Kate Steinle Died in Her Father's Arms, Now He's Responding to the Jury's Verdict for Her Killer

What was seen as a just verdict to some was nothing more than political leniency to others, but the most important view in the entire case of Kate Steinle’s death may belong to the ones that loved her most.

The San Francisco Chronicle detailed an exclusive interview with the Steinle family, from the inception of the event that changed their lives forever to the political turmoil that ensued.

“Each media interview, each exploitation of Kate’s name for political gain, each still shot of her smile on television only amplified the anguish of their loss,” the article states.

“Above all, they wanted it to mark the end of a public profile they neither sought nor enjoyed.”

However, even when they wished it would just be over, they also admitted to wanting justice following their 32-year-old daughter’s death.

When the verdict was announced Thursday at a court hearing the Steinles chose not to attend, illegal immigrant Jose Zarate was revealed to have been acquitted of all murder charges and only convicted on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

“We’re just shocked — saddened and shocked … that’s about it,” Jim Steinle told The Chronicle. “There’s no other way you can coin it. Justice was rendered, but it was not served.”

Brad Steinle, the victim’s brother, added to his father’s statement, suggesting he was “‘not surprised,’ at the verdict considering the ‘epic failure’ that led Garcia Zarate to be released on the streets, and end up with a loaded handgun on the pier that day.”

“I’m stunned that they couldn’t even get him on using the weapon,” Brad admitted.

Despite what has happened, however, the Steinles still hold support for certain concepts of sanctuary cities as a way to encourage immigrants to come forward as either witnesses or victims to crimes — without the fear of being deported by doing so.

“Yet they believe San Francisco went too far when then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi effectively ordered his department to cut off communication with federal immigration authorities,” the article states.

In an piece from the Los Angeles Times, it’s suggested that Zarate indicated he chose San Francisco due to its more lenient laws regarding undocumented immigrants.

Before his arrest for Steinle’s death, Zarate had been previously convicted of seven felonies and deported five times.

By the fifth time he’d been caught, Zarate had been in a federal prison awaiting to be released into ICE custody when officials in Victorville took him north to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department due to an outstanding drug-related warrant.

All of this was done, however, despite an immigration detainer, according to the Times.

“The San Francisco district attorney’s office declined to prosecute what authorities said was a decade-old marijuana possession case, and Sanchez was released April 15.”

That was when immigration officials issued yet another detainer after Zarate had arrived in San Francisco, and requested that they be notified before he was released so that they could take him back into custody.

“The detainer was not honored,” said Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman.

Defense attorney Francisco Ugarte praised the verdict as a “vindication for the rest of immigrants,” according to The Chronicle.

“From Day 1, this case was used as a means to foment hate, to foment division and to foment a program of mass deportation,” Ugarte said. “It was used to catapult a presidency along that philosophy of hate of others.”

As a sanctuary city, San Francisco honors immigration holds if the individual has a violent record or a particular judge has vetted the hold or signed a warrant, and local community organizations are not required to cooperate with ICE officials in certain regards.

Yet, though they may be frustrated with the system and the lack of justice, the Steinles had all agreed to one conclusion in particular: that of trying to find peace in a case they say has left them nothing but frustration.

“We have never had a second of anger — not a moment,” Jim Steinle said. “Frustration, maybe, and sadness for sure, but no anger and no retaliation or vindictiveness or anything like that. We’re not that kind of people.”

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