A San Francisco jury yesterday acquitted the defendant of charges that he killed former Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) sales rep Kate Steinle.
Steinle, 32, was walking along the waterfront of the Embarcadero in San Francisco with her father and a friend on July 1,. 2015, when she was shot in the back, allegedly by Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal immigrant and seven-times-convicted felon who had been deported to his home country of Mexico five times. Initial reports at the time had Garcia Zarate as Francisco Sanchez and indicated that she had been shot in the chest.
The jury’s ruling, which reportedly shocked local observers, found Garcia Zarate not guilty of murder, involuntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon (Garcia Zarate was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which carries a sentence of up to three years; federal immigration officials reportedly said they plan to deport him).