(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) An illegal immigrant who killed Kate Steinle, a young Californian woman, has been sentenced to time served, meaning that he is now free after serving only seven years behind bars.
The infamous shooting took place in 2015 in San Francisco, leading to a national reconsideration of the Obama-era open border policies.
On Monday, the saga finally concluded, with illegal immigrant Jose Inez Garcia Zarate being acquitted of both murder and manslaughter, CBS News reported. The federal judge ruled that the seven years that he has spent in prison constitutes enough of a punishment.
While Garcia Zarate admitted to shooting the handgun, he claimed to have found it under a bench wrapped in a towel before he accidentally discharged it. The bullet allegedly ricocheted off the ground before striking and eventually killing Stienle, who was 32 at the time of her death.
The maximum sentence that Garcia Zarate could have received on the firearms charge was 10 years. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who let him off the hook, told him never to return to the United States.
“If you return to this country again and you are back in front of me, I will not spare you. Let this be your last warning: do not return to this country,” Chhabria said before delivering the final sentence.
According to his lawyer, Mike Hinckley, Garcia Zarate “feels horrible about what happened, and that he’s very sorry and apologizes.”
The judge also rebuked the California prison system for failing to treat what he perceived to be Zarate’s mental health problems.
“That must have been hell,” Chhabria said.
Garcia Zarate has been sent to Texas, where he will appear in court again, this time for failing to report his whereabouts in the United States.
He has been deported five times, and has been convicted of seven felonies.
