FILE - This undated file booking photo provided by the San Francisco Police Department shows Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate, a homeless undocumented immigrant who was acquitted of killing Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier in 2015. A California state appeals court has thrown out the sole conviction against Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate who fatally shot a woman on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015, Friday, Aug. 30, 2019. (San Francisco Police Department via AP, File)
August 30, 2019 - 5:47 PM
SAN FRANCISCO - The Latest on a court overturning the sole conviction against an immigrant who fatally shot a woman on a San Francisco pier in 2015. (all times local):
5:45 p.m.
The public defender who represented an immigrant who fatally shot a woman on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015 says he is gratified an appeals court reversed his conviction on a single gun charge.
The 1st District Court of Appeal on Friday overturned a gun conviction against Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate because the judge failed to instruct the jury on his defence that he only momentarily possessed the gun.
Garcia-Zarate was acquitted of murder in the killing of Kate Steinle, who was on a pier with her father when she was shot in the back in July 2015.
Public defender Matt Gonzalez says he believes the jury would have acquitted Garcia-Zarate if it had been properly instructed.
Garcia-Zarate is being held in federal custody as he awaits a January trial on gun possession charges in the same case.
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4:35 p.m.
A California state appeals court has thrown out the sole conviction against an immigrant who fatally shot a woman on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015.
The 1st District Court of Appeal on Friday overturned a gun conviction against Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate because the judge failed to instruct the jury on one of his defences.
Garcia-Zarate was acquitted of murder in the killing of Kate Steinle, who was on a pier with her father when she was shot in the back in July 2015.
The case of Garcia-Zarate, who was in the country illegally and had been deported five times, touched off a fierce immigration debate.
He said he unwittingly picked up the gun wrapped in a T-shirt and it fired accidentally.
Garcia-Zarate is in custody and facing federal gun charges.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019