question isn’t whether he broke into a car. The question is whether he pulled the trigger.”
Police arrested Zarate — a Mexican immigrant, who was in the country illegally and had been deported five times — near the scene. The crime set off a national debate over immigration policy.
A Superior Court judge has ruled that the auto burglary in which the gun was stolen is relevant to the case. The car break-ins that night were first reported by a neighborhood resident, whose car was also burglarized. The woman was not named in court papers.
Stolen from her car were her birth certificate and work documents. Those papers were mailed back to her by an anonymous person after Zarate was in custody, Gonzalez wrote.
Zarate’s attorney said that items taken from the ranger’s car were found in a second burglarized vehicle, but not the gun. It indicates, Gonzalez wrote, that whoever stole the ranger’s gun, also hit the other vehicles.
“If the auto burglar committed a string of burglaries, it makes sense that they would decide to abandon the gun, wanting to avoid the extra trouble and potential legal exposure associated with possessing a gun from a federal agent,” Gonzalez wrote.
Steinle’s death sparked scrutiny over the Sheriff ’s Department’s policy that led to Zarate’s release from San Francisco jail three months before the killing.
Zarate had been scheduled for a sixth deportation to Mexico after being released from state prison after 46 months for felony re-entry into the country. But rather than being handed over to federal immigration agents, state officials brought him to San Francisco to face a decadesold marijuana charge that was immediately dismissed, leading to his release.
Zarate is scheduled to return to court Tuesday, when a judge will hear arguments on the new motion.