Feds Hit Immigrant in Kate Steinle Case With New Charges

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted the undocumented immigrant who was acquitted last week in the 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle on new charges. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a Mexican national, was indicted on felony gun charges for being in possession of the gun that killed Steinle on San Francisco’s Pier 14. Zarate also faces a charge for being “an illegally present alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition,” according to a statement from the Justice Department’s Northern District of California. Zarate had already been convicted on one gun charge in the trial that ended last week, though he has yet to be sentenced in that case. The conviction carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Each of the latest charges carries a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars. The move comes after the not-guilty verdict against Zarate last week triggered outrage and calls for an immigration crackdown, with both President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashing out at San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy.