Prosecution pushes for 1st-degree verdict
Closing argument: Defendant ‘wanted to fire’ at someone
The homeless man accused in the killing of Kate Steinle was “playing his own secret version of Russian roulette” the day he discharged a gun on San Francisco’s Pier 14, a prosecutor said Monday in closing arguments, pushing the jury for a murder conviction in a case that has drawn national attention in the debate over immigration enforcement.
But in his own closing arguments, the defense attorney for 45-year-old Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, pressing for an acquittal, maintained that the evidence pointed to a tragic accident and said, “This case should not have been charged.”
Steinle was killed July 1, 2015, as she strolled on the pier with her arm around her father, when a bullet ricocheted off the concrete ground and struck her in the back.
Garcia Zarate, a Mexican citizen on track for a sixth deportation when he was instead released from San Francisco County Jail before the killing, has admitted handling the weapon, a .40-caliber Sig Sauer handgun that had been stolen four days earlier from the parked car of an off-duty federal ranger.
But his attorneys maintain that Garcia Zarate had unintentionally discharged the gun when he found it wrapped in a cloth under his seat on the pier.
For the first time since the trial began almost four weeks ago, Assistant District Attorney Diana Garcia sought to persuade the jury in the San Francisco courtroom to convict Garcia Zarate of first-degree murder, not just second-degree murder as she had argued for throughout much of the trial. While a second-degree murder conviction requires a finding of intent to kill or conscious disregard for human life, firstdegree murder requires a finding of premeditation, and Garcia argued Monday there was evidence of that.
The prosecutor spent the morning painting the defendant as a malevolent figure who brought a loaded firearm to a “target-rich environment” because he “wanted to fire this gun” and cause harm. He chose a seat on Pier 14 that swiveled, and he spun around in that seat for 23 minutes, looking at passersby and “deciding who to shoot,” she said.
“A vibrant life was taken from us because of this man’s actions,” she told jurors. “Kate Steinle was wiped from the face of the Earth in her father’s arms because of this man.”
His actions immediately after the shooting — tossing the gun into the bay and walking away — showed that he knew what he did, Garcia said, as did his efforts to mislead investigators in a fourhour police interrogation hours later in which he eventually confessed to handling the gun.
“It shows consciousness of guilt,” she said. “He lied. Whatever you think of his cognitive abilities, he lies. He lies and lies and lies.”
In his closing remarks, defense attorney Matt Gonzalez attempted to counter Garcia’s statements by focusing on the bullet’s ricochet. If Garcia Zarate had intended to cause harm that day, Gonzalez said, he would have fired the gun more than once, and he wouldn’t have fired it at the ground 12 to 15 feet from him — and 78 more feet from Steinle, who was felled near the end of the pier.
“He missed Ms. Steinle by 78 feet,” he said. “But for that ricochet, he would not have hit her.”
Garcia Zarate was merely reacting in the way a scared and confused individual would when he provided police with varying accounts of what happened on the pier, some of which were inconsistent with forensic evidence and nonsensical, Gonzalez said.
“There is a fatigue and exhaustion that sets in after someone is questioned for hours,” he said. “You have to be concerned when you’re getting answers that are compromised.”
Gonzalez called Garcia’s closing remarks a “wild narrative” and accused the prosecutor of inferring too much from photographs of Garcia Zarate taken by tourists just prior to the shooting. Garcia said the photo showed him “looking right at” Steinle, zeroing in on her as his target, but Gonzalez presented a photo taken of his client moments after that photo that showed him gazing off in the other direction at a boat.
“Circumstances, trivial in themselves, take on an exaggerated character the moment attention’s directed at the accused,” Gonzalez said.
Before the shooting, Garcia Zarate had been on track for deportation after serving 46 months in prison for felony reentry into the country. But he was transferred from federal custody to San Francisco on an old warrant, and when prosecutors discharged that case, the Sheriff ’s Department released him despite a federal request to hold him for deportation, relying on the sanctuary policies that restrict cooperation with immigration agents.
His release sparked a political firestorm that helped fuel Donald Trump’s presidential bid, but San Francisco and California have stood by their sanctuary policies, with officials saying public safety is benefited when undocumented immigrants feel comfortable working with authorities.
In addition to first-degree and second-degree murder, jurors were instructed by Superior Court Judge Samuel K. Feng on Monday that they could consider the charge of involuntary manslaughter, which would require a finding that Garcia Zarate’s actions don’t rise to the level of murder but that Steinle’s death was caused by his negligence.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Tuesday, after Gonzalez finishes his closing remarks and Garcia presents her rebuttal.