A federal grand jury indicted the Mexican illegal immigrant who was acquitted of murder last week in the 2015 shooting of Kate Steinle on two weapons charges on Tuesday.
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was indicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and and one count of being an illegally present alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition, NBC News reported.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
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While Garcia Zarate was found not guilty last week of the murder, manslaughter and assault charges brought against him, a San Francisco jury did convict him of the state crime of being a felon illegally in possession of a firearm.
The conviction holds a maximum three year prison sentence. Garcia Zarate has currently served two years in jail, which could be reduced to time served at his sentencing trial slated for this week.
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The illegal alien’s defense attorneys argued that Garcia Zarate found the handgun wrapped in a t-shirt on a bench on the San Francisco Pier 14 on July 1, 2015. They claimed the firearm accidentally discharged after Garcia Zarate picked it up, leading a stray bullet to strike 32-year-old Steinle, fatally wounding her.
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The Trump administration’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan said that Garcia Zarate should not have been on the pier in the first place, blaming San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.
“These politicians knew (Garcia Zarate) was a seven-time convicted felon (who had) been deported many times,” the acting ICE director told Fox News. “We noticed them we wanted custody of him. Knowing all this, what did they do? They release him back on the street and now a young lady is dead.”
“Look, the federal government is going to enforce federal law,” Homan added. “If the politicians in San Francisco aren’t going to protect our citizens, we will.”
“They call themselves a sanctuary city. I want to make something clear: there is no sanctuary from federal law enforcement. We will do our job in the city of San Francisco and other sanctuary cities like Chicago, New York, (and) Philadelphia,” he promised.
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The night of the Steinle verdict, Trump tweeted, “disgraceful” and said “No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration.”
Fox News reported that Garcia Zarate will be sentenced on Thursday for his state conviction of illegal possession of a firearm.
If the judge rules his sentence will be time served, he will be turned over to federal authorities to face the federal firearm possession charges.
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