Justice for Kate Steinle and her family was thrown out yesterday based on a technicality. Steinle was walking on a San Francisco pier with her father when she was shot and killed in 2015.

A California state appeals court Friday overturned the lone conviction against Jose Inez Garcia-Zaratea, a undocumented (illegal) immigrant who shot and killed Kate Steinle on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015. The 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco overturned that conviction because the judge failed to give the jury the option of acquitting Garcia-Zarate on the theory he only possessed the weapon for a moment.

Dear California … please go ahead with that secession thing!

— peterzefo (@peterzefo) August 31, 2019

What will get you in more trouble in California now? Shooting an innocent woman or protecting yourself with a gun? I think we know the answer. California’s government is not fit to hold any legitimate power.

— Jeff the Problematic Trollbot (@Jeffinnc1776) August 31, 2019

Garcia-Zarate claimed he unwittingly picked up the gun, which was wrapped in a T-shirt, and it fired accidentally.

“Accidentally?” Really? The man just so happens to find a gun in a t-shirt and fires it off. He then throws it in the water because it took him by surprise. Yep. He’s “innocent”-despite his rap sheet:

Garcia-Zarate’s criminal history includes seven prior felonies for possession of heroin, marijuana and other drugs dating back to 1993, as well as felonies for illegal re-entry back into the United States. Five times.

On March 26, 2015, Garcia-Zarate finished a 46-month federal sentence in Los Angeles, but was sent to San Francisco for a felony warrant for marijuana and released April 15, 2015.

Now, the court is “questioning” Garcia Zarate’s possession and firing off of said t-shirt-wrapped weapon.

These questions go to the heart of the momentary possession defense. The fact the jury asked whether there was a time requirement for possession suggests jurors were wrestling with how long [the] defendant had the gun.”-Justice Sandra Margulies

But fear not, good law-abiding, legal citizens. Garcia-Zarate is still in federal custody and *may* face other charges. Even though a city’s so-called sanctuary policy and San Francisco County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi bore responsibility for Steinle’s death. Even though three months before the killing, Garcia-Zarate was released from custody after a drug case against him was dropped. Even though the sheriff’s office in this case, which had ended contact between jail employees and immigration officials, ignored a request by federal authorities to hold Garcia-Zarate until they could assume custody did not inform them that he was being released. Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate is just another “justice involved” person on the streets of the sanctuary pit we know of as San Francisco.

While the court springs Garcia-Zarate from a conviction due to questions regarding “momentary possession” of the weapon that killed Kate Steinle, he is still is eating three meals a day on our dime, Kate Steinle is still dead and her family and loved ones are still mourning her loss. It all makes me wonder what would happen if any of us claim to be innocent should we shoot an intruder coming into our home. Could we claim that we were “unsure” what we should do with a weapon that just happened to end up in our hands? “Sorry, Your Honor, I did not realize my gun safe was open and I fired off my weapon which just happened to hit the intruder in the chest?” Would any of us get off this easily? Would a jury wrestle with this decision in our defense?

My guess is the judge in our case wouldn’t buy this. Unless we were illegals who attempted to enter this country four more times after being deported. Then, the judge and jury will “wrestle” with their decisions to drop our conviction on a technicality. Unbelievable and disgusting.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons/Gianluca Cogoli [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]